Child Marriage : Marriage of a girl or boy before the age of 18.
As per Indian law, a boy before the age of 21 and a girl before 18 are not considered eligible to marry. Any such disobedience is regarded as unlawful and is a punishable offence and considered as child marriage. However, the law is relatively new of terming child marriage as a punishable offence, coming into existence just a few years before India gained its independence from the British rule. Before, child marriage was an accepted social practice prevalent in almost all parts of the country.
The origin of child marriage was commonly believed and practised worldwide before the 19th century. Girls were required to be married off as soon as they attained puberty. A reference is found in the Dharamsatra as well. Similarly, before a boy attained the age of 16 years was also required to be married off.
The practice of offering gifts and wealth to the groom’s family is known as dowry, and the association of dowry with child marriage has been in India for a long time. A common dowry practice is found across all religions in India and is often correlated to the bride’s age. In other words, the demand for dowry will increase with the increase in the bride’s age. This fear of more dowry for more age has led to more pervasiveness of child marriage in India. Additionally, the major factor in driving people towards child marriage has been poverty.
During the rule of the British, the first law came against child marriage in India. In 1929, the British government came up with the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which was later named the Sarda Act. The marriage of girls under the age of 18 years and boys under the age of 21 years was by this law prohibited. On 1 April 1930, this act was enacted upon the entire country except for some states such as Jammu and Kashmir and Hyderabad. Initially, three months of imprisonment was proposed by the act, and in the years 1940 and 1978, the act was further amended.
Some shortcomings were found in the Child Marriage Restraint act. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act introduction in the year 2006 addressed all these shortcomings. Under this law, the girls and the boys forced into marriage were provided with the option of terming their marriage as void, and the dowry so given was returned to the bride’s family.
According to the NCRB(National Crime Records Bureau) information, an aggregate number of 169, 222, and 280 cases have been enlisted under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) 2006, 2012, 2013, and 2014 individually.
Not all practices prevalent in society were meant to the upliftment of the people. With time some of them were needed to be changed. Child Marriage is one such practice that should be stopped at any cost. However, only by enacting laws, this cannot be possible. The people of the country should oppose it whenever they encounter such practices and equally support the government. Only we can be successful in abolishing the practice of child marriage altogether throughout the country.
