Child Marriage in India

Arranged marriages are no stranger to Indian culture. My entire family was created from arranged marriage after arranged marriage, a tradition that was seemingly not to be broken. The concept of arranged marriage isn’t as terrifying as some may see it, as long as there is choice involved. But, when it comes down to being forced to marry someone, or being restricted from not marrying someone due to a race, class, gender, sex, or other natural characteristic, arranged marriages become a little more tricky to deal with.

Though there are some flaws with this “tradition,” an undeniable problem occurs when the person being forced to marry someone is a child. I remember when I was little, my mother would watch this one Indian soap called “Chinnari Pelli Kuthuru”. I also enjoyed watching parts of it and would often join her on the couch. I didn’t really understand what it meant until much later, when I learned that it was about a child bride.

What is a Child Bride?

If it wasn’t obvious by the name, a child bride is a young girl who gets married off to a typically older man. Normally, this is done against their will, though sometimes, children do compromise due to pressure.

Child Brides & Forced Marriage

Forced marriage isn’t just using physical force to push a child, or anyone for that matter, into marriage; one can also utilize emotional force. This is the more dangerous force, as it’s much harder to understand and realize when it’s happening. Familial pressure can often push young people into marriage; calling it a tradition or repeatedly telling a child that it will be shameful upon the whole family if they don’t follow the rules can also take away from the child’s autonomy. 

These types of marriage often can lead to later domestic abuse and other hurtful traumatic experiences. Forced marriage can be a scary ordeal, and when it involves children, protection is necessary to stop this from happening.

Protecting Children

That’s where the Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA) of 1929 came in. The CMRA set out to eradicate child marriage from India, but still today, India is home to a third of the world’s child brides. As of 2017, over 223 million women and girls have been through a child marriage, according to CNN. 

The rates of child marriage have been decreasing- the rate of child marriage for children married off before turning 18 dropped by 50%. However, the rate still sits at 27%.

Why Child Marriage

No, parents aren’t just plain evil; there are, in fact, several reasons as to why people resort to child marriage. For one, as men got more rowdy on the streets, parents feared for the protection of their daughters. In addition to this, persistent poverty has led to families needing to make hard decisions. There is also a dowry incentive to those involved, encouraging them to make some money out of it. 

Though there is no justification for such an act that causes so much suffering and pain, rural villages aren’t just trying to punish their children. Hard decisions were made, and yes, they were the wrong ones, but it is important to understand the context to an issue like this to begin to approach a solution for it instead of immediately pointing fingers and placing blame.

What Can We Do

Child marriage in India isn’t an issue that can be solved in a night or two. Encouraging education of girls in rural areas, providing more resources to those in poverty-stricken villages, and promoting awareness about the issue are all ways to approach this. The most simple thing you can do, even if you have just a second, is to understand the issue, share information about it, and, if you can, donate to an organization supporting the issue.

Marriage is a tradition of sharing love and it has been abused in so many ways. Forcing children to go through such an experience at a young age damages not only their mental health and physical health, but also their entire future.