Child Bride in India

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Understanding the Prevalence of Child Bride in India
Introduction
Child bride is the situation where the parents of the children allow their daughters to marry off at tender ages when they cannot reason out as adults. The trends that cause and sustain the child for bride practices in India are myriad ranging from the cultural, social, and economic volitions. Parents have consistently participated in the practice despite the legal restrictions put in place to prevent child mistreatments. It would be important to understand the causal factors to the development of the child for bride practices. The high level of child bride cases in India can only be stopped if a collective approach is given to help in addressing and handling it.
Statistical Developments in Child Marriages in India
The society and social culture significantly contribute to early marriages in India. Across the globe, about 10 million children are married off before their 18th birthday. According to the data provided by girlsnotbrides.org, up to 47% of all the Indian girls are married off earlier than 18 years. Indian parents always attempt to resist marrying off their children before the age of 15, but ages between 15 years and 18 years are the prime time for the children to get married off. Culturally, boys are believed to be ripe for marriage by the age of 19 years. However, the girls can be married off even to men three times older than their ages. Out of corruption, poverty, and cultural values, the level of a child for bride practice has not gone down even in the modern era.

Most parents still value the practice that surpasses even the religious affiliations. Parents in different states within India have a different level of preference to the development of child marriages.
There are many combined factors that increases the prevalence of child bride practices. According to factly.in, the factors that lead to the prevalence of the child marriages include traditions, demand for dowry and social pressure. Moreover, people have also been forced to marry off due to the hard economic times. Notably, there is no religion in India that is against the girl child being married off, some as early as five years of age. Up to 27% of the girls married off in the child bride in India are orchestrated by the tradition. 16% and 10% of the children who find themselves victims of child marriages have their parents, other family members and the society members respectively exerting a lot of pressure on them to get married. The safety and security related issue for the girls as the ones who may refuse to the early marriages may be the target of the community wrath still account for 10% of the early marriages. Patriarchy and property ownership rights that abhor the girls from owning prime family property like land also contributes significantly to the development of child bride in India at 4%. India reports that the economic hardships and high level of poverty contributes up to 2% of all the early marriages. The following chart summarizes the distribution of the causative factors in the development of the early marriage and girls in India as of the year 2015.

Source: CITATION Des15 l 1033 (Deshetti)Chart 1: Major reasons for women early marriages in India
States in India have different levels of child early marriage prevalence. According to the data released by the Indian state in the year 2015 to show the prevalence of the practice, Uttar Pradesh regions leads the packs with over 2 million reported cases. West Bengal, Bihar, and Maharashtra closely followed regarding reported cases of child bride practice with 1321191, 1254861 and 1147710 reported cases respectively. Other states of note included Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat with 1138796, 841158 and 635275 reported cases respectively (Jones and Wei-Jun 1572-4). The prevalence of child bride in other states in India remains significant data and worrying trends. The following chart summarizes the distribution of the years 2015 child bride reported cases within the Indian Territory.

Source CITATION Des15 l 1033 (Deshetti)Chart 2: Distribution of girls who are victims of early marriages
Initiatives Were Taken To Stop The Vice
Initially, the Indian government was skeptical about rolling out the rules and regulations that would protect the children from the early marriages. However, the Indians are deeply ingrained in the cultural practices that allow most of the communities to marry off their young girls at tender ages (Guha 6). According to the indigenous Indian culture, girls are considered the property of their fathers, an ownership right that is transferred to the husband upon marriage. They are inferior people who are supposed to be controlled and used at will.
To help in stemming down the act, India joined the South Asian Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC), a caucus that helps in stimulating a giving out the guidelines (Pearson and Tan 73). Moreover, the country enacted the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act laws of 2006 to prevent the people from marrying off daughters who are underage. According to the PCMA Act, the minimum legal ages of marriage are 18 years for the girls and 21 years of the boys. Any violation of such legal structures attract penalties after one is charged in the court of law. However, due to corruption and laxity in the implementation of the existing policies, the vice remains deeply rooted among the Indians
Conclusion
National challenges that touch on the culture of the people is very difficult to made and fully phase out. The government alone may formulate policies and structures to be in place, but these still need the support of different stakeholders to implement effectively. India experiences a high level of child marriages, yet there are laws that address the vice. Therefore, a collaborative approach that would rope in the religious, economic, political and social leaders would be most appropriate way to address the escalating cases of early child marriages.

Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Deshetti, Shashi. Child Marriages in India – Major Reasons for Early Marriage of Women. 7 April 2015. Web. 27 November 2016.
Factly.in. Child Marriages in India – Major Reasons for Early Marriage of Women. 2016. Web. 27 November 2016.
girlsnotbrides.org. Child marriage around the world: India. 2016. Web. 27 November 2016.
Guha, Madhurima. “Displacement and Discrimination—Caste-Gender and Religion in Dayamoyeer Kotha.”
Jones, Gavin W., and Wei-Jun Jean Yeung. “Marriage in Asia.” Journal of Family Issues 35.12 (2014): 1567-1583.
Pearson, Emma, and J. Tan. “Fulfilling child rights through early childhood development.” Background paper prepared for HLM on fulfilling child rights through ECD. UNICEF EAPRO (2013).