Child Marriages in India
In India we have provision regarding age for marriage like 18 for female and 21 for males but malpractice is still prevalent in society for child marriage means marriage between minors which is illegal and a punishable offence. But still this practice is widely practiced in India specially in Rajasthan. And these types of marriages are voidable at the option of parties. This discretion is given to the parties because injustice has been done to them, they can void the marriage at the time of marriage or also when they become adult.
In Child Marriage it is the female who faces lot of problems, restrictions and discrimination because they have to shift to the husband's house and it further decreases the possibility of access to education and women empowerment.
Now the question arises why it is widely practiced even after existing laws, as we know India have a huge population with a good percentage of people under poverty so when a girl is born in family then it is hard for their parents to do good parenting or provide her good life and they treat her as burden so they decide to handover the liability by getting her married and handover her to the male family. And the male family is in the mindset that they will get a free maid for the housework and it is assumed that the female if they didn't get the puberty than they can be molded in anyway and asper the family needs and wants. Also, culture and tradition play important role in this context because people are practicing these things from ancient time so they think that it is now justified and became acceptable.
Consequences of Child Marriage can be pre-mature pregnancy which affect the health of the girl even sometimes their body can't hold and they die and risk of unhealthy baby is very high, also because of marriage in younger age they stay unheard from education. They become fully dependent on their husband and cannot take their own decisions which leads them into vicious cycle of housewife. Their full life becomes hell of restrictions like you cannot do this, you cannot do that, you have to behave like this, this is your duty, you cannot give incites in men's conversation, your duty is to bear all the pains and smile.
Now the question arises that what are the provision we have regarding Child Marriage. We have The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 which prohibits solemnization of marriage of a boy who is less than 21 years of age arid a girl who is less than 18 years of age. And also, Magistrate have the power to issue injunction prohibiting child marriage.
According to the data, the number of cases registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2018 was 501, in 2017 was 395, in 2016 was 326 and in 2015 was 293. These data show us the gradual increase of register of cases which reflect us a positive change in society, people are showing concerns and becoming conscious but still the proportion of register cases and actual cases of child marriage is huge.
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