Progress toward eliminating child marriage in India has stalled, says study

Youngster marriage has declined in India—however throughout the nation, one in 5 ladies and practically one in six boys are nonetheless married as kids, and in recent times the follow has change into extra prevalent in some states/union territories, in accordance with a brand new examine led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Public Well being.

Youngster marriage is a human rights violation and a acknowledged type of gender- and sexual-based violence. India’s success in reaching zero baby marriage is essential to reaching United Nations’ Sustainable Growth Purpose (SDG) goal 5.3. The paper, “Prevalence of Woman and Boy Youngster Marriage: A Repeated Cross-sectional Examine Inspecting the Subnational Variation throughout States and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021,” was printed in The Lancet International Well being.

“This examine is among the many first to estimate how charges of woman and boy baby marriage have modified over time at a state/union territory stage. Boy baby marriage specifically is usually ignored; thus far, there’s been nearly no analysis estimating its prevalence,” stated lead creator S. V. Subramanian, professor of inhabitants well being and geography.

“Our findings supply an enormous step ahead in understanding the burden of kid marriage in India—one which might be essential to efficient policymaking.”

Although India legally defines baby marriage as marriage earlier than age 18 for ladies and earlier than age 21 for boys, for the needs of the examine the researchers outlined it as marriage earlier than age 18 for each sexes. Utilizing information from all 5 waves of India’s Nationwide Household Well being Survey, from 1993, 1999, 2006, 2016, and 2021, they estimated the variety of women and men ages 20–24 who met that definition throughout state/union territories.

The examine discovered that between 1993 and 2021, baby marriage declined nationally. The prevalence of woman baby marriage decreased from 49% in 1993 to 22% in 2021, whereas boy baby marriage decreased from 7% in 2006 to 2% in 2021. (Utilizing the Indian authorized definition of boy baby marriage, the prevalence was a lot greater: 29% in 2006 and 15% in 2022.)

Nevertheless, progress in direction of stopping the follow of kid marriage has stalled in recent times: The most important reductions in baby marriage prevalence occurred between 2006 and 2016, with the bottom magnitude of discount occurring between 2016 and 2021. In truth, throughout these later years, six states/union territories (together with Manipur, Punjab, Tripura, and West Bengal) noticed a rise in woman baby marriage and eight (together with Chhattisgarh, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab) noticed a rise in boy baby marriage.

By 2021, the researchers counted greater than 13.4 million ladies and greater than 1.4 million males ages 20–24 who had been married as kids. The outcomes confirmed that one in 5 ladies and practically one in six boys are nonetheless married under India’s authorized age of marriage.

“Youngster marriage is a human rights violation,” stated first creator Jewel Gausman, analysis affiliate within the Division of International Well being and Inhabitants. “It’s each a trigger and a consequence of social and financial vulnerability that results in a spread of poor well being outcomes. The state/union territory stagnation in reaching zero baby marriage that we noticed is a big concern—and is a name for India to reignite progress.”

Rockli Kim, visiting scientist on the Harvard Heart for Inhabitants and Growth Research, was additionally a co-author.