How Can We Build A Child Marriage Free India?

Child marriage continues to cast a dark shadow on the lives of millions of girls in India. Every fourth woman surveyed in the 20-24 age group was married before they turned 18.

Child marriage is an age-old social evil, which is prevalent in our society since time immemorial. It has no barriers of caste, culture or religion.

Child marriage brings an abrupt end to a girl’s childhood, on one hand, and threatens her health on the other. It triggers the vicious cycle of inter-generational poor health, thus affecting the economic development of the country.

According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21), the overall rate of child marriages has dropped from 26.8 per cent (2015-16) to 23.3 per cent.

However, it is still high despite laws, programmes and schemes in place to address the issue.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target 5.3 calls to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

The ugly practice of child marriage needs urgent attention from the stakeholders including decision-makers, youth, civil society, media and the country's citizens. Now is the time to act and come together to eradicate this social evil and prevent children from falling prey to this crime.
 

Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF) along with NDTV has launched a pan-India campaign on creating a 'Child Marriage Free India'. The primary objective of the campaign is to reduce child marriages to 10 per cent from the current level of 23.3 per cent by 2025.