6 days ago
Child marriage cases in Noida fall from 16 to 6 in a yr
Noida: Six child marriages were stopped in the city in the last fiscal year, compared to 16 cases in the one preceding it. Groups working for children's welfare see this as signs of change in society.
The state's high school droput rate for girls (15%), however, shows teenaged girls remain vulnerable to being married off early under pressure from families.
Childline teams, which stopped the six marriages, said three were almost at the stage of rituals being performed when they intervened. Among them was a 15-year-old from Tigri village in Greater Noida West, rescued last Nov after a local playschool teacher alerted volunteers.
In Dec 2024, two more 17-year-olds were rescued in Greater Noida's Rabupura and Jarcha.
Adnan Usmani, coordinator of Childline's Noida unit, said fewer child marriages were reported last year, which indicated that fewer families were marrying off their children young in the city.
"Child marriage has different causes in different places, but there are often commonalities linked to poverty and limited opportunities for girls," he said.
"Gender inequality, stereotypes, weak laws, the fear of pregnancy outside of marriage and misinformation also contribute."
Childline, which works for children in distress, ran a month-long awareness drive at schools, temples and marriage halls in May where they shared information on the child helpline number—1098—and encouraged people to report child marriages.
"Community leaders, schools and even teenagers can play a crucial role in reporting underage brides," volunteer Yuvraj said.
According to social activists, ending child marriage was possible only with income and economic interventions.
"Child marriage cases are largely seen among economically poorer families that have come to the city for work. Once these families are stopped, they take the children back to their native towns, like Bihar, Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh, and marry the girls off. So, while statistics may show a reduction in child marriage for Noida, it may not necessarily have been stopped," Satya Prakash, CEO of FXB India Suraksha, told TOI.
The NGO has been working for child welfare for the last 15 years.
To prevent child marriages, the Directorate of Women and Child Development mandates that every intercepted child marriage case must be followed up on for at least three months.
According to activists, one of the real indicators of a dip in child marriages is school enrolment or dropout rate. "Govts should analyse the dropout rates to get a complete picture.
Often, girls are pulled out of school and forced into marriage once they cross the age of 15," Prakash said.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2024, showed that while only 3.9% of children aged 6-14 were out of school in 2024, it went up to 4.6% for the 7-16 age group and 13% for the 15-16 category. The dropout rate was especially high among girls, reaching 15%, compared to 10.7% for boys.
In March 2024, another study to identify children at risk of child marriage, undertaken on the directions of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPR), found UP has more than 5 lakh vulnerable children, mostly girls, who were school dropouts or had been irregular or absent from school for long without any intimation to authorities.
Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, marrying girls below 18 years and boys below 21 years is illegal.
Those who perform, abet or promote such marriages can face up to two years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh, unless they can prove they believed the marriage did not involve minors.
