Child-marriage is the ‘blessing’ of the medieaval age. The practice of child marriage was not prevailing in ancient times. The practice of child marriage may be started during the time of Muslim invasions in India some 1,000 years ago. According to studies, the invaders raped unmarried Hindu girls at that time. It forced Hindu communities to marry the girls in a small age to protect them .
Now it became superstition today. Illiteracy are adding fuel in the superstition. There is a general myth that if girl reaches puberty without getting married, she will fall prey to sexual depredations. There is some other common ‘belief’ that after having sex with a ‘fresh’ girl man may be cured from diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
In the 21st century, the government is still unable to teach the people about the bad consequences of early marriages. Such weddings are common in Rajasthan. The child marriages are deeply rooted in the populous northern states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
India’s Parliament already made the Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1978 which has been set the minimum age for women to get married as 18 and 21 for men.
The Indian government is concentrating to strict implemention of the law and looking to create easy enforced laws. Presently, the police cannot arrest the organizers of mass child marriages without applying for a magistrate’s order, which may take days.
The most important thing is that the law alone cannot control the social practice of child marriage. Women education and empowerment are the two best way to cure this practice.
