India Sees Increase in Child Marriage Cases During Pandemic, With Record 300% Surge in Karnataka

The Indian state of Karnataka has witnessed a sharp rise of up to 300 percent in child marriage cases over the past five years, state government data has revealed.

According to the state's Women and Child Development Department, a total of 10,352 complaints of child marriage were registered in the past five years. Complaints were also received from districts that reported zero cases of child marriage in 2017.

Speaking to Sputnik, Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, and chairwoman of Women Power Connect, said: "COVID-19 has taken a toll on the life of every individual, but mostly of vulnerable [social groups] and poor people. Many families lost [their jobs], children in rural India could not access education, and [the increase in] parental deaths [these are only] a few of the primary reasons behind the rise in early marriage cases."

"In Indian rural society, if a girl reaches menarche and [stays] at home, she's considered a liability for the family, especially when the family lost [an] income source. The family often marries them off," Kumari said.

"Moreover, if a girl is married early, her family has to pay less dowry. Even marriage during the pandemic was a cheaper affair, and many parents opt to get their daughter married before they turn 18," she explained.

Moreover, girls become mothers at an early age, which impacts the health of the child as well as the mother. Early marriage is one of the main causes of why India ranks among highly vulnerable countries in terms of infant mortality rate (IMR). These women are usually uneducated or too young to understand maternal and infant health, or both, the activist added.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kakoli Das, assistant professor at Vidyasagar University, also confirmed to Sputnik that the pandemic has led to an increase in cases of child marriage.

"Speaking on the basis of data, in 2006–07 almost half (47%) of females aged 20–24 in India had married as children, that is, below the age of 18. By 2015-2016, child marriage had reduced, with only 27 percent of women getting married. And, experts before COVID were expecting this number to be around eight percent by 2025," Dr. Das stated.

"However, after the pandemic, things have changed. Although we don't know the exact numbers, state government data and media reports confirm that child marriage has increased since 2020," Dr. Das added.

According to a UNICEF report published in 2021, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India annually, approximately 15 percent of adolescent girls. India has the largest number of child brides in the world - accounting for a third of the global total.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has also tabled a bill -- Prohibition Of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to raise the legal age of marriage for Indian women from 18 to 21 years to curb child marriage. But experts believe that this is not required and in fact the government needs to be more active on its part to end child marriage.

"What's the need to raise the marriage age? In Asia, Japan is the only country where the age of marriage is 20, the highest. In fact, most developed nations do not have any marriage age. But what India needs is a robust implementation of existing laws," Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India (PFI), said.

The government needs to launch a massive campaign in rural India against child marriage and it needs to ensure that every female child reaches school and gets educated. Education alone is the solution to this problem, Muttreja suggested.