As India targets to eradicate the menace of child marriage by 2030 to achieve the sustainable development goal, Assam government rightly
sets 2026 to eliminate the menace, widely recognized as a serious rights violation. Hardliner chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while
terming child marriage a social scourge, reiterates the Bhartiya Janata Party led government’s commitment to stop the evil practice at
the earliest. In India, the practice of child marriage was outlawed in 1929 during the British colonial period though the then minimum age of
marriage was legally set at 18 years for grooms and 14 for brides. However, various Muslim organizations opposed the law and later in
1937, a Sharia law was enacted allowing underage marriage with necessary consent from the girls’ parents. After independence in 1947,
the Centre made a few revisions increasing the minimum legal age for girl’s marriage first to 15 and later 18, whereas 21 was set for boys.
UNICEF defines child marriage where the brides and grooms are below 18. However, the international organization argues that the practice
mostly affects the girls with too early pregnancy and childbirth. According to the United Nations forum, around 650 million girls (and
women) were married in their childhood and half of them live in India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina
Faso, and Yemen. The number of child brides may reach one billion by 2030, predicted the World Health Organisation. Across India, around
223 million young brides (nearly half of them got married before turning 15) are recorded where the majority of them became mothers
during their adolescence. The one billion plus nation witnesses roughly 1.5 million girls getting married annually before attaining
the age of 18. Home to the highest number of global child brides, India now aims to eliminate child marriage by 2030 empowering the
adolescent girls (and boys). The Union government led by PM Narendra Modi now plans to raise the legal age of marriage for girls (from 18
to 21).
The practice of underage marriages negatively impacts the children’s rights to health, education and empowerment. It adversely affects the
girls as they have to carry an early pregnancy and later child births for many years in their conjugal lives. With little available (or
affordable) medical care to them, those women normally face serious health complications later. The practice also affects the economy of a
country. The married children usually avoid pursuing their education and career opportunities. Thus, they become an added burden to the
poor families. Besides the economic factors (as the poor families prefer to marry off their daughters as early as possible), the
marriage of underage girls is also directly influenced by various social causes including the idea of virginity. In most cases, the
majority Hindu families take it as a responsibility to protect their girl children from any kind of sexual abuse and it prompts the family
heads to arrange their marriages in an earlier date.
With around 25 million child births each year, India also witnesses the demise of one baby in each minute. But child marriage practices
continue in various States like Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
etc. Recent data from the National Family Health Survey reflects that Assam continues to record a higher number of child marriages as well
as cases of teenage pregnancy than all India levels. Needless to mention that Sarma is one of the longest serving State health
ministers in India, who took charge of the health ministry in 2006 and continued till 2015 (during the Congress rule). Later Sarma shifted to
BJP and took the responsibility again in 2016. In May 2021, he became State CM and started many unaccomplished missions including the
initiative to bring down mother & infant mortality rates in Assam. Besides the stringent laws prohibiting child marriages, like other
State governments, Assam has announced a number of incentives for girls to complete their education so that they cross the age of 18
years. A number of non-government organizations are also working to enhance public awareness over the negative effects of child marriages.
