UAE: Based on reports by the United Nations Population Fund, India has the highest number of child brides in the world. It is estimated that 47 percent of girls in India are married before their 18th birthday.
The rates of child marriage vary between states and are as high as 69 percent and 65 percent in Bihar and Rajasthan. While fewer Indian girls are marrying before the age of 15, rates of marriage have increased for girls between ages 15 to 18.
“Adolescents (10-19 years) form 21 percent of India’s population, of which adolescent girls constitute 48 percent (115 million). Despite improvements on several key development indicators, there are still issues which limit adolescents, especially girls, from achieving their full potential,” said a press release issued by the UNFPA.
“Around 14 percent of girls aged 15-19 years are illiterate, and 73 per cent never get to complete more than 10 years of school,” UNFPA said. “The facts like these, make the global theme of this World Population Day, ‘Investing in Teenage Girls,’ especially relevant and important for India.”
World Population day is observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness about global population issues.
The legal age for marriage is 18 for women, 21 for men, according to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) of 2007.
A National Action Plan to prevent child marriages was drafted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2013, however, it has not yet been finalized.
India is a member of the South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), which adopted a regional action plan to end child marriage. The regional action plan is to be implemented in 2015 – 2018.
