Saving child brides: 

Saving child brides: 

Context:

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, who is below 18 years of age, is rape.

What is the verdict?

• Marriage cannot be a license to have sex with a minor girl, the Supreme Court of India recently ruled in its judgment, the Supreme Court held in its judgment.
• “Human rights of a girl child are very much alive and kicking whether she is married or not and deserve recognition and acceptance,”, the court observed.
• The court further insisted the government to take preventive steps against child marriages.
• Sexual Intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age is rape, regardless of whether she is married or not.
• The exception carved out in section 375 of the Indian Penal Code creates an artificial distinction between a married girl child and an unmarried girl child.

What will be the implication of this judgment?

• With this judgment, the court ended the decades-old disparity between Exception 2 to Section 375 IPC and other child protection laws.
• Before SC ruling, there was an exception in Section 375 of IPC (rape law) provisions that protected a man who had sexual relations with his wife even if she was under 18. Wife’sW willingness or consent is of no concern before this judgment.

Loopholes:

• The issue of Child marriage by large still remains open as the court refrained from dealing with the issue of marital rape of a woman aged above 18.
• The SC verdict on marital rape focused solitarily on married women below the age of 18.Thus a large part of marital rape law is still open.
• The government authorities need to ensure that child marriage is abolished at all cost.

Child marriage in India:

• The study based on 2011 Census, stated that 2.5% of marriages of minor girls were reported in Rajasthan.
• The other states with a high incidence of marriages of girls below the legal age are Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
• Rajasthan also topped in the percentage of boys marrying below the legal age of 21 (4.69%).
• No marriage below 10 years of age was reported across the country.
• According to the Census study, 12.9% of girls got married at the age of 10-17 years and 43.6% between 18-20 years.
• However, only 4.9% of boys got married in the 10-17 years age group and 11.2 % in the 18-below 21 age group.
• The study shows a minor decline of 0.1% in the marriage of minor girls.
• The decline in rural India, between 2001 and 2011 Census was marginally higher than in the whole of the country.
• However, the incidence of child marriage among girls increased substantially in urban India from 1.78% in 2001 to 2.45% in 2011.

Major reasons for the prevalence of Child Marriage in India:

1-      Economies of marriage

• Poverty and marriage expenses such as dowry may lead a family to marry off their daughter at a young age to reduce these costs.
• Patriarchal Indian society considers a girl as an economic burden. Marrying her off at an early age is a way to transfer this burden to the marital family.
• It is believed that the marriage of the boy brings home an additional hand to assist the unpaid household and economic activities.

2-      Lack of education:

• Poor educational opportunities for girls, especially in rural areas increase the vulnerability of a girl child to be married off early.
• In the current patriarchal set up a girl’s right to education is regarded as a secondary priority to her labor in the household
• This aggravates the situation as the girl’s’ power to resist marriage and opt for alternative aspirations is decreased.
• Patriarchy and gender inequalities prevailing in the Indian society is one of the major reasons for persisting high incidence of child marriages.
• Prevailing cultural perspectives to encourage the child marriage to thrive in.
• Inadequate implementation of laws is a major reason for persisting menace of child marriage in the country.

What are the implications of child marriage?

Early marriage is a serious infringement of child rights. Some of the implications of child marriage are given below.

1-   On women health:

• Issues related to early pregnancy. Mental health is also a major concern. Violence and abuse at marital home can lead to post-traumatic stress and depression.

2-   On Education:

• Girls are forced to drop out schools. There lie a cause and effect relationship between lack of education and child marriage.

3-   On fertility:

• Lower age at marriage directly affects fertility rates. Lower the rate of age at marriage higher is the fertility rate.

4-   Maternal mortality:

• Maternal mortality is high among women who have conceived at an early age. Risks associated with pregnancy are higher.

5-   Infant Mortality:

• Mortality rates of children born to very young mothers are high. The children that survive are likely to develop health problems and are more at risk of transmitting HIV/AIDS.

What are the laws related to Child Protection in India?

• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The age of consent under the IPC was raised from 16 to 18 under this act.
• However, the age above which marriage is an exception to rape was retained at 15, as fixed in 1940.
• POCSO criminalizes even consensual teenage sexual activity and the latest ruling has brought this into the domain of marriage.
• A teenager could be prosecuted for a sexual offence under POCSO even if he was just a little above 18.
• According to the Juvenile law, if boys under 18 but over 16 are charged with penetrative sexual assault under POCSO or rape under the IPC, which can be termed ‘heinous offences’, they could face the prospect of being tried as adult
• The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006: The Act came into effect on 1st November 2007.Under this Act, “child” means a person who, if a male, has not completed twenty-one years of age, and if a female, has not completed eighteen years of age. The Act defines “child marriage” as a marriage where either of the contracting parties is a child

Conclusion:

• Child marriage is a social evil that adversely affects the physical and mental health of children, denies them opportunities for education and self-advancement, infringes on their bodily autonomy and deprives them of any role in deciding on many aspects of their lives. Therefore it was the right decision taken by the highest court of the land but there are some loopholes which need to address.