India

23.3% of girls in India are married before their 18th birthday and 4.8% are married before the age of 15.

2.6% of boys were married off before their 18th birthday.

India has the highest absolute number of women married or in a union before the age of 18 in the world – 216,650,000.

Child marriage is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas and, in general, rates of child marriage Levels vary across India: For instance, child marriage rates at least 40 per cent of young women were married in childhood in West Bengal (42 per cent), Bihar (41 per cent) and Tripura (40 per cent), compared to 1 per cent in Lakshadweep.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.

In India, child marriage is also driven by:

Harmful practices: Patriarchal social norms consider that married women and girls belong to their husband’s family and women are generally seen as an economic burden. Girls are expected to be adaptable, docile, hardworking and talented wives. Customary laws based on religion are a major barrier in ending child marriage in India.

Control over girls’ sexuality:Until a daughter is married, her chastity is considered to be a marker of her father’s honour. This motivates men to marry off their daughters early. Social pressure to marry at puberty can be enormous within certain castes. Some girls are promised in marriage before they are born in order to “secure” their future. Once they reach puberty, gaunaor “send-off” ceremonies take place and they are sent to their husband’s home to commence the married life.

Poverty: Child marriage is more common among poorer households, with many families marrying off their daughters to reduce their perceived economic burden. Girls are often married off at a young age because less dowry is expected for younger brides.

Level of education: Women with no education are six times more likely to get married than those with ten years education or more. Many families consider girls to be paraya dhan(someone else’s wealth). This means that a girl’s productive capacities benefit her marital family, and educating daughters is therefore seen as less of a priority than educating sons, who are responsible for taking care of their biological parents in old age. Further, given a lack of jobs and employment opportunities, there is a low value for education especially in rural areas where distance and low quality of education are active barriers to girls’ education beyond middle school.

Household labour: Girls are often married off at puberty when they are deemed most “productive” and can take care of children and conduct housework. The labour of young brides is central to some rural economies.

Violence against girls: Some girls are married off due to lack of safety and fear of violence against women and girls in public spaces, with many cases of being reported every day. However, a 2014 study found that child brides in India are at greater risk of sexual and physical violence within their marital home.

Poor law enforcement: There are persisting legal loopholes that fuel impunity for child marriage. There is also low awareness of the law and barriers to access justice for women and girls.

COVID-19: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on some of the poorest households and has exacerbated the vulnerability of children. The pandemic exposed vulnerable families to loss of financial income pushing them further into poverty and exclusion. School closures impacted 247 million children enrolled in primary and secondary education and 28 million children enrolled in pre-school in anganwadi centers.

India has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government did not provide an update on progress towards this target during its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 and 2020 High Level Political Forum. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since.

India acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2014 the CEDAW Committee raised concerns about high school dropout rates among young girls in India, making them particularly vulnerable to child marriage.

During its 2017 Universal Periodic Review, India agreed to consider recommendations to improve enforcement of legal provisions against child marriage.

India is also a member of the South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), which adopted a regional action plan to end child marriage from 2015 – 2018.

Representatives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including India, asserted the Kathmandu Call to Action to End Child Marriage in Asia in 2014. As part of its commitment, India will ensure access to legal remedies for child brides and establish a uniform minimum legal age of marriage of 18. However as of 2020, the legal age for boys remains at 21 years.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, India committed to address all forms of violence against all women and girls, but without mention of child marriage.

A National Action Plan to prevent child marriages was drafted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2013, but it was shelved with the change of government in 2014. Key components included law enforcement, changing mind-sets and social norms, empowering adolescents, quality education and sharing knowledge.

India is a focus country of the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, a multi-donor, multi-stakeholder programme working across 12 countries over four years.

In 2018, the Global Programme reached almost 2.3 million girls through adolescent groups, which enabled their participation in and access to health information and life skills training.

In the 2020 annual report of the Global Programme to end child marriage established:

A training package on alternative education for out-of-school children was rolled out in three states (Assam, Jharkland and Rajasthan) that benefited close to 115,000 adolescent girls from the most disadvantaged communities.

1.5 million adolescent girls were provided with training on life-skills during the pandemic to address child marriage.

3.6 million adolescent girls participated in life-skills training on sexuality education.

5 states were supported to develop and cost action plans on ending child marriage.

10 million parents were engaged in dialogues on responsive parenting through online platforms and community networks during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent child marriage and gender-based violence.

3,000 religious leaders were mobilized and sensitized on preventing and responding to child marriage and gender-based violence.

In 12 states, 9 million community members were reached and engaged in promoting gender-equitable attitudes and alternatives to child marriage.

In Maharashtra, 8 films and information resources were developed to sensitize village child protection committees which resulted in the establishment of 44,000 village child protection committees which were trained in ending child marriage, preventing gender-based violence and child protection.

In Odisha, village communities worked with district prohibition and social welfare officials to cancel over 800 child marriages, 900 marriages in Bihar, 898 marriages in Utter Pradesh, and 629 marriages in Maharsashtra.

UNICEF and UNFPA supported the National School Health and Wellness ‘Ambassadors’ Initiative (SHWAI) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Education to develop guidelines and teaching aids. The programme launched 56 interactive videos on 11 thematic areas: HIV prevention, emotional well-being and mental health, reproductive health, safety and security against violence and injuries, promotion of safe use of the internet and social media behaviour, gender equality, nutrition, health and sanitation, values and citizenship, prevention and management of substance misuse, promotion of healthy lifestyle and interpersonal relationships.

The flagship programme “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”, launched by Hounarable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is a programme addressing gender-biased sex selective elimination, ensuring the survival and protection of the girl child and ensuring education and participation of the girl child. In 2019, the programme reached 80 districts and 5.4 million girls and 2.4 million boys gained access to information on gender-responsive services and approaches to ending child marriage.

Due to its decentralised governance structure, in recent years there has been more initiatives at the state level with the development of action plans. Whilst some states have taken limited action, Rajasthan, one of the states with the highest prevalence of child marriage, launched a Strategy and Action Plan for the Prevention of Child Marriage in March 2017 and a large-scale advocacy campaign.

In 2018, Jharkhand state developed a state action plan to end child marriage and Bihar state launched a Strategy and Action Plan for the Prevention of Child Marriage. As part of it, 101 public servants were trained as Child Marriage Prohibition Officers, and task forces were set up to increase awareness and reporting of cases of child marriage.

West Bengal also has a state plan of action for children, which includes child marriage.Other states, including Gujarat and Odisha, consolidated child protection schemes in 2018.

Previous governmental schemes have included cash incentives (such as the Dhan Laxmi scheme and the Apni beti apna dhun programme), adolescents’ empowerment programmes (Kishori Shakti Yojana) and awareness-raising to encourage behaviour change related to child marriage.

According to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 the minimum legal age of marriage in India is 18 years for girls with no exceptions. For boys, the legal age of marriage is 21.

There have been a number of court cases in recent years where petitioners have argued that the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act do not apply to Muslims as marriages between Muslims are governed by Muslim Personal Law under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937. In 2017, the Supreme Court of India indicated that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 has priority over personal laws.