As per the 2011 Census over 120 crore child marriages took place in the country, but in the past three years only 900 cases have been reported for action under the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act 2006. Ironically, only less than 50 cases resulted in conviction.
This information was shared by the Ministry of Women and Child Development with the Supreme Court on Thursday after the court sought figures on the number of prosecutions achieved under the Act as part of a PIl proceeding. The PIl was filed by a NGO Independent Thought.
The Government in its affidavit presented a nationwide data to suggest an increase in the number of cases registered under the Act. Giving figures of 2014, 2015 and 2016, the Centre said that the number of cases registered showed an increase from 280 (2014) to 293 (2015) and climbed to 326 in 2016. While majority of the cases resulted in filing of chargesheets, the conviction rate dipped from 15 cases in 2014 and 2015 to 10 in 2016. In all, there were only 40 convictions achieved in the last three years.
The Bench of Justices Madan lokur and Deepak Gupta had sought the data after it was confronted with facts in a PIl that said, though child marriages are a reality in the country, the law in our country is such that it prevents a victim of child marriage from stepping out of the illegal alliance. The petition argued by advocate Gaurav Agarwal pointed out the discrepancy by citing provisions in the Indian Penal Code Section 375 (rape), Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act Section 3, and Criminal Procedure Code Section 198(6), which contradict each other.
Agarwal said that under IPC, rape is an offence but does not apply to rape committed with a girl within marriage where the girl is not below 15 years of age. Under POCSO Act, child is defined as anybody below 18 years of age. Further, in CrPC any victim of child marriage has to move court within one year of the sexual intercourse taking place. But even here, it applies to the wife who is a child below 15 years of age. The petitioner argued that if child marriage has to be prohibited, the age of consent must be uniform across several acts, preferably 18 years with the introduction of POCSO. It was his stand that marriage cannot render a victim of child marriage helpless and remediless.
A recent survey by the National Council for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) based on 2011 census puts the figure of child marriage in the country at 120.11 crore. This includes 69.5 lakh boys (married below 21 years) and 51.6 lakh girls (married below 18 years). India ranks sixth among the top 10 countries in the world with high rates of child marriage among women.