8 months ago
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Karnataka has recorded 1 of the sharpest declines successful kid marriages successful the country, with cases falling by 55% among girls and 88% among boys implicit the past 3 years, according to a caller study.
The report, “Tipping Point to Zero: Evidence Towards a Child Marriage Free India”, was released by Just Rights for Children (JRC), a web of implicit 250 NGOs. It attributes the autumn to consciousness campaigns, stronger ineligible deterrence, and community-level interventions that created spot successful reporting mechanisms.
Steepest successful Assam
At the nationalist level, kid marriages dropped by 69% among girls and 72% among boys. Assam registered the steepest autumn among girls astatine 84%, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar (70% each), and Rajasthan (66%). The study, covering 757 villages crossed 5 States, was prepared by the Centre for Legal Action and Behaviour Change for Children (C-LAB), an inaugural of JRC spouse India Child Protection.
Karnataka’s approach
Unlike astir different States, Karnataka relied much connected helplines (75%) and Child Welfare Committees (53%) than constabulary stations (40%) for reporting cases. This shift, the study noted, shows a “critical nexus betwixt spot successful community-based systems and enactment against kid marriage.”
The State government’s determination to empower Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs) to registry marriages was described arsenic a “turning point.” Being accessible to villagers, PDOs built consciousness and prevented astir 2,000 kid marriages successful 2021 alone. Karnataka besides became the archetypal State to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, making adjacent engagements involving minors a punishable offence, the survey noted.
Awareness and deterrents
Awareness campaigns were identified by 92% of respondents arsenic the astir effectual instrumentality to extremity kid marriage, followed by prosecutions done FIRs and arrests (50%).
Nearly 99% of respondents said they had heard of the Union government’s Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign, mostly done NGOs, schools, and gram panchayats. In Karnataka, each respondents reported taking a pledge against kid marriage, portion 78% identified NGOs arsenic pb facilitators.
Challenges remain
However, contempt these gains, challenges remain. Fear of societal stigma (79%) and deficiency of consciousness (62%) proceed to forestall radical from reporting cases. While Census 2011 recorded 4.8 lakh children joined earlier the ineligible property successful Karnataka, lone 783 cases were reported betwixt 2019 and 2022.
Lauding Karnataka’s leadership, Ravi Kant, National Convener of JRC, said, “By declaring adjacent engagements successful kid matrimony cases a punishable offence, the Karnataka authorities has fortified the kid extortion ecosystem. Such strict measures are captious to dismantle this centuries-old crime.”
Key recommendations
The study recommends stricter enforcement of the law, compulsory matrimony registration, and wider dissemination of the Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat portal. It besides urges designating a National Day Against Child Marriage to mobilise enactment for a kid marriage-free India by 2030.
