Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums Child Marriage 140 million girls will become child brides between 2011 and 2020!

26 replies, 24 voices Last updated by Afshan Iqbal 2 years ago
  • Semantee Chattopadhyay
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    @semantee03
    #31908
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    Child marriage is a marriage of a girl or boy before the age of 18. It refers to both formal marriages and informal unions. It also means children under the age of 18 living with a partner as if they are married. According to India’s Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 a child means a male below 21 years of age and a female below 18 years of age.
    Child marriage violates human rights, harms the life of the child bride. Girls get deprived of their basic rights and independence and cases of domestic violence increases. Women due to this have a lower status in society. Child brides generally give up education for their marriage. Children are neither physically nor emotionally prepared for marriage. They are more like to face dangerous complications during pregnancy and childbirth. It is one of the causes of death among adolescent girls. This also increases the rate of sexually transmitted diseases. Child marriages create larger families and delayed demographic dividend. A study by the international centre for research on women (ICRW) shows that child marriages could cost trillions of dollars to the developing countries by 2030. With every child bride, the world loses a teacher, doctor, scientist, entrepreneur, political leader.
    Child marriage is a global problem that cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities. In India, girls between the age group of 15-18 years are more vulnerable to child marriage. This happens due to the insecurities of the family members, illiteracy and lack of awareness about its negative impact. Many a time a child is married off to an old man by her family to save themselves from a huge amount of dowry. Many traditions and irrational beliefs lead to families marrying off their children at an early age. India contributes to 33% of the total number of child marriages globally.

    Tanima
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    @ta
    #31916
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    Child marriage, is one of those insane social norms, which affects both boys and girls , though predominantly girls as getting married before 18 is equal to take one of the most important decision where none at bride and groom has willing or you can say, they doesn’t efficient to make such decision which is an absolute truth.
    And it’s the most shocking news that south Asia is among the verge of doing such insane. According to the UNICEF, approx half of the total female population, experienced early marriage.
    Child marriage is a result of interplay of both economic and social forces with a star upholds of patriarchy,gender discrimination and illiteracy of course. Usually,in the family with a lower economical condition, girls are considered to be a burden to be reduced by her family. In case of boys, families with the custom of early marriage, force them into marriage.
    It’s not just a factor for girls anymore. This insanity violates children rights.
    While women suffers from another vulgar scenario as our society doesn’t even allow a woman to fulfill her dreams in the first place. That girl never earn primary education as a result she lacks awareness of not only the primary rights and liberation, it also become a cause of lacking health awareness, family planning and so on. Which lead to high risk of women exploitation, sexual abuse in their own household, being pregnant at early age leads to serious health problems which can be fatal too. Above all of these, child marriage could be a direct cause of leading a country into poverty, as in most cases, male and the both lack skilled, knowledge and job prospect, which lead to a beautiful life.
    Though India already possess an act against child marriage, 1929, reality is not as expected. Though it’s great to say that rate of this insane crime is continuously decreasing, but it’s still not uprooted completely. With the help of social activist and enormous organization like UNICEF, we’re obviously progressing but we have to make our citizens concern about the strong disadvantages of child marriage, aware parents. If there’s only one person left suffering from it, we still can’t apply that insanity of these customs are cleared.

    anshika agarwal
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    @anshika-2
    #31933
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    Child Marriage meant a marriage of a girl or boy before the age of 18. It creates imapct on both girls and boys but still it impacts girls the most.
    Child marriage breaks children’s rights and places them at high risk of violence, exploitation and abuse. India has the largest number of brides in the world even 1/3rd of the total world. Child marriage is the outcome of the economic and social forces. It is a marriage between a child and an adult or another child under aged. In present time in India the age of marriage of boy is 21 and girl is 18. The age of both vary country to country.
    Child marriage violates the rights of children and has widespread and long-term impact for child brides and grooms. For girls in addition it impacts more to their mental health and a lack of access to education and career opportunities and this also includes adverse health effects as a result of early pregnancy and childbirth. It also affects boys too as they are ill prepared to handle the responsibilities of his wife. Child marriage is caused due to some reasons like poverty, dowry, social pressures etc. Proper sex education can results in reducing child marriage. It should be reduced. It should be eradicated from it’s roots.
    Nowadays, child marriage is reducing but it still occurs in many parts of the world. There is a need to have proper legal on child marriage.

