END OF INNOCENCE

Child are always full of joy, hopes and innocence but what if these qualities of a child are replaced by tears, hunger, poverty, betrayal, and fear. It is the evil face of child marriage. At the age when child play with their toys they are burned with lots of responsibilities on their shoulder.

Though Child marriage is a very old topic for discussion but it would have been a history for discussion if the child marriage act would have been followed properly keeping politics apart from it. I am again focusing on the child marriage problem followed by the refusal by the Indian Government to co-sponsor the first ever global resolution for elimination and prevention of forced child marriages at the United Nations General Assembly last week, it has raised questions over the political responsibility and pledge to end this problem that has been a great threat in the path of development growth of the country and increase in inequality in gender. The resolution was supported by a cross-regional group over 107 countries with high rates of child marriages. The resolution drifted by the UN Human Rights council emphasized the need to include child, early and forced child marriage in post 2015 international development agenda and recognize the indigenous impact of early marriage on the economic, health, legal and social status of a women and girls as well as the development of a community as a whole.

India has the record of having significantly high rates of child marriage with 24 million child brides representing 40% of the world’s 60 million child brides. Comparatively more girls are forced into a child marriage than boys and this led to various negative effects on young girls. According to the prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, marriage before 18 is illegal in India but still despite of all rules it is being practiced widely in the name of tradition and measures for the safety of girls. The reason behind child marriage in India is the economic condition, castesism and many take it as a preventive measure for protecting girls from rape. Very often parents marry their young girls due to their bad economic condition as they cannot send them to schools, and to prevent their girls from marrying outside the cast without knowing the ill effects of it. Marrying the young girls before their right age leads to various serious problems as they are not physically and psychologically mature enough to handle and understand it, also it arises domestic violence, sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and slavery. Early marriages give rise to early pregnancies and frequent abortions and this can risk the life of the mother as well as child too. It also raises the rate of maternal and infant mortality rates along with various sexual diseases like HIV-AIDS. Child marriage risks the well being of girls by imposing and forcing them for sex and this lead to sexual violence and later unplanned and frequent pregnancies. As the girls are married in an early age they are deprived from education, abandoned from society and face a lifetime economic dependence. Due to these problems many girls are sexually abused and raped by the men in the new family. Taking an example in “yemen” in September a young girl 8 years old married to a man aged 4o years and she was raped by his husband in her wedding night. 

 Now the question is that even after knowing all these facts why government denied for this step which could have later proved it as a major step to control the child marriages in the country. Some communities like Khap panchayats and Muslim organization opposes the law and favors the child marriage as a preventive for rape. With child marriages many human rights are violated but government keep silent as usual. It seems that the government indicates that they are welcoming the child marriage with open heart. Khap panchayat which nowhere exists in the constitution but still running and favors the most to child marriage but government has not taken any kind of action against it. Politics is always involved everywhere in India and laws are not enough to control it until government breaks it silence over senseless and silly demands of some groups and communities.

“A Childs should call “mother” but a child should not to be called mother”- slogan by CWC (The concerned for Working Children).

This is the map showing age of marriages in different states of India.

                                            

                                                        Sonalika