Though India raised the legal age for marriage for girls to 18 in 1978, the prevalence of child marriage remains high, a study by the Boston University School of Public Health has found.
"I can say that the existing policy that makes marriage of girls under 18 years illegal is not working," said. Anita Raj, associate professor, social and behavioral sciences, who led the study.
Nearly half of adult Indian women aged 20 to 24 -- 44.5 per cent -- were married before the legal age of 18, the study noted. More than one in five -- 22.6 per cent -- were married before age 16, while 2.6 per cent were married before age 13.
Bihar topped the list in the number of child marriages, followed by Jharkhand and Rajasthan. The fewest child marriages occur in Goa, followed by Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala.
Image: A young Indian bride, Sheela, 8, sits besides her fourteen-year-old groom Daulat Ram (2nd L) during their marriage ceremony at Rajgarh district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Despite a government ban on child marriages, the practice is still very common in rural India.
Text: George Joseph | Photograph: Str/Reuters
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