CHILD BRIDES IN INDIA

Patricia Martinez IB Global Politics

April 8,2019 Mr.Hennessy

Child Brides in India

In the time it takes to count to 60, 24 girls under the age of 18 will be forced into marriage somewhere in the world. About 12 million underage girls are forced into arranged marriages each year.

Rajni Devi, liked many other young girls, had big dreams for her life.

But at the age of 14 years old, her mother told her she must get married. She refused. She was determined to stay in school, and she wasn't ready to be married. However, for a girl in rural India, it wasn't as simple as just saying no. So she was married off to a 35 year old man that raped, impregnated and abandoned her.

The global child marriage rate is dropping according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Although progress remains steady, UNICEF says the current rate of decline is barely fast enough to keep with population growth. "While it is certainly true that the age of marriage is going up, the pace of change is just far too slow," said Rachel Vogelstein, a fellow of Women and Foreign Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

In some parts of the world, despite years and years of protest and political actions, child marriage has remained a pressing topping in their society and culture. The largest and arguably the most important of these cases is in India. According to UNICEF, India has the highest number of child brides in the world, with about 17 million children between the ages of 10 and 19 in the country who are married. More than 25 percent of Indian girls become wives before they turn 18. Most are married before they reach puberty. Child marriage remains a social evil that India seemingly has a hard time eradicating.

Why is child marriage happening?

Human rights issues such as child marriage is a complex poverty, lack of education, gender inequality, and cultural beliefs sustain the practices.

In many communities where child marriage is practised, girls are not valued as much as boys. They are seen as a burden on their family. Within these communities, marrying your daughter at a young age can be viewed as a way to ease economic hardship by transferring this 'burden' to her husband's family. Giving a daughter away in marriage allows parents to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one less person to feed, clothe and educate. In some cases marriage of a daughter is a way to repay debts, manage disputes, or settle social, economic and political alliances. More than half of girls from the poorest families in the developing world are married as children demonstrate the scary reality of gender equality in cultural traditions.

Child marriage is a traditional practice that in many places happens simply because it has happened for generations. In some communities, when girls start to menstruate, they become women in the eyes of the community. Marriage is therefore the next step towards giving a girl her status as a wife and mother.

What is the impact of child marriage?

Child marriage is a human rights violation that prevents girls from obtaining an education, enjoying optimal health, and endangers their life and their future children's lives.

"When a girl is forced to marry as a child, she faces immediate and lifelong consequences. Her odds of finishing school decrease while her odds of being abused by her husband and suffering complications during pregnancy increase. There are also huge societal consequences and a higher risk of intergenerational cycles of poverty," said Anju Malhotra, UNICEF's Principal Gender Advisor.

A common misconception is that child marriage protects girls from promiscuity and, therefore, disease. The reality of the situation is quite different. Married girls are more likely than unmarried girls to become infected with STDs and HIV. As there more lucky to have unprotected sex and catch sexual diseases from their husband, how in most cases have sexual relations with other women. Child marriage also increases risk of transmitted disease like, cervical cancer, malaria, death during childbirth, and obstetric fistulas. Girls' offspring are at increased risk of premature birth and death as neonates, infants, or children.

The practice of child marriage harms and violates the basic and universal rights which are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human rights and in Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). More specifically, it violates Article 1 which states basic and universal rights to health, education, equality. It also violates Article 3 which indicates life free from violence and exploitation. It also violates the basic human right of once sovereignty to make decisions over their life.

What is Being Done?

Actions have been taken to try to stop child marriage. The government in India has past two main acts against child marriage.

The Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929, which consisted of a law to restrict the practice of child marriage. This Act defined a male child as 21 years (originally 18) or younger, a female child as 18 years (originally 14) or younger, and a minor as a child of either sex 18 years or younger (originally 14). This moment of the age was a big deal in india. But when it came to enforcing it, there's was a lack of power.

The second act passed by the government was Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2006, and it came into effect to address and fix the shortcomings of the Child Marriage Restraint Act. This Act kept the ages of adult males and females the same but made some significant changes to further protect the children. Boys and girls forced into child marriages as minors have the option of voiding their marriage up to two years after reaching adulthood, and in certain circumstances, marriages of minors can be null and void before they reach adulthood. The goal of this laws was to eliminate the dangers placed on young girls and redise the numbers of child marriage across India.

When passing laws and discussing about child marriage a question kept popping up of on the legitimacy of these marriages. If in fact the laws we being violated, which is the case, are this marriage legitimate in the eyes of the law. And are the child's resulting from the marriage un-legitimate.

But when looking at laws and the legitimacy of their action it is clear they are unsuccessful when it comes to enforcing laws and the legitimate authority. As they have repeatedly failed to enforce laws on poor rural small villages in india that don't follow or identify with the government or the legal framework. For this reason NGOs can actually come in handy and be a better tool to stop issues like child marriage. NGOs, Non-governmental organizations, are non profit international organization that are active fighters towards equal educational, health care, social inequalities and human rights violations. There many NGOs helping with child marriage, specifically in india. Some examples are "Breakthrough Global Woman", "Girls Not Brides" , "Humanitarianism", "Help the Children", "Care" and many more that use their platform, influence and resources to help end child marriage.

Is this a Global Conflict?

Sometimes when thinking about human violation we seem to look at third world countries like india. But child marriage happens everywhere in the world. On a more local scale, child marriage is still a problem in first world countries for example in Spain. According to a 2015 report from El Pais (newspaper), 565 marriages involving people under the age of 16 have taken place in Spain since 2000. A 2014 study shows that around 2% of Roma girls aged 10-15 are traditionally married or cohabiting with a partner across 11 European Union member states, including Spain. The Roman/ Gypsy community is a minority group in spain that faces poverty and social exclusion giving a platform for child marriage. 16% of Roma men and girls aged 16-17 are legally or traditionally married or cohabiting across the 11 states. The issue of child marriage is still a cultural tradition in the Gypsies community and is not seen as a human right violated just like traditional indian beliefs.

How can we end child Marriage?

Today, we have a unique opportunity to act on this momentum of education and accelerate our efforts to help change the lives of girls and young women all over the world affected by the horrifying violation to their rights. Ending child marriage requires us to understand the complex drivers behind the practice in different contexts of the world. As proven time and time again legislative moment are not always effective when it comes to enforcing laws, so what can we do to help. Well we need to empower girls with information, skills and support networks, provide economic support and incentives to girls and their families and the most important tool to stopping child marriage educate the community about the horrors of child marriage in order to resolve the social evil of child marriage in our world