Child Marriage

Child marriage:A curse

The Supreme Court's directive to Collectors and Superintendents of police in every district of India to initiate immediate steps for preventing the child mrriage is commendable.However ,it is seen that thousands of child marriages are taking place in India. Despite laws to check such practices,young boys and girls who otherwise should be studying in schools are pushed into matrimony.
The cause for concern is that rising child marriages are virtually relegating women's rights and seem to be leading to other problems like soaring infant mortality,low-life expectancy,poverty,malnutrition and high illiteracy,espeacially among rural women.
Earlier too, the Supreme Court had criticised 10 states including the economically-developedKarnataka, Maharashtra andAndhra Pradesh for not preventing child marriages by enforcing the law forcefully.
The origin ofchild marriages dates back to Muslim invasions about 1000 years ago.Legend has it that parents would marry off their daughters almost at birth to protect them from Muslim invaders as unmarried Hindu girls were raped or carried away as booty.
Child marriage is a global problem but is pervasive in parts of Africa and South Asia.According to UNICEF, the percentage of girls aged between 15 and 19 in select countries who are already married,include:
Congo 74
Niger 70
Afghanistan 54
Bangladesh 51
Honduras 30
Iraq 28
In India,girls aged between 15 and 19 give birth to 15 million children ayear,many of whom without attending an antenatal clinic or receiving the help of a professional midwife. An early pregnancy has serious repercussions on the health of both the mother and the child leading to high rates of maternal and infant mortality.
Accounts from poor developing countries indicate that early marriages andpoverty areinter-related andin child marriage,abuse is commonly observed . Data from Egypt indicates that 29 per cent adolescent wives have been beaten up by their husbands and of these adolescents 41 per cent were beaten up during their period of pregnancy. In Jordon,26 per cent of reported cases of domestic violence were committed against wives under 18.Child marriage is also a kind of child labour in its worst form,as the bride is put to work in her in-laws' in may cases,girls as young as six or seven per cent year olds are reportedly taken away by their husbands' families to work as servants or as field hands.
Beit boy or girld, the physical ,intellectual,psychological and emotional consequences of an realy marriage can generate a series of roblems.
It needs to be realised that child marriage not only violates a girls' rights to personals freedom and growth but is a crime against theentire humankind. Such early marriages have grave implications on their health and education.Besides depriving these youngsters of educational opportunities and normal physical development, they are rendered vulnerable to stunted growth,both mentally andphysically.