Ending child marriage

(Mains GS 2 : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.)

Context:

• The steering committee of the UNFPA-UNICEF global programme to end child marriage is on a visit to India to witness state interventions which have helped reduce the prevalence of child marriage as it is estimated that there is increase in number of child brides due to the pandemic.

Statistics:

• The UNFPA-UNICEF estimates that 10 million children could become child brides as a result of the pandemic globally. 
• In India, child marriage reduced from 47.4% in 2005-06 to 26.8% in 2015-16, registering a decline of 21% points during the decade. 
• In the last five years, it declined by 3.5% points to reach 23.3% in 2020-21, according to the latest National Family Health Survey-5 data.

Global situation:

• According to data from UNICEF, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year, and progress must be significantly accelerated in order to end the practice by 2030 as per the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Without further acceleration, more than 150 million additional girls will marry before they turn 18 by 2030. 
• While it is encouraging that in the past decade great progress has been made in South Asia, where a girl’s risk of marrying before she is 18 has dropped by more than a third, from nearly 50% to below 30%.
• Rights activists and health experts say the consequences of child marriage are dire, not only because it violates children’s rights, but also because it results in more infant and maternal deaths.

Position of India:

• There is a growing trend for decline in the overall prevalence of child marriage, but 23.3% is still a disturbingly high percentage in a country with a population of 141.2 crore. 
• According to NFHS data, eight States have a higher prevalence of child marriage than the national average in which West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura top the list with more than 40% of women aged 20-24 years married below 18.

 Laws and policy interventions:

• There are several laws including the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which aim at protecting children from violation of human and other rights. 
• With various personal laws governing marriages in India, the government wants to amend the law, a reform that activists and agencies have said will not be enough to stop the practice of child marriage. 
• Besides centralised schemes like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which need better implementation on the ground, States have launched many initiatives to improve the factors linked to child marriage, from education to health care and awareness programmes. 
• For instance, West Bengal’s Kanyashree scheme offers financial aid to girls wanting to pursue higher studies, Bihar and other States have been implementing a cycle scheme to ensure girls reach safely to school; and U.P. has a scheme to encourage girls to go back to school.

Way forward:

• Rights workers and welfare officials say a lot more needs to be done on factors closely linked to child marriage, including eradication of poverty, better education and public infrastructure facilities for children, raising social awareness on health, nutrition, regressive social norms and inequalities. 
• They stress on an all-pronged approach to end the practice; strong laws, strict enforcement, preparing an ideal situation on the ground to ensure that the girl child gets an education and preferably vocational training as well so that she can be financially independent.
• Creating proper public infrastructure and addressing societal norms are required at grass root level (gram panchayat level) for ensuring that Child Protection Committees and Child Marriage Prohibition officers are doing the job and activating community support groups.