Why in the News?

The Supreme Court held that child betrothals, used as a clever ploy to duck punishment under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, violate basic rights of free choice, autonomy and childhood.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• About Child Betrothal (Meaning, Legality)
• Child Marriages in India (Statistics, Global Scenario, Legal Provisions, Government Schemes)
• News Summary

What is Child Betrothal?

• Child betrothal in India refers to the practice where a marriage agreement is made between families involving children, often before they reach the legal age of marriage.
• This arrangement may not involve an immediate marriage, but it sets the stage for a formal marriage when the children reach a certain age.
• While the actual marriage might be delayed until after the children grow older, the betrothal itself is seen as a binding commitment between families.
• Legal Status:
  • Child betrothals may not have the same legal weight as child marriage in India, but they are often viewed as a preliminary step towards a formal marriage arrangement.
  • However, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, aims to prevent child marriages and related practices by setting the legal age of marriage at 18 for girls and 21 for boys.
  • Engaging in child marriages or betrothals is seen as violating the spirit of this law.

Child Marriages in India:

• One in five girls and one in six boys are still getting married below the legal age of marriage in India, as per a study published in the Lancet Global Health in December, 2023.
• The all-India prevalence of child marriage in girls declined from 49.4 per cent in 1993 to 22.3 per cent in 2021 while that among the boys declined from 7.1 per cent in 2006 to 2.2 per cent in 2021.
• The researchers used data from five National Family Health Surveys from 1993, 1999, 2006, 2016,and 2021 to compile the study.
• All states, except Manipur, experienced a decline in the prevalence of girl child marriage between 1993 and 2021.
• According to researchers in 2021, the headcount of child marriage in girls was 13,464,450 and 14,54,894 in boys.
• Four states – Bihar (16.7%), West Bengal (15.2%), Uttar Pradesh (12.5%), and Maharashtra (8.2%) – accounted for more than half of the total burden of child marriages in girls.
• Jharkhand had the largest percentage increase in headcount (53.1%) between 1993 and 2021.

Global Scenario:

• According to data from UNICEF, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year.
• The 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations, under goal 5.
• While it is encouraging that in the past decade great progress has been made in South Asia, where a girl’s risk of marrying before she is 18 has dropped by more than a third, from nearly 50% to below 30%, it is not enough, and progress has been uneven.

Impact of Child Marriage:

• While child marriage is considered a human rights violation and a recognised form of sexual and gender-based violence, the adverse impact of child marriage is manifested across maternal and child health.
• Recently, 10 infants died at Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital in a span of 24 hours.
  • The hospital authorities said the majority of the children were born with extremely low birth weight.
• Murshidabad, one of the economically poorer districts of the State, has one of the highest numbers of child marriages in West Bengal.
• The NFHS - 5 points out that 55.4% of women aged 20-24 years are married before the age of 18 years in the district.
• The district saw a rise from NFHS-4 numbers, which stood at 53.5 %.

Legal Intervention in India:

• There are several laws including the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which aim at protecting children from violation of human and other rights.
• The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to increase the marriage age of women from existing 18 years to 21 years.

Schemes/ Policies for Preventing Girl Child Marriage:

• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY):
  • It was launched in 2015, in order to promote the welfare of girl child.
  • It encourages parents to invest and build funds for the future studies and marriage expenses of the girl's children.
• Balika Samriddhi Yojana:
  • It is another central government scheme to support girls in financially vulnerable sections of society.
  • This scheme ensures the enrolment and retention of girl child in primary and secondary schools.
  • It aims at the prosperity of a girl's child and provides them with a better quality education.
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao:
  
  • This scheme celebrates girl children, literally translating to Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl child. It believes in women empowerment and creating an inclusive ecosystem for the same.
  • This scheme is to promote girl children’s safety before and after they are born.

News Summary:

• The Supreme Court of India ruled that child betrothals are being used as a deceptive tactic to bypass the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA).
• The court stressed that these practices violate basic rights such as free choice, autonomy, and childhood.
• A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, highlighted the inadequacy of the current anti-child marriage laws, which are unclear on the issue of child betrothals.
• The Court urged Parliament to explicitly outlaw child betrothals and to classify children involved in such arrangements as minors in need of care under the Juvenile Justice Act.
• The Court also drew attention to how child marriages not only affect girls but also young boys, reinforcing patriarchal norms and denying children of both sexes their right to a childhood.
• The judgment recommended measures such as age-appropriate sex education, a compensation scheme for girls opting out of child marriages, and a campaign to create Child Marriage Free Villages, involving local leaders.
• This ruling emerged from a series of petitions addressing the persistence of child marriages in India despite nearly two decades of the PCMA and highlighted the need for stronger legislative and social efforts to combat the practice.