Revolt of the Bride

In most parts of India, marriage is seen more of a burden for the bride’s family. Parents in areas of rural India pressurize girls as young as 10 years to tie the knot. Devoid of support from family and society, these girls find it extremely difficult to break free.
Amid these circumstances, the story of [...]

Child marriage in India endangers maternal health: UNICEF

India’s high rate of child marriage is a major reason for its large number of maternal and infant deaths, said a UNICEF report released Thursday. Child brides “become mothers long before their bodies are physically mature for pregnancy”, said UNICEF’s Karin Hulshof at the launch of the annual “The State of the World’s Children” report in [...]

Fight against child marriages in India

Interestingly, in the era of Chandrayan, we repeatedly hear cases of child marriages. Child marriage is a stigma on the forehead of our society. In a recent case, a widow and mother of six children married her 12-year-old daughter to a 35-year-old man in Channa Bakhar village of Jodhpur.  The marriage took place clandestinely in the [...]

Childhood interrupted

When glitzy malls, packaged drinking water, instant foods, supermarkets, loud entertainment and all the trappings of “modern” life surround us and create the illusion of a 21st century lifestyle, it is extremely uncomfortable to be brought up short before a television image of a 10-year-old bride taking the seven steps around the sacred fire, signifying [...]

78 child marriages reported this year in India

Child marriages are still performed in India and 78 such cases have been reported in 2008, three of which were recorded in Rajasthan alone. Agreeing that scores of child marriages were taking place unhindered in India, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said the problem still existed in some parts of the country.  Read [...]