The political class and society are yet to work together against child marriage.
The practice of child marriage in India is a perfect case study of
how a harmful custom can continue despite a law prohibiting it and
myriad government programmes aimed at its elimination, only because it
has cultural sanction and is rooted in socio-economic vulnerabilities of
people. From 1930, when the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929
(popularly known as the Sarda Act) was passed, to the Prohibition of
Child Marriage Act, 2006, there have been countless efforts to check the
practice.
While it has been decreasing, the pace is nowhere close to
what it should be, given the devastating effects on young lives,
especially that of young girls.
The G B Pant Institute of Studies in Rural Development, Lucknow,
recently submitted a commissioned report to the Planning Commission on
this practice in 10 states, and analysed the current situation, causes
and consequences. Except for Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha, the
proportion of child marriage in the other states studied is above 50%,
with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand showing the highest percentage
of all, ranging from 53% to 61%.
The report points to a distressing lack of political will in tackling
the phenomenon and towards a pandering of the sociocultural beliefs
that fuel it by the political class. Often, media reports of child
marriages mention the presence of local political figures “gracing” the
occasion. It is ironical that on the one hand, the government has
launched programmes to prevent child marriage and empower young girls,
while on the other, many political agents think nothing of attending
child marriages. The Pant Institute study finds that cultural tradition
is the single-most important feature of child marriages. This perhaps
explains why politically, as well, the status quo is accepted, an aspect
reminiscent of the political support that khap panchayats get in rural
areas of north-west India.
Among the schemes for the girl child which are aimed at discouraging
child marriages are those that provide special cash incentives to
parents who allow their daughters to complete school and do not get her
married until she reaches 18, health and skill empowerment programmes
for adolescent girls, schemes which encourage safe sex and reproductive
health, direct initiatives to delay the age of marriage and so on. There
are also conditional cash transfer schemes with similar aims. However,
as the report points out, there is no clear data on their outcomes nor
does the central government have data on child marriages.
The causes of child marriage are well known and well documented.
Poverty, illiteracy, and low education of the parents are a set of
well-known causes, though a small section of the well-off too follow
this practice. The other reasons that have been documented have also
been reported before: lower dowry demand in child marriages; passing on
of an “economic burden”; and a daughter married off does not need to be
“protected” from sexual predators. As is well known, early marriage does
great harm to a young woman’s reproductive and general health, saddles
her with responsibilities beyond her capacity, affects the health and
nutrition of the children she bears and, overall, makes her more
vulnerable to sexual and physical violence within the home. She is also
more susceptible to HIV infection from her husband and the risk of death
while giving birth is high. Most importantly, it takes away from the
child bride the opportunity to acquire education, build skills and
develop a personality independent of her family.
Interestingly, the study finds that where female adolescents enrol in
educational institutes they are largely successful in convincing their
parents to defer their marriage. It recommends setting up a mechanism to
ensure effective implementation of the law against child marriage,
compulsory registration of marriages so that child marriages come to
light and a “stronger political will” to tackle the practice.
It is clear from the experience of the past century and more that
none of the strategies the government and civil society campaigners have
used to combat child marriage have been entirely effective. While the
enforcement of the anti-child marriage law is weak, it is also true that
legislation, however strictly implemented against a practice with
strong sociocultural roots and economic linkages, is not going to do
much on its own.
Campaigns which have targeted child marriage have perhaps put too
much stress on the utilitarian aspects of stopping this practice.
Perhaps it is time to foreground policies which empower the girl child,
which delegitimise child marriage not just on grounds of what it does to
the health of the girl and to the family, but which speak about the
ability of the girl (and the boy too) to develop as individuals and
citizens.