    Gayatri Somvanshi
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    @gayatri
    #31939
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    Since 1st April 1930 child marriage has banned in India and may be citizens thought it is prank since the law was came onto force on 1st April that even till now in some communities girls are married before the legal age.
    These kinds of marriages are really most disrespectful and disadvantageous for a girl. There are many reasons for child marriage but most of the time it is done as for some families girls are burden and marriage is best way as their secure future. We all know how in our society marriage is the best solution for all the problems.
    Next is poverty and it’s also the reason as girls are someone who has to be excluded from the list of responsibilities and as we know girls are always the heaviest responsibility so she has to be married off .
    Then comes the lack of education again. Sad to say that maybe people don’t even know how a marriage affects a girl’s life. At the very young age girls are subjected to marriage which comes along with no consensual sex. The first thing that is affected is a girl’s mental health in these cases. Earlier there were child marriages but a girl was sent back to her maternal home after some years till she attained the right age for these things but later girls were married as soon as puberty hit but we need to understand that girls should be ready mentally for marriage and further things.
    Thus due to this girls are subjected to various abuses and are suppressed and they don’t have anything that they can rely on. Marital rape , doemstic abuse , mental torture and so on are the problems they have to face.
    They are also forced to bear a child at a young age and thus we also see many deaths happening due to early pregnancy . Thus I think we need to make people more aware . Though we have almost stopped it, when it comes to tribal communities they still practice these things.

    Dharani Sri
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    @u19mae026
    #31940
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    child marriage is defined as a reunion of a minor girl with an adult or with a minor boy. The word minor represents the children who are all below the age of 18. Do you believe, is this the age to decide about being a wife or about being a husband? Definitely the answer must be a big no.
    child marriage robs the childhood from the children. They are the ages in which they can wander around and fly freely like birds. Child marriage affects both the boys and girls. But mostly girls are affected by this. They are not capable of being a wife or being a mother or to handle the family. They are immature.
    Child marriages are mostly happening due to the poverty of their family. In most of the cases, brides accept to marry because they are pressured by their family. Child marriage leads to early motherhood. These girls also face problems like domestic violence. This also resist them to go to schools and pursue education. They are unaware of the basic rights that is right to education and many other laws. Because of this she is forced to have sexual intercourse with her elderly husband and forced to have multiple children, despite she is not suitable both physically and mentally. Even boys who are forced into child marriages could face complications in their life, mentally and physically. Child marriage has numerous disadvantages. Children are thrust into a world of responsibility that is far beyond their comprehension. They are stripped of their innocence and are expected to look after a family
    I end up saying that, now-a-days child marriage is reduced. But the fact is it will take some years to eradicate the child marriage. We still have many ways to stop this, when it happens in our surroundings. As we already discussed that mostly it is because of poverty. We can convince the parents and take care of their children. Wee should stand hand in hand unitedly to stop these incidents as a neighbor, as a friend, as a peer and as a citizen of the country. Let’s eradicate the child marriage together.

