Monalisa Das | The News Minute | July 6, 2014 | 5.20 pm IST
Anandi, the cute and chirpy child bride from Balika Vadhu, a popular Hindi soap, won our hearts a few years ago. The makers of the show wanted to project at the issues that gave rise to such a problem hoping that they could change the mindset of the society.
Of course, the show had its problems, but it does remain one of the few attempts to talk about a grim reality that girls in India face. Although, child marriage has been prohibited since the British colonization in India, 60 years after Independence half of the girls in this country are married while they are minors.
According to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, under Indian Law, “child” means a person who if a male, has not completed 21 years of age, and if a female, has not completed 18 years of age.
Dasra, a strategic philanthropy foundation that conducts research on similar such issues, published a study this year called Marry me Later: Prevention Child Marriage and Early Pregnancy in India.
According to the study, 40 percent of all child marriages in the world take place in India, thus making India the largest contributor to this social evil, states the report. The problem remains a widespread one with around half the population of India’s girls married before 18, with one in five girls are married even before they reach 15.
In India, girls have long been considered a burden as well a ‘paraya dhan’ (meaning she belongs to others, her husband and his family). There are a lot of factors that contribute to the rampant practice of such marriages in the country including regressive mindsets, lack of education, poverty and social pressure. It is a vicious cycle.
And this is just the beginning. These girls, who are barely capable of handling the various aspects of married life, are usually forced into having intercourse with husbands who are much older than them.
The report states: “Not surprisingly, child brides often show signs of child sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress, including feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and severe depression. Further, child brides were twice as likely to report being beaten, slapped or threatened by their husbands, than girls who married later.”
Early marriages also result in early pregnancies, which can have adverse effects on both the mother and child - high birth rates, malnutrition, infant mortality, low life-expectancy to name some. Girls under 15 are 5 times as likely and girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die in child birth as women in their early 20s due to their emotional and physical immaturity, the report states.
Further, the study states, “47% of Indian girls are married before age 18 and 22% of Indian girls have already given birth before they themselves turn 18. Girls under 15 are 5 as likely to die in child birth than women in their early 20s.”
Although this practice is common across all states in the country, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal are states where more than 50 per cent of girls are married while they are still children.
Bihar ranks highest among Indian states when it comes to child marriages, with almost 70% of girls getting married before they turn 18.
Nidan, an NGO in Bihar also works for women and child issues among others. According to Ranjan Kumar, Director of Programmes, at Nidan, child marriage today, does not hold the same meaning as it did in the past.
“The structure and dynamics of how child marriage functions in the country has entirely changed. Earlier in a child marriage, both the girl and boy used to be children. But now the age of the girl child is the same. However, her husband is much older than her, probably in his early twenties, or even more,” explains Kumar pointing out the severe implications of such wedlock.
Today, the terms child marriage is used for several illegal activities, like child trafficking which is rampant in Bihar. Poverty is widespread in the state and patriarchy is at the peak of most social structures, at the very bottom of which women appear. The state government too is unclear about the policies and how to tackle such issues. It is no more an issue only restricted to one department, like law or health. They all need to come together, Kumar further adds.
The government has been working on the issue for decades now, and has been able to make considerable progress.
West Bengal is another state with a high percentage of child brides. Mina Das, Director, Nishtha, an NGO in West Bengal that works towards issues of women empowerment, says that around 60 percent of marriages in the state are child marriages.
“This problem is declining, though very slowly. We need to create awareness in girls who study in class 8, and focus on them till they pass out 12. If only we could rescue an entire generation from the clasp of this problem, it would create a huge impact. Sadly West Bengal’s women’s organisations are very few in number.” Das says.
Das says that child marriage is a phenomenon that cuts across caste and class. “The rich and the poor, both get their girls married early. The poor doesn’t have any other option. However, even if the rich want to educate their daughters, some girls get affected by their rural counterparts who by the time are married. This encourages many to elope from home to get married to their so-called love.”
One of the reasons that contributes to parents getting their children married early, according to Das, is the social stigma attached to the girl: her ‘izzat’. Parents often are in a rush to get them married to prevent them from falling in love or any such ‘bad’ influence. But Das says it is necessary to teach girls that it is okay to fall in love or have a boy friend, but that they should only get married once they reach their legal age.
Girls with no education are six times more likely to get married than those with 10 years or more of education, according to the study.
As the report says, 28 million girls in India would become child brides in the next two decades. A change in mindset is the need of the hour. What can bring about the change is education and awareness, across levels. Girls need to get both primary and secondary education in order to be empowered in the real sense of the word.