Child Marriage Free India Campaign
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The Social Empowerment & Voluntary Association (SEVA)
Social Empowerment and Voluntary Association (SEVA) is dedicated to the development of the deprived people (backward and poor rural women, people with disabilities, child labor, victims of trafficking and violence) of Maharashtra The organization is working on the following issues of Child Marriage, Child Trafficking, Child Labour and Child Sexual Abuse. The organization participated in and organized the Child Marriage Free India Campaign in
Our team continually working on awareness part among the villages in Thane district, we approach and give information to villagers, Zilha Parishad schools, private colleges, Grampanchyat staff, Ashaworker staff, health workers, Gram sevak, Police Patil, etc.
From April 2023 to till date we have connected and taken pledges against child marriage with more than 210924 people in the Thane district, also we conducted sessions with all schools and colleges in 150 villages in Murbad and Shahapur block. We stopped 3 Child marriages as well and took an undertaking from parents that they would not marry their children until they reached their age to marry as per the Child Marriage Act 2006, And enrolled girls in the school back.
The Campaign Activities included:
16 October 2023 – Child Marriage Free India Campaign Event – The campaign event was conducted in Shahapur and Murbad Block in Thane district covering 450 villages in collaboration with DWCD, ICDS and Police departments with notifications issued by the District Magistrate of Thane. The campaign was organized in Thane district’s 450 villages
Campaign highlights: We conducted awareness sessions in 450 villages on Child marriage issues, for this campaign we used Chitra Rath (Decorated with Banners on Child marriage issues), We met many government officials during this campaign and gave them briefs about our campaign.
Campaign Media Coverage
Child marriage is not just an age-old social evil, but also a heinous crime that robs children of their childhood. Child marriage is a “crime against children” that violates basic human rights, minor girls are forced to marry and live a life of mental trauma, physical and biological stress, domestic violence including limited access to education and increased vulnerability to domestic violence. The consequences of child marriage are severe and extensive. Some of the specific consequences include: early pregnancies leading to complications and higher rate of maternal mortality and death of infants, malnutrition among both the infant and the mother, increased vulnerability to reproductive health, disruption in girl’s education and thereby reduction in opportunities of her personal and professional development, domestic violence and abuse, limited decision making powers in the household, and mental health issues.
India’s Census 2011 revealed 12 million children were married before attaining the legal age, of which 5.2 million were girls. Globally, child marriage is identified as a crime and a menace that needs to be eliminated. It finds space in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, under target 5.3 of Goal 5 that states elimination of all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation by 2025.
The latest National Family Health Survey (2019-21) shows that although there is a drop in the overall rate of child marriages, from 26.8% in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 4) to 23.3% in NFHS-5, it is still high despite laws, programs and schemes in place to address the issue.
Child Marriage Free India Campaign
Understanding the seriousness of the issue, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in W.P. Civil 382 of 2013 pronounced that the sexual intercourse committed by the husband upon his wife being under the age of 18 years with or without her consent can be constituted as rape. To address this, the most definitive and audacious commitment to end child marriage was made with the launch of the Child Marriage Free India campaign.
Child Marriage Free India (CMFI) is a nationwide campaign led by women leaders and a coalition of more than 160 NGOs spanning more than 300 districts working to eliminate child marriage in India. CMFI is working to attain the tipping point of child marriage, after which society does not accept this evil practice, and that will happen when the prevalence of child marriage is brought down to 5.5% by 2030, from the current national prevalence rate of 23.3%. This is being done by initially targeting 257 high-prevalence districts and gradually focusing on all the districts of the country.
Child marriage results in child rape, resulting in child pregnancy, and in a large number of cases, may lead to child deaths. For decades, we have been losing generations of our children to child marriage. The Child Marriage Free India campaign has received extended support from various Departments and Institutions of over 28 States. So far, across India more than 5 crore people have taken the pledge to end child marriage over the last year through the efforts of the Child Marriage Free India Campaign.