    Manpreet Singh
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    @manpreet
    #31951
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    Child Marriage is defined as a marriage of a girl or boy before the age of majority as defined by the law marriage laws. It refers to both formal marriages and informal unions in which children under the age of majority live with a partner as if married. Child marriage violates children’s rights and places them at high risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse. India has the largest number of brides in the world and about one-third of the global total. Child marriage is the result of the interplay of economic and social forces. In com
    munities where the practice is prevalent, marrying a girl as a child is part of a cluster of social norms and attitudes that reflect the low value according to the human rights of girls.
    Although the problem has reduced as compared to say 70 years ago, it is still prevalent in many parts of India. The significant progress in the reduction of child marriages in India has contributed to a large extent to the global decrease in the prevalence of the practice. The decline may be the result of multiple factors such as increased literacy of mothers, better access to education for girls, strong legislation, and migration from rural areas to urban centers. Increased rates of girls’ education, proactive government investments in adolescent girls, and strong public messaging around the illegality of child marriage and the harm it causes are also among the reasons for the shift. But still, child marriage, which is a deeply rooted social norm, provides glaring evidence of widespread gender inequality and discrimination. It is the result of the interplay of economic and social forces.
    Girls and boys who are married as children are more likely to have the lower skill set, knowledge, and job opportunities needed to lift their families out of poverty and contribute to the country’s social and economic growth. Getting married at a young age leads to girls having children prematurely and much more than their lifetime, which increases the economic burden on the home. The lack of funds in many countries to end child marriages may be due to the fact that the economic burden of ending the practice is not yet strong.
    In order to fight this problem, we have to uproot the old cultural tree that has embedded deep into our mindsets, only the string light of education can help us. We also have to make our laws more robust in order to fight the goliath of child marriage.

    Mayuravarshini Mohana
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    @mayura
    #32068
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    Child marriage is an illegal custom where an individual who has not attained the eligible age for marriage enters into wedlock either through a formal ceremony or an informal union. It is considered to be forcefully done since the individual is a minor under the care of adults.

    The minimum legal age for marriage in India is 18 for girls and 21 for boys. However, the Union government is set to increase the eligible age to 21 for girls, the primary purpose of which is to reduce maternal mortality rates and fight malnutrition. It is believed that this move will also increase the chances of women entering the workforce and becoming financially independent. As a corollary, the detrimental effects of child marriage become immediately apparent.

    Largely prevalent in South Asia, UNICEF reports that 45% of women aged between 20 and 24 were married before the age of 18. Child marriage is often done out of socio-economic pressures prevalent among the economically weaker sections of the society. Families resort to this practice as a means of alleviating financial strain, but it ultimately only perpetuates their poverty. This owes largely to the fact that children especially girls discontinue their education, the most powerful tool for social progress, soon after their marriage. As a result, child marriage does not allow them to contribute towards economic growth of their country, instead negates governmental efforts taken to eradicate poverty.

    Gender inequality is indeed a pivotal element in the occurrence of child marriages. Globally, the incidence of child marriage among boys is only one sixth that among girls. Families consider early marriage of their daughters to be an effective way of ensuring their safety as well as controlling their sexuality. Social belief systems that are highly patriarchal normalise child marriage. It is a widely- held conviction that a girl must be married off soon after her menarche and in some regions it immediately follows Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In many South Asian cultures, the dowry system is a major factor and has been a catalyst in the drastic increase in child marriages during the recent lockdown.

    Child marriage affects children physically, while also placing immense psychological stress on them. Child mothers are most likely to suffer from negative effects on their sexual health as well as develop pregnancy related complications. Their lack of maturity makes them unable to tackle the huge responsibility of child care and family management.

    Coid-19 pandemic has posed a major threat of reversing the progress made in tackling child marriages. UNICEF predicts that an additional 10 million girls are likely to become child brides with the economic shock, increase in poverty and the closure of schools being primary causatives. As a result a lot of girls will not return to schools post-pandemic thereby increasing the gender gap in literacy rates.

    Child Marriage is a plague upon the society, but it is far from incurable. Legal action in cohesion with social awareness can reap great changes in the society. Adults who contract, solemnise and/or promote child marriages are punished under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 in India. In addition to legal intervention, many NGOs such as CRY, Saarthi Trust and Girls Not Brides actively fight against eradicating child marriage in India.

