Child marriage refers to the illegal practice of marrying off children below the legal age. India must implement further measures regarding how to stop child marriage, as India is home to one of the largest populations of child brides in the world. Despite being criminalized, child marriage continues to be practised in several states across India. This social evil has existed in India for centuries.
Child marriage has extremely detrimental effects on little children. Girls who become child brides face a great deal of violence, abuse, and harassment. They are deprived of the education, healthcare, and nutrition they require. Preventing child marriage is a priority for the Government of India. Several NGOs like Save the Children work with government bodies to create new policies on how to stop child marriage. India has always been a traditionally patriarchal society, and therefore the reasons for child marriage are deeply rooted in the traditional Indian mindset.
Child marriage has been a medium of controlling and limiting the freedom of women for centuries. These child brides are then further denied the chance to pursue an education. This largely prevents them from being empowered members of society. Therefore, sexism also plays a significant role in the continuance of the practice of child marriage. Unfortunately, girls are often incorrectly perceived as a financial ‘burden’ on the family. Poverty is also a significant barrier to the Government’s efforts to end child marriage.
The issue of child marriage is a pressing one. Child marriage harms the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological health of children. The victims of child marriage also suffer from low self-esteem. There must be more efforts to answer the question of how to stop child marriage. Government schemes such as the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao‘ focus on the survival and the education of the girl child in India. This initiative also addresses various other social evils such as foeticide and infanticide. NGOs like Save the Children work tirelessly to empower the girl child and have been responsible for the prevention of millions of child marriages across the world.
Save the Children works with various NGOs to educate communities on how to stop child marriage. The practice of child marriage must be rooted out from society if there is to be true progress in India. Consider donating to NGOs like Save the Children and supporting them in their objective of eradicating the practice of child marriage from society. Save the Children can carry out its social welfare program thanks to the financial generosity of its charitable donors, institutional supporters, and corporate partners. This NGO runs programs in over 80 countries globally. Since 2008, Save the Children has positively transformed the lives of over 10 million children across India. The society, the Government, along with NGOs, must all work together to find solutions to stop child marriage.
Child marriage can cause deep-rooted psychological problems in both the husband and wife. It is also majorly responsible for perpetuating many more social issues such as gender bias, poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition. Save the Children runs multiple programs across states such as Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan to root out this practice. Early marriage can ruin a girl’s entire future by taking away the opportunities she needs to create a brighter future for herself. Forcing girls into marriage before they are physically and mentally ready takes an immense toll on their body and mental health. The practise of child marriage must be outrooted from society for young children to live up to their full potential, and make use of the economic and educational opportunities available to them.