{"id":34568,"date":"2022-11-06T06:34:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T01:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34568"},"modified":"2025-04-20T15:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T09:40:34","slug":"how-is-india-planning-to-end-child-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/how-is-india-planning-to-end-child-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"How Is India Planning to End Child Marriage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Child Marriages in India (Statistics, Global Scenario, Legal Provisions)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Government Schemes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The steering committee of a global programme to end child marriage is on a visit to India to witness state interventions which have helped reduce the prevalence of child marriage.<\/li>\n<li>This visit is in view of an estimated increase in number of child marriages due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Child Marriages in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In India,\u00a0child marriage reduced from 47.4% in 2005-06 to 26.8% in 2015-16.<\/li>\n<li>In the last five years, it declined by 3.5% points to reach 23.3% in 2020-21, according to the latest National Family Health Survey-5 data.<\/li>\n<li>There is a growing trend for decline in the overall prevalence of child marriage, but 23.3% is still a disturbingly high percentage in a country with a population of 141.2 crore.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Eight States<\/strong>\u00a0have a higher prevalence of child marriage than the national average \u2014\n<ul>\n<li>West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura\u00a0top the list with more than 40% of women aged 20-24 years married below 18, according to NFHS data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Some States have shown a reduction in child marriages, like Madhya Pradesh (23.1% in 2020-21 from 32.4% in 2015-16), Rajasthan (25.4% from 35.4%) and Haryana.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Global Scenario:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to data from UNICEF, the\u00a0total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals<\/strong>\u00a0aim to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations, under\u00a0<strong>goal 5<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Legal Intervention in India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There are several laws including the\u00a0<strong>Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0<strong>Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012<\/strong>, which aim at protecting children from violation of human and other rights.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021<\/strong>\u00a0seeks to\u00a0<strong>increase the\u00a0marriage age\u00a0of women from existing 18 years to 21 years<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why minimum age of marriage for females should be increased?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Lack of access to education and employment<strong>:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Women face inequalities when it comes to access to education and employment as a consequence of their early marriages.<\/li>\n<li>It is often the case that women are denied access to education and an economic means of livelihood after entering into the institution of marriage at an early age.<\/li>\n<li>Increasing the minimum age for marriage will lead to more women pursuing higher education and opt for employment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Impact of early marriage on health of women and children:\n<ul>\n<li>An early age of marriage and consequent early pregnancies have a substantial impact on the nutritional levels of mothers and their children, along with their overall health and mental wellbeing.<\/li>\n<li>Underage mothers are at a higher risk of reproductive health challenges, malnutrition, postpartum haemorrhage, and a susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Schemes\/ Policies for preventing Girl child marriage:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), was launched in 2015, in order to promote the welfare of girl child.<\/li>\n<li>It encourages parents to invest and build funds for the future studies and marriage expenses of the girl&#8217;s children.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Balika Samriddhi Yojana \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Balika Samriddhi Yojana is another central government scheme to support girls in financially vulnerable sections of society.<\/li>\n<li>This scheme ensures the enrolment and retention of girl child in primary and secondary schools.<\/li>\n<li>It aims at the prosperity of a girl&#8217;s child and provides them with a better quality education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Beti Bachao Beti Padhao \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Among all the other girl&#8217;s child welfare schemes, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is the most popular.<\/li>\n<li>This scheme celebrates girl children, literally translating to Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl child. It believes in women empowerment and creating an inclusive ecosystem for the same.<\/li>\n<li>This scheme is\u00a0<strong>to promote girl children\u2019s safety before and after they are born<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Child marriage negatively affects Indian economy and can lead to an intergenerational cycle of poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}