CHILD MARRIAGE
During British regime, Child Marriage was made illegal in India and special acts were in force to safeguard it. Girls and Boys at the age of 7 and 9 were found married. It was and is mostly a voluntary practice. The Child Marriage Restraint Act (1929) and the Sharda Act did much to solve this problem. Yet it is disheartening to note that in some parts of India (Rajasthan and also Chidambaram in Tamilnadu) this customary habit is still lingering. Educated parents are no exception from this, as they prefer to conduct the marriage of their daughters put up at the high school level. This leads to the breakage of law in force. There are other incidents where the girl is given compulsorily to marriage due to certain family tie-ups as there was no escapism at all. So also the conditional marriages that take place in number of families where the girl has no role at all. She has to simply give up her personal right just to satisfy the elders in the family. The High Court in Jaipur has restrained a father from marrying of his tow daughters aged 3 and 6 in a Rajasthan village. The police failed to stop the marriages. Through press, it is attested that traces of "Child Marriage" is still prevalent in some places in North India.
Child marriage has been traditionally prevalent in India and continues to this date. Discrimination against the girl begins even before their birth and continues as they grow. According to the law, a girl cannot be married until she has reached the age of 18 at least. But the girl in India is taken as a burden on the family. Sometimes the marriages are settled even before the birth of the child. In south India, marriages between cousins is common as they believe that a girl is secured as she has been marries within the clan. Parents also believe that it is easy for the child bride to adapt to new environment as well as it is easy for others to mould the child to suit their family environment. Some believe that they marry girls at an early age so as to avoid the risk of their unmarried daughters getting pregnant. This shows that the reasons for child marriages in India are so baseless. Basically, this phenomenon of child marriage is linked to poverty, illiteracy, dowry, landlessness and other social evils
Child marriage has been traditionally prevalent in India and continues to this date. Discrimination against the girl begins even before their birth and continues as they grow. According to the law, a girl cannot be married until she has reached the age of 18 at least. But the girl in India is taken as a burden on the family. Sometimes the marriages are settled even before the birth of the child. In south India, marriages between cousins is common as they believe that a girl is secured as she has been marries within the clan. Parents also believe that it is easy for the child bride to adapt to new environment as well as it is easy for others to mould the child to suit their family environment. Some believe that they marry girls at an early age so as to avoid the risk of their unmarried daughters getting pregnant. This shows that the reasons for child marriages in India are so baseless. Basically, this phenomenon of child marriage is linked to poverty, illiteracy, dowry, landlessness and other social evils
The impact of child marriage is
- widowhood
- inadequate socialisation
- education deprivation
- lack of independence to select the life partner
- lack of economic independence
- lowhealth/nutritional levels as a result of early/frequent pregnancies in an unprepared psychological state of young bride.