Jharkhand recorded the highest number of underage girl marriages. The state accounted for 7.3% of marriages in rural areas and 3% in urban areas, as per the union home ministry¡¯s latest demographic sample survey.?
The survey said, "The percentage of females who got effectively married before reaching 18 years of age is 1.9 at the national level and varies from 0.0 in Kerala to 5.8 in Jharkhand.¡±
Jharkhand and West Bengal together account for more than half of the women married before the age of 21 years.?
While India has recorded a decline in child marriage numbers across the country but the situation has not improved much, especially for girls in the age group 15-18 years.?
The percentage has dropped from 47 per cent in 2005-2006 to 27 per cent in 2015-2016. It should be noted that girls are more prone to child marriage than boys.
India is placed in 14th rank for having the highest rate of child marriage in the world, according to the International Center for Research on Women.?
While the National Family Health Survey revealed that 40% of the world¡¯s 60 million child marriages take place in India. With 48%, it is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas (29%).?
According to the United Nations Children¡¯s Fund (UNICEF) report, ¡°at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India every year, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world - accounting for a third of the global total. Nearly 16 per cent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.¡±
According to the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) CII report, the number of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 (PCM) cases registered in 2021 was 1050, a 34% increase over 2020. The number of cases registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act has increased 9 times between 2011 and 2021.?
The Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation data shows that ¡°the arrest rate in child marriage in India is very bad i.e 10% and about 96% of such cases were pending trial across the country by the end of 2021.¡±
The fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) (2019-2021) reports that 23.3 per cent of women married before attaining the age of 18 years, while 17.7% were men. This implies that more than one in every five women surveyed married before training the legal age in the country.
According to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, any marriage where one or both of the contracting parties is a child then it would be considered a child marriage. Section 2 of the act states that ¡°a Child is any male who has not completed the age of 21 years and any female who has not completed the age of 18 years of age.¡±
Under this Act, ¡°any person for performing, abetting, conducting, or directing a child marriage would be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees.¡±
The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, prescribe 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom.