The report reveals the urgency required
in the legal system across the country to end child marriage. In 2022, out of
the total 3,563 child marriage cases listed for trial in courts, a mere 181
cases were successfully concluded, showing a pendency rate of 92 percent. The
report states that the country may take 19 years to clear the backlog of cases
at the current rate of trial completion.
The report, among other highlights,
shows an 81 per cent reduction in the instances of child marriage across 20
districts of Assam between 2021-22 and 2023-24. The data, which was collected
from National Crime Records Bureau and 1,132 villages across 20 districts in
Assam reveals that the state has witnessed the complete eradication of child
marriage in 30 percent of its villages, while 40 percent have reported a
significant decline in the once-rampant practice of child marriage.
While citing the report, the NGO
highlighted how legal intervention with the support of government authorities
has been making a marked difference in the cases of child marriage here as
well. Throwing further light on this, A.J.Hariharan, Secretary - ICWO, Indian
Community Welfare Organisation, said, “This report by India Child Protection
clearly shows the importance of prosecution and legal intervention. We have
been working relentlessly to ensure that we generate awareness, counsel
families and communities about child marriage as a crime and use legal
intervention whenever we cannot prevent a child marriage from taking place.
Enforcement is the key to ending child marriage and together we need to follow
this to ensure the end of child marriage.”
Child Marriage Free India, of which India Child Protection is a part, is a nationwide campaign started in 2022 and presently has almost 200 NGO partners working across the country as per the action plan enumerated in Bhuwan Ribhu’s bestseller ‘When Children Have Children: Tipping Point to End Child Marriage.’ Notably, the CMFI partners successfully prevented 14,137 child marriages in 2023-24 by using legal interventions and prevented 59,364 child marriages with the help of panchayats.
Talking about the efficacy of the Assam
government’s legal strategy to tackle child marriage in the state, Ravi Kant,
Convenor, Child Marriage Free India, said, “This report proves that prosecution
is the key to ending child marriage and the success of Assam model in its state
is a huge leap in the right direction. Now we need to take this forward and implement
it in the rest of the country to end this crime against children.”
Citing the report findings, he further
said, “The conviction rate in child marriage cases is an area of concern, given
its disheartening statistics. In 2022, a mere 11 percent of these cases
resulted in convictions, contrasting sharply with the overall conviction rate
of 34 percent for all crimes committed against children during that year. This
highlights the need for thorough and rigorous investigation and court trials in
child marriage cases. This will serve as a deterrent, signalling to communities
that child marriage is a serious offense with tangible legal consequences.”
Two of the key recommendations highlighted
in the report are creation of fast track courts to clear the backlog and
secondly, punishment should be doubled and treated as equivalent to criminal
conspiracy for rape to the parents, guardians or panchayats who had provided an
undertaking.
Paroma Bhattacharya, 99109 40551, 99109
40551
A.J.Hariharan, Secretary – ICWO,
98401-88821 / 86101-55727.
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