Nearly Half of World's Child Marriages Occur In India

Karin Hulshof, UNICEF representative to India said to Times of India "A child born in a slum in urban India is as likely to die before her or his first birthday, to become underweight or anemic or to be married off before her 18th, as a child in rural India. Unfortunately for the urban poor child, the situation is most of the time not as visible and gets diluted by a much rosier picture of urban life. Great inequities are found within towns and cities, where great opportunity and great deprivation exist side by side." He added that “Child brides become mothers much before their bodies are physically mature."

World Health Organization's executive board meeting in Geneva had also taken up the issue recently. As per WHO, half the girls in early marriage live in south-east Asia. According to the National Family Health Survey, about 10 million girls are married each year before the age of 18 worldwide and one third of them live in India. Child marriage is now prohibited by law in India, with the minimum age of marriage being 18 for girls and 21 for boys. Though the latest available government survey found 48 percent of women (aged 20-24) were married or are in union before the age of 18.