    Manpreet Singh
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    @manpreet
    #32536
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    One of the major sociological problems, that has persisted for centuries in India, is the problem of child marriage. The reason for its continuations is an issue that needs to be revisited in the age and time when women’s empowerment is at its peak. For almost 70 years now, our Government has continued to tighten the laws to prevent this archaic practice. The is cruel to the children, as it deprives them of their basic rights. A study was conducted in some of the most politically active states in Northern India, in order to explore the proponents of child marriage. It is alarming that the problem is facing little resistance from the educated members of its society and why the modern voices opposed to this practice are being suppressed.
    According to the older customs, the reason why Child Marriages exist in medieval societies was due to the Nagnika concept. In that, the parents were made to believe that they have to get their daughters married off before puberty, or else they would go to hell. Sadly, our Indian tradition places huge importance on virginity before the marriage. This custom has been prevalent till now. With the additional factors such as dowry, the parents feel like sending their daughters off as soon as possible. The evil of child marriage increases the chances of childbearing. The mothers below the age of 16 have to face an addition risks and responsibilities of childbearing. They also have to face an increased risk of maternal and infant mortality. In the house too, they have to face work in the household, which involves a wide range of activities such as processing new grains, cooking, and looking after children and older persons in the family. They have to do several hours of effort to collect firewood and water. They also engage in household production for supplementing family income, involve in increasing household assets by raising livestock, produce vegetables for household consumption. They play a major role in cultivation too.
    So in the year 2021, if this is still happening, then we really have to do revolutionary changes. We have to challenge the culture that surrounds child marriage. Make parents and community members more enlightened about the issue. The youth should be told about the negative consequences of early marriage. Also, the role of the judicial system and the police should be a higher one on enforcement of the law against early marriage.

    shaifalikapoor03
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    @shaifalikapoor03
    #32562
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    Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
    If current levels of child marriages hold, 14.2 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young.
    Furthermore, of the 140 million girls who will marry before the age of 18, 50 million will be under the age of 15.
    This is a shame to know that even in this modernised world we’re today hearing such news. Child marriage is a crime, marrying a young child is the worst act, stealing her childhood from her, loosening her potential of growing and becoming an independent woman is all lost altogether.
    A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled. She’ll never be able to polish her skills and grow into a good human being, also, child marriage makes a girl more intimate to violence and sexual abuse than those married later, they would never know how to fight back, they’ll become slaves to the men they got married to.
    Marrying a child young is as equal as burning her alive with no chance to live upon her terms.
    We should take more precise steps towards child marriage in order to prevent this scenario.

    Apoorva Pathak
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    @apoorva
    #32569
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    Child marriage is one of the curses which is still practised in our society. Till today 47% of girls are married before 18 years of their age. This practice usually takes place in the backward and uneducated area such as Bihar and Rajasthan. Albeit these states have many metropolitan cities but still the religious myths preside in these areas.

    Why do we consider a girl child as a burden? Why cant she get an education? Why is she given away without her will? Many questions usually come to mind. There are many NGOs and initiatives carried out by the government and even by private firms to aware people of child marriage and its disadvantages. Prohibition of child marriage act 2006 has put a limit for the age of marriage i.e 18 for girl and 21 for the boy. But many incidents still occur basically in rural areas where these people are not aware and also our judicial system not able to approach them.

    According to the data released by UNICEF 10 million girls will be at risk of child marriage during the pandemic. Because of the economic stress parents are giving off their girl at an early age. This child marriage brings other evil practises such as domestic violence, early pregnancy which is sometimes fatal for both mother and child and many more.

    This ultimately gives rise to an economic gap in the country where male and female are not giving their 100% in the economy. As women suffer from both poverty and lack of education they are not able to fulfil their needs and this vicious cycle never stop if it starts in the family. Education is the only key to break this chain. This not only destroys the life of that innocent child bride but it also impacts her children who will suffer the same if they are girl child.
    It will take decades to solve this evil as it spread like a spider web

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