Child marriage persists, with one in five girls and nearly one in six boys continuing to marry as children.
Child marriage remains a significant concern in India, with ongoing prevalence, particularly in certain states, despite an overall decline. One in five girls and nearly one in six boys continue to experience early marriages, according to a study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published in The Lancet Global Health that showed stalled progress (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Prevalence of girl and boy child marriage across states and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021: a repeated cross-sectional study
Go to source). Child marriage is a human rights violation and a recognized form of gender and sexual-based violence.
‘In India, while child marriage has seen a reduction, one in five girls and almost one in six boys continue to be married as children, with a concerning uptick in prevalence observed in specific states.
#childmarriage, #india, #girls, #boys
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India’s success in reaching zero child marriage is critical to achieving the UN’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5.3. “This study is among the first to estimate how rates of girl and boy child marriage have changed over time at a state/union territory level. Boy child marriage in particular is often overlooked; to date, there’s been almost no research estimating its prevalence,” said lead author S. V. Subramanian, professor of population health and geography.
“Our findings offer a big step forward in understanding the burden of child marriage in India -- one that will be critical to effective policymaking," Subramanian said.
Perseverance of Child Marriage
Though India legally defines child marriage as marriage before age 18 for girls and before age 21 for boys, for the study the researchers defined it as marriage before age 18 for both sexes.For the study, the researchers used data from all five waves of India’s National Family Health Survey, from 1993, 1999, 2006, 2016, and 2021The study found that between 1993 and 2021, child marriage declined nationally.
The prevalence of girl child marriage decreased from 49 percent in 1993 to 22 percent in 2021, while boy child marriage decreased from 7 percent in 2006 to 2 percent in 2021 (Using the Indian legal definition of boy child marriage, the prevalence was much higher: 29 percent in 2006 and 15 percent in 2022).
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In fact, during these later years, six states/union territories (including Manipur, Punjab, Tripura, and West Bengal) saw an increase in girl-child marriage and eight (including Chhattisgarh, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab) saw an increase in boy child marriage.
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The results showed that one in five girls and nearly one in six boys are still married below India’s legal age of marriage.
Reference:
- Prevalence of girl and boy child marriage across states and Union Territories in India, 1993–2021: a repeated cross-sectional study - (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214109X23004709?via%3Dihub)
Source-IANS