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

Little one marriage has declined in India—however throughout the nation, one in 5 ladies and practically one in six boys are nonetheless married as youngsters, and lately the observe has turn into extra prevalent in some states/union territories, in line with a brand new research led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Public Well being.

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

“This research is among the many first to estimate how charges of lady and boy little one marriage have modified over time at a state/union territory stage. Boy little one marriage particularly is usually ignored; to this point, there’s been virtually no analysis estimating its prevalence,” mentioned lead writer 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 crucial to efficient policymaking.”

Although India legally defines little one marriage as marriage earlier than age 18 for girls and earlier than age 21 for boys, for the needs of the research the researchers outlined it as marriage earlier than age 18 for each sexes. Utilizing knowledge 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 research discovered that between 1993 and 2021, little one marriage declined nationally. The prevalence of lady little one marriage decreased from 49% in 1993 to 22% in 2021, whereas boy little one marriage decreased from 7% in 2006 to 2% in 2021. (Utilizing the Indian authorized definition of boy little one marriage, the prevalence was a lot increased: 29% in 2006 and 15% in 2022.)

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

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

“Little one marriage is a human rights violation,” mentioned first writer Jewel Gausman, analysis affiliate within the Division of World 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 child marriage that we noticed is a big concern—and is a name for India to reignite progress.”

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