India sees major fall in child marriages; Assam leads with 84% decline

New Delhi: There has been a drastic fall in the number of child marriages, with a drop of 69 per cent in the child marriage of minor girls and a drop of 72 per cent among boys, states a report released at the ongoing General Assembly of the UN.

The report, released by Just Rights For Children, shows that Assam leads with a drop of 84 per cent followed by Maharashtra and Bihar (70 per cent each), and then Karnataka (55 per cent).

The report, released during a side event at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, is prepared by the Centre for Legal Action and Behaviour Change for Children (C-LAB).

The report is based on field data from 757 villages from five states, chosen to represent diverse socio-cultural settings.

The legal age of marriage in India is 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. Multistage Stratified Random Sampling was used to make the report, and frontline service providers such as ASHA, Anganwadi workers, school teachers, Auxiliary nurse midwives, Panchayat Raj Institution (PRI) members, were approached to gather the village-level data.

Assam recorded the highest percentage decline due to legal action against child marriages, including the registration of 5,225 FIRs and the “zero tolerance” approach of the state government. As per the report, 77% respondents across the state reported that child marriage in their villages has either “stopped completely” (19%) or “reduced to a large extent” (58%), while 22% observed it has “reduced to some extent”.

Poverty (91%) is the most dominant driver of child marriages, with 95% in Assam, 91% in Rajasthan, 90% each in Bihar and Maharashtra, 87% in Karnataka citing it. Additionally, 44% respondents cited early marriage as a measure to provide protection to young girls, with 53% respondents in Assam and Bihar, 42% in Karnataka, 39% in Rajasthan, and 34% in Maharashtra attributing it. The “purity” of young girls was cited as a reason with 45% of respondents in Rajasthan and 39% in Bihar reported early marriage as a way to preserve “purity”, while 22% in Karnataka and 21% in Assam linked it to preventing premarital pregnancy. 

Among 611 villages where child marriage is still prevalent, nearly all respondents identified awareness campaigns (98%) and compulsory education for girls up to 18 years (89%) as the most impactful interventions. “Arrests and FIRs were cited as strong deterrents by 68% of respondents, whereas cash incentives were considered effective by 44% of the respondents. On reporting mechanisms, 80% of respondents identified local police stations and 73% identified NGOs as the primary points for reporting child marriages,” the report said. 

The report has recommended strict enforcement of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) 2006, to enhance the on ground efforts towards complete eradication of child marriage. The report has also called for launching a nationwide drive mandating registration of all marriages with panchayats and municipalities. They have also called for awareness and use of Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat web portal. 

Bhuwan Ribhu, founder of Just Rights for Children, said that India is on the verge of ending child marriage. “We can prove to the world that its end is both possible and inevitable. The formula is clear: prevention before protection, protection before prosecution, and prosecution to create deterrence for prevention. This is not just India’s success; it is a blueprint for the world,” Ribhu said at the release of the report.