Tipping Point To End Child Marriage
Noted child rights activist, author, Supreme Court lawyer and founder of CMFI campaign, Bhuwan Ribhu has authored a book – ‘When Children Have Children: Tipping Point to End Child Marriage’ and put forth a framework advocating a sustainable, holistic and focused strategy with time-bound targets and measurable indicators to make India child marriage free by 2030. This book shows the path to eliminating child marriage in India within the next decade. As suggested by the author in the book, by adopting a systematic, highly focused, and intensive intervention model, over a phased timeline it is possible to reduce the national child marriage prevalence levels to 5.5% —the threshold, the tipping point, beyond which the prevalence is anticipated to diminish organically with reduced reliance on targeted interventions.
Tipping Point Methodology
The aim of reduction of 60% of child marriage (in each of the phases) is assumed to bring down the incidence of child marriage to 5.5% in the next 9 nine years from 2021, from the last available estimates i.e., NFHS-5, till 2030. An additional assumption is that such a focused and elaborate intervention against child marriage would have a ripple effect. The tipping point analysis has been divided into two phases. The first phase will extend over a period of six years, starting in 2021. Subsequently, the second phase will span over a three-year period. It is expected that the national average for child marriage prevalence (percentage women aged 20-24 who were married before 18 years) would decline from 23.3% to 13.7% if the prevalence of child marriage is reduced by 60% in the 257 high-prevalence districts in the first phase followed by a further reduction of 60% in all districts across the country.
To reach the Tipping Point, the author has proposed a strategy at the national and district level.
- National Level strategy where Governments, Institutions, statutory bodies, etc. work towards prevention, protection, increased investment, improved prosecution, convergence and use of technology for monitoring
- District Level strategy is similar to national level strategy but includes district administration, Panchayats, civil society, NGOs, other functionaries, parents and children who work collectively to prevent, report, and take action against child marriage
PICKET Strategy to End Child Marriage
Addressing the issue of child marriage, requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach of different government departments, institutions, statutory bodies, and civil society organisations.
Investment in infrastructure, incentivisation and institutions:
Investing in child protection institutions, education, healthcare, justice delivery, and rehabilitation framework builds layers which work to prevent and protect children from abuse and exploitation apart from providing legal and mental health support for girls in child mamages. Infrastructure to support girls at imminent risks of marriages, like institutional alternative care and residential educational facilities are urgently needed to stop their marriages, abuse and d exploitation, and provide them with resilient alternatives Incentives in the form of conditional cash transfers have shown impact in communities to keep girls in schools delaying marriage decisions. Universalization of these to at-risk families has the potential to stop child marriages and trafficking and abuse of girts for both labour and sexual exploitation.
Policy for prevention, protection, prosecution:
it is important to ensure parity in the enforcement of laws, and special laws must prevall over customary or personal laws. The effective implementation and enforcement of existing laws and policies that prohibit child marriage along with swift and decisive justice delivery mechanism are most important steps in checking the prevalence of this crime against children. When prevention of crime is incorporated as a policy, It ensures that the state machinery as well as citizens feel responsible and accountable to prevent child marriage
Convergence of departments, governments and stakeholders in the community:
All schemes and interventions geared towards the protection, prevention, education, health and awareness of children and adults affected by child marriage need to operate in sync with each other. Child participation and empowerment is at the core of such convergence aimed at child centric community development.
Knowledge which equips all the stakeholders to combat child marriage:
Enhancing knowledge empowers children, especially boys, to say no to child marriage. When a young man refuses to marry а minor girt, he breaks the cycle of generations of conditioning. It also gives agency to girls to raise their voice and complain when they are forced for marriage against their will on violation of law. When children, parents, community members and stakeholders participate in decision making equipped with correct and latest knowledge, it can lead to collective action to prevent child marriage.
Ecosystem where child marriage does not thrive:
Central to the PICKET strategy is an ecosystem where child marriage is non-existent. In a society where child marriage is pervasive, multi-pronged intervention at all levels is required. To change the societal perception, behavicur and acceptance towards child marriage, the response at scale requires and ecosystem level retaliation
Technology for monitoring and deterrence to combat child marriage:
Enabling real-time attendance data analysis will help reduce child trafficking, child mamage and drop-out rate in schools Different states are aiready using technology for awareness campaigns, supporting and monitoring programme interventions, augmenting education and skills outreach. The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence needs explorations in support of child protection and creating a safe and ham-free ecosystem for children