Child marriage remains a potential challenge to India: UNICEF

Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those occurring in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. While releasing an analysis on the subject, Covid19-a threat to progress against child marriage, the UNICEF however said that India has committed to eliminating child marriage through numerous policies, laws and programmes.

New Delhi: The UNICEF on Monday said that one in three of the world's child brides lives in India, and the persistence of child marriage remains a potential challenge to India achieving sustainable development goal 5 by 2030.

Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those occurring in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.

While releasing an analysis on the subject, Covid19- a threat to progress against child marriage, the UNICEF however said that India has committed to eliminating child marriage through numerous policies, laws and programmes.

"Findings from NFHS surveys between 1992-93 and 2015-16 shows the percentage of young women who married in childhood has halved (from 54 percent to 27 percent), and the pace of decline has increased in the last decade," the UNICEF said.

The decline has been led by urban areas, which only had 18 percent of women in the age group of 20-24 reporting (2015-16)- as compared to 32 percent in rural -having for married before the age of 18.

"A girls risk of getting married before the age of 18 has a direct correlation with their background characteristics. Girls in rural areas or from poorer households are at great risk, and a higher proportion of child brides are found among those with little or no education," the UNICEF said in its analysis.

Child marriage is less common among boys than girls, and the practice among boys could be eliminated by 2030 if progress is accelerated, the UNICEF said.

"To end child marriage in India, we need to continue to focus on the poorest and the most vulnerable girls and their families. It is critical that child marriage elimination efforts are integrated into the Covid19 response and recovery plans, and a prevention approach is strengthened that also address the negative impact on health, education and child protection," said Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF India representative.

She said that the drive to end child marriage needs to consider the entire lifecycle of a child, especially by addressing persisting negative social norms and ensuring that girls stay in school and learn, and have access to life skills and career opportunities to succeed and thrive.

The UNICEF in its analysis further said that 10 million additional child marriages may occur globally before the end of the decade, threatening years of progress in reducing the practice.

It warns that school closure, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy, and parental deaths due to the pandemic are putting the most vulnerable girls at increase risk of child marriage.

"Even before the Covid19 outbreak, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage in the next decade, despite significant reductions in several countries in recent years. In the last 10 years, the proportion of young women globally who were married as children had decreased by 15 percent, from nearly 1 in 4 to 1 in 5, the equivalent of some 25 million marriages averted, again that is now under threat," the UNICEF said.

It said that girls who marry in childhood face immediate and lifelong consequences. "They are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school. Child marriage increases the risk of early and unplanned pregnancy, in turn increasing the risk of maternal complications and mortality," the UNICEF said.