Of every 28 girl child marriages per minute in the world, more than two take place in India. This, despite a law banning girls from tying knot before they turn 18, according to a report released by ActionAid, an NGO on Friday.
Nearly103 million Indians living as on March 1, 2011 were married as children, ie before reaching the age of 18, of this 85.2 million were girls, according to the report “Elimination of Child Marriage in India: Progress and Prospects.”
At 103 million, the number of child marriages is more than the total population of Philippines (100 million) and Germany (80.68 million), and higher than that of several African countries including Somalia, Nigeria, Eritrea and Zambia, said actor-activist Shabana Azmi after releasing the report. She added that the elimination of this alone could add 5 per cent (or 27 million) more literate women and increase India’s GDP by 1.7 per cent.
“Patriarchy is at the root of child marriage, and patriarchy has to be tackled completely to eliminate child marriage. Spreading education and building confidence amongst girls enables them to resist child marriage and chart their own lives,” she said.
Dr. Srinivas Goli, from Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU and the author of the report, said that “Women are half of the population and if we cannot combat child marriage, it may increase extent of unhealthy and unskilled labour force that can be great hindrance to the economic prospects of the country which is aspiring to grow in double digits.”
“Apart from strengthening the implementation of laws, it is also important to strengthen the agencyof girls as well as boys to resist and eliminate child marriage.” says Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid India.