About 86% of victims of child early and forced marriages (CEFM) are girls. Every third child bride in the world is an Indian. Child marriage is any marriage in which at least one party is below the legal age of marriage. It is a violation of human rights and one of India's persistent challenge. Most child marriages involve girls being married to older men, reinforcing patriarchal norms and gender inequality. Marriage at a young age means the end of education, loss of opportunities, and potential exposure to a life of poverty, violence and early motherhood that brings serious health risks for both the mother and child. According to UNICEF, nearly one in four young women (23%) in India were married or in a union before reaching 18 years.
In India child marriage has been declining over the years, but it's too slow. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)- 5 (2019–21) shows that 23.3% of Indian women aged 20 to 24 were married before they turned 18 which is a slight improvement from 26.8% recorded in the previous NFHS-4. Compared to the 54% child marriage in the first round of NFHS in the 1990s, India has made progress but it is still too many.
Child marriage rates are significantly higher in rural areas, where poverty and illiteracy are prevalent. Central and western states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra have a higher burden of child marriage compared to states such as Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha, which have shown steady progress.
Child marriage in India is rooted in deep socio-structural issues. It's driven by patriarchy, dowry, poverty, maintaining caste hierarchy, fear of violence and the desire to control a girl's sexuality. In many communities, families still think that marrying their young daughters right after they hit menarche will protect them and preserve family honour. The COVID induced school shutdowns further aggravated the numbers. Certain traditional customs also give sanction and normalize early marriage. To end child marriage, India needs to recognise it as not just a law and order problem but a socio-structural problem hence the response can't be limited to law and order, policing only.
As the first chair of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Prof Shantha Sinha rightly pointed out, the most effective way to prevent child marriage is to universalize secondary education so that no child is forced to drop out due to poverty or distance. When children stay in school, they not only delay marriage but also gain life skills and confidence to make life choices. UNICEF (2022) studies show that if all girls were to complete secondary school, the level of child marriage would likely fall by two thirds i.e. 66% and if all girls continued on to higher education, child marriages would more likely drop by more than 80%.
To achieve this, India needs to make investments in residential schools, cash-transfer programs and scholarships, particularly for girls from underprivileged and rural areas. When girls and their families are supported economically and socially, daughters stay in school longer and marry later. But education must extend beyond the classrooms to foster aspirations, life skills and livelihood opportunities, empowering girls to take charge of their own destiny and to refuse early marriage.
The next step is to raise awareness and empower communities and children. Young people can learn about consent, body autonomy and the value of postponing marriage by implementing comprehensive sex education in schools. Comprehensive sex-ed gives adolescents the knowledge and self-assurance they need, which improves health outcomes and lowers the rate of early marriage.
It is also important to establish secure and supportive environments for vulnerable children and victims of CEFM. Children should be able to learn, heal, and rebuild their lives in facilities such as safe houses and halfway homes like Nari Niketans. Religious institutions, where marriages are frequently solemnized, must also contribute to raising awareness by reminding communities that both faith and law can safeguard the future of children. In line with this, displaying key messages against Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA) in religious and public places where marriages are solemnized can serve as an important cautionary reminder. When messages of legality and faith reinforce one another, awareness can transform into prevention.
The Supreme Court's judgment in Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action (SEVA) v. Union of India (2024) marked a shift from a reactive and punitive approach to a proactive and preventive approach with comprehensive implementation order on preventive injunction, well-trained first responders and Child Marriage Prohibition Officers, dedicated Special Child Marriage Prohibition Units, coordination mechanism, so on and so forth including funded rehabilitation measures.
At the community level, India should scale up the “Child Marriage-Free Village” initiative, which aims to declare 15,000 villages child marriage-free by the end of 2025 across 73 districts and 104 blocks. This grassroot movement combines Bal Surakshit Gram safety nets, Panchayat-level movements, local marriage registers, and community mobilization to ensure collective vigilance. Panchayats, alongwith District Magistrates, Child Marriage Prohibition Officers and Special Juvenile Police Units, are mandated to use registers for real-time age verification, preventive injunctions, and trafficking alerts during “auspicious days” when mass weddings are organised. Embedding judicially monitored checklists in these processes can further strengthen accountability. To reinforce this local action, the Aspirational Districts Programme are being leveraged to focus on high-burden blocks where early marriage remains widespread.
Linking out-of-school children to education and vocational training, and ensuring full coverage of welfare schemes for at-risk families. This must go hand-in-hand with a formal “Child Marriage-Free Village Certification” system, which encourages Panchayats to take ownership by maintaining verified marriage registers, monitoring ceremonies during community festivals, and fostering a culture of zero tolerance.
Partnerships with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) can play a vital role through door-to-door counselling, connecting families to last-mile government schemes and operating local grievance-redressal systems. Their close engagement with communities enables them to identify high-risk groups, especially among marginalized populations and intervene before marriages take place.
Even when a child marriage is annulled, the PCMA preserves key reliefs under Sections 4 to 7, ensuring maintenance, residence, custody, and the legitimacy of children born from such unions. These survivor-centred provisions reflect the law's intent to protect and rehabilitate victims, and they must be implemented with compassion and regular judicial oversight to truly serve the best interests of children.
Ending CEFM requires not only stronger laws and community action but also a shifting of norms. Pop culture and its power of story-telling can shape the thinking, influence public discourse and shift the norm, yet its influence has been barely used for meaningful and effective social messaging. In the past, television serials like Balika Vadhu (before it took a dark turn) and Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon sparked national discussions on child marriage and gender equality. Contrast that with current times, with over-presence of mainstream and digital media and OTT platforms, content has shrunken to very limited genre of crime thrillers, kitchen politics-cum-extramarital affairs, nudity instead of real social issues. We must revive socially conscious storytelling that challenges patriarchy and addresses issues such as child marriage, early pregnancy and gender inequality. We need to demand these stories, make creators tell them well and engage with these stories.
Patriarchy coupled with poverty remains the biggest obstacle and must be confronted directly. Likewise, premarital and teenage pregnancies should not be treated as taboo topics, since forcing early marriages to avoid them only worsens the problem. India now needs to use law, pop culture and empathy to protect every child's right to grow, learn and choose their own future. Every child marriage is one too many, a dream crushed, a life potential unfulfilled.
Views expressed are personal.
About the authors: The first author is the Chief Minister's Chair Professor cum Director of Centre for Child Rights at the National Law University Odisha (NLUO). The second author is a practicing advocate in Jharkhand and a former student of NLUO and the third author is a current student of NLUO. The authors can be reached at swainbiraj@gmail.com