INTRODUCTION

Child marriageis a formalmarriageor informal union entered into by an individual before reaching the age of 18. Age of consentlaws are intended to protect children from exposure to sexualisation and sexual exploitation, andchild traffickingis also, to some extent, associated with child marriage. Child marriage affects both boys and girls, though the overwhelming majority of those affected are girls, most of who are in poor socioeconomic situations. Child marriage is related to childbetrothaland forced early marriage because of the pregnancy of the girl. In many cases, only one marriage-partner is a child, usually the female. Child marriages are also driven bypoverty,bride price,dowry, cultural traditions, laws that allow child marriages,religiousandsocial pressures, regional customs, fear of remaining unmarried, illiteracy, and perceived inability of women to work for money.Child marriages were common throughout history for a variety of reasons, including poverty, insecurity, as well as for political and financial reasons. Today, child marriages are still fairly widespread in some developing countries, such as parts of Africa, South Asia, Southeast and East Asia,West Asia, Latin America,and Oceania.The incidence of child marriage has been falling in most parts of the world. The countries with the highest observed rates of child marriages below the age of 18 areNiger,Chad,Mali,Bangladesh,Guineaand theCentral African Republic, with a rate above 60%.Niger, Chad, Bangladesh, Mali and Ethiopia were the countries with child marriage rates greater than 20% below the age of 15, according to 2003-2009 surveys. Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls, from their health, education and social development perspectives. These consequences last well beyond adolescence. One of the most commons causes of death for girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries was pregnancy and child birth. It is one of the most pernicious manifestations of the unequal power relations between females and males. Begun as a practice to protect unwelcome sexual advances and to gain economic security, child marriage has undermined the very purposes it was meant to achieve. Child marriage often means for the girl a life of certain sexual and economic servitude. The subordination of women is both a cause and consequence of child marriage.Paradoxes and legal contradictions are rife in the institution of child marriage. While consensual sex with girls below a minimum age constitutes statutory rape, the same act with a similar aged girl goes unsanctioned by the protective mantle of marriage. Similarly, violence within marriage was largely ignored by the law until recently. It was only when the international womens movement tore down the artificial divide between the private and the public sphere, and revealed the violence in the home was domestic violence legally banned. The combined strength of the womens and childrens movements should be directed towards the practice of child marriage, a tradition which constitutes one of the most severe forms of child abuse.Although this issue affects boys as well as girls, given that the tradition of child marriage has a disproportionately negative impact on the girl child, the focus of this paper will be on girls. This paper offers a human rights framework and concrete legal guidelines to combat the practice of child marriage. Although law related strategies alone are inadequate to address child marriage, legal guidelines help to raise awareness and create clear benchmarks, standards and remedies to address child marriage.Child marriage in India, according toIndian law, is a marriage where either the woman is below age 18 or the man is below age 21.Mostchild marriagesinvolve underage women, many of whom are in poor socio-economic conditions. Child marriages are prevalent inIndia. Estimates vary widely between sources as to the extent and scale of child marriages. TheInternational Center for Research on Women-UNICEFpublications have estimated India's child marriage rate to be 47% from small sample surveys of 1998,while theUnited Nationsreports it to be 30% in 2005. The Census of India has counted and reported married women by age, with proportion of females in child marriage falling in each 10 year census period since 1981. In its 2001 census report, India stated zero married girls below age 10, 1.4 million married girls out of 59.2 million girls in the age 10-14, and 11.3 million married girls out of 46.3 million girls in the age 15-19 (which includes 18-19 age group).Since 2001, child marriage rates in India have fallen another 46%, reaching an overall nationwide average 7% child marriage rates by 2009. Jharkhandis the state with highest child marriage rates in India (14.1%), whileKeralais the only state where child marriage rates have increased in recent years, particularly in its Muslim community. Rural rates of child marriages were three times higher than urban India rates in 2009. Child marriage was outlawed in 1929, under Indian law. However, in the British colonial times, the legal minimum age of marriage was set at 15 for girls and 18 for boys. Under protests from Muslim organizations in the undivided British India, a personal lawShariatAct was passed in 1937 that allowed child marriages with consent from girl's guardian. After independence and adoption of Indian constitution in 1950, the child marriage act has undergone several revisions. The minimum legal age for marriage, since 1978, has been 18 for women and 21 for men.The child marriage prevention laws have been challenged in Indian courts,with some Muslim Indian organizations seeking no minimum age and that the age matter is left to their personal law. Child marriage is an active political subject as well as a subject of continuing cases under review in the highest courts of India.Several states of India have introduced incentives to delay marriages. For example, the state ofHaryanaintroduced the so-calledApni Beti, Apna Dhanprogram in 1994, which translates to "My daughter, My wealth". It is aconditional cash transferprogramme dedicated to delaying young marriages by providing a government paid bond in her name, payable to her parents, in the amount of25000(US$410), after her 18th birthday if she is not married.

Child Marriage in India:Law and the Protocol for ActionChild marriage is an age-old practice that has both social and religious sanction and cuts across all sections of society. Recognising child marriage as a social evil, the Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA) 1929, popularly known as the Sharda Act, prohibited child marriages of girls below the age of 15 years and of boys below the age 181.This law applied to all citizens of India. In 1978, the law was amended to make it more effective and raise the minimum age of marriage by three years i.e. from 15 to 18 years in case of girls and from 18 to 21 years in case of boys. The amended law came to be known as the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929. However, despite the law, child marriages continued to take place.There are many marriages in which both the girl and the boy are children. In others the girls are children/minors who are married off to much older men, or sometimes even sold into marriage. More than half of the women in India are married before the legal minimum age of 18. By contrast, men in the same age group get married at a median age of 23.4 years. Sixteen percent of men aged 20-49 are married by age 18 and 28 percent by age 20.Child marriage is complex subject under Indian law. It was defined by The Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929. and it set the minimum age of marriage for men as 18, and women as 15. That law was questioned by Muslims, then superseded by personal law applicable only to Muslims in British India with Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937, which implied no minimum limit and allowed parental or guardian consent in case of Muslim marriages. Section 2 of the 1937 Act statedany other provision of Personal Law,marriage, dissolution of marriage, including talaq, ila, zihar, lian, khula and mubaraat, maintenance, dower, guardianship, gifts, trusts and trust properties, and wakfs (other than charities and charitable institutions and charitable and religious endowments) the rule of decision in cases where the parties are Muslims shall be the Muslim Personal Law (Shariats) Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937The 1929 law for non-Muslims was revised a several times after India gained its independence from the colonial rule, particularly in 1978 when the marriage age was raised by 3 years each for men and women. The applicability and permissibility of child marriage among Muslims under the 1937 Act, under India's Constitution adopted in 1950, remains a controversial subject, with a series of Supreme Court cases and rulings. The definition of child marriage was last updated by India with itsThe Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006, which applies only (a) toHindus,Christians,Jains,Buddhistsand those who are non-Muslims of India, and (b) outside the state ofJammuandKashmir. For Muslims of India, child marriage definition and regulations based onShariaandNikahhas been claimed as a personal law subject.[8][10]For all others, The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006 defines "child marriage" means a marriage, or a marriage about to be solemnized, to which either of the contracting parties is a child; andchildfor purposes of marriage is defined based on gender of the person - if a male, it is 21 years of age, and if a female, 18 years of age.