Where Does India Stand on Child Marriage?

Why India May Miss Its Deadline to Eliminate Child Marriage

By the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data between 2019–21, a striking 23.3% of women aged 20–24 years reported being married before 18 years of age. While this is a decline from 47.4% in 2005–06 (NFHS-3) and 26.8% in 2015–16 (NFHS-4), the pace of progress suggests India is far from eliminating child marriage by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 5.3 deadline in 2030. What the numbers fail to capture is the sharp geographic variation behind this average: West Bengal, Bihar, and Tripura continue to report the highest incidence, with rates exceeding 40% at state-level.

The Limits of Half-Measures: Why the SDG Goal Remains Out of Reach

India’s progress since the enactment of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006 has been significant. National rates of child marriage have halved in under two decades, driven by a combination of legal enforcement, community engagement initiatives like child marriage-free panchayats, and conditional cash transfer schemes aimed at schooling girls. But these advancements mask lingering structural gaps.

The PCMA itself embodies inconsistencies that compromise enforcement. For instance, while Section 16 requires the appointment of Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in all states, implementation varies dramatically across jurisdictions. States like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, with high incidences of child marriage, suffer from patchy enforcement, undertrained personnel, and flimsy prosecution mechanisms. Furthermore, the Act’s definitional gender bias—holding males to a higher marriageable age (21 years) than females (18 years)—reinforces patriarchal assumptions about girls’ futures.

What makes India’s challenge uniquely daunting is the interlinkage between child marriage and poverty. Early marriage is viewed by many poor households as a means to reduce financial burden and secure a girl’s future in the absence of robust educational and employment opportunities. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme, despite its objective of promoting girls’ education, remains insufficiently funded and plagued by an overemphasis on media campaigns instead of grassroots interventions. In FY 2023–24, less than ₹150 crore was allocated nationally for BBBP, a sum that barely scratches the surface.

Enforcement Paralysis and the Machinery Within

Child marriage enforcement hinges on the institutional machinery outlined in PCMA, 2006. Apart from Child Marriage Prohibition Officers, the Act allows for civil remedies such as declaring a marriage void, alongside criminal penalties under Sections 9, 10, and 11. These provisions, however, are rarely used. According to a recent parliamentary standing committee report, convictions under the Act remain abysmally low—less than 1,000 annually—while the number of reported cases far exceeds this figure.

Judicial attitudes sometimes dilute the Act’s intent. High Courts in Maharashtra and Karnataka have taken contradictory stands on whether child marriages can be void ab initio, inadvertently emboldening community pressures that enable such marriages. Moreover, there exists institutional mismatch between the broad prevention mandate assigned to Child Marriage Prohibition Officers and their actual remit, which often reduces these functionaries to record-keeping roles. That disconnect reflects a larger systemic failure to prioritize human rights enforcement at the grassroots.

India’s constitutional and international commitments also reveal inadequacies. While India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the contradiction between this commitment and domestic law is glaring. The age threshold for defining "children" in India’s marriage laws is gendered and lower than what international norms prescribe, setting up a tension between aspiration and policy design.

What Lies Beneath the Statistical Decline?

A closer look at NFHS data and UN estimates raises disturbing questions. While the national average is 23.3%, multiple states exceed 30%. In West Bengal, 4 out of 10 women aged 20–24 were married before 18. This suggests persistent vulnerability not just to poverty but entrenched socio-cultural practices that see early marriage as auspicious. The intersection of patriarchal norms, religious customs, and economic insecurity fuels an environment where legislative action has limited penetration.

The decline in child marriage rates risks being interpreted as faster progress than reality supports. NFHS data may under-report actual cases in conservative families reluctant to disclose early marriage practices. Moreover, the focus on age 18 as the marriage threshold overlooks other forms of precarity—girls married at 19, while above the legal ceiling, still experience curtailed autonomy and education. Public conversation needs to expand beyond the legality of under-18 marriages toward addressing broader issues of early forced marriages and unpaid domestic labor.

What India Can Learn from South Korea’s Social Transformation

In 2018, South Korea abolished maternal and paternal consent provisions for marriage under 18, effectively eliminating child marriage by aligning civil law strictly with international standards. What South Korea’s model demonstrates is the necessity of coupling legal clarity with intensive social integration programs. Beyond punitive measures, the country invested heavily into adolescent schooling, vocational skilling, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health education, eroding the socio-economic rationale for early marriage altogether.

India’s system remains more reliant on punitive prohibitions than affirmative supports. Introducing mandatory school attendance until 18 (like South Korea) and integrating vocational programs under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan could build socio-economic resiliency necessary to reduce child marriage rates sustainably.

A Few Hard Questions That Remain Unanswered

Despite halving the incidence of child marriage, India’s trajectory risks stalling due to unresolved institutional weaknesses. For instance, why has the central government failed to update the PCMA for stricter compliance? Is the funding for anti-child marriage schemes adequate to cover high-incidence districts? And why aren’t educational interventions, like free secondary schooling, universalized yet?

State-level implementation varies dramatically, with southern states faring better than their northern counterparts. This geographic inequity calls for deeper fiscal decentralization tied directly to tackling child marriage hotspots. Political willingness also appears subdued, with legislatures reluctant to challenge entrenched patriarchal norms. Ultimately, India’s goal of eliminating child marriage may prove unattainable without structural realignment.

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