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 women and almost one in six boys are nonetheless married as kids, and lately the apply has change into extra prevalent in some states/union territories, in response to a brand new examine 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 youngster marriage is essential to reaching United Nations’ Sustainable Growth Aim (SDG) goal 5.3. The paper, “Prevalence of Woman and Boy Little one Marriage: A Repeated Cross-sectional Examine Inspecting the Subnational Variation throughout States and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021,” was revealed in The Lancet World Well being.

“This examine is among the many first to estimate how charges of lady and boy youngster marriage have modified over time at a state/union territory degree. Boy youngster marriage specifically is usually missed; up to now, there’s been virtually no analysis estimating its prevalence,” stated lead creator S. V. Subramanian, professor of inhabitants well being and geography.

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

Although India legally defines youngster 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, youngster marriage declined nationally. The prevalence of lady youngster marriage decreased from 49% in 1993 to 22% in 2021, whereas boy youngster marriage decreased from 7% in 2006 to 2% in 2021. (Utilizing the Indian authorized definition of boy youngster marriage, the prevalence was a lot greater: 29% in 2006 and 15% in 2022.)

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

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

“Little one marriage is a human rights violation,” stated first creator 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 variety of poor well being outcomes. The state/union territory stagnation in reaching zero youngster marriage that we noticed is a major 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.