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Coronavirus Crisis to Spiral Child Marriage in India
Across 10 villages in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district, for two hours every day, open fields are converted into makeshift classrooms. Rows of young boys and girls, children of returnee migrant labourers, are seated two feet apart. Chart papers have been taped on the side walls to serve as a blackboard for the class. It has been nearly four months since government-run schools shut down and turned into quarantine centres. “Ever since the lockdown was announced, the children, particularly girls, have been largely home-bound,” said Yogesh Vaishnav from Vikalp Sansthan, an NGO that has been running these open-air learning centres in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. “With schools shut down and very poor access to technology (to avail of online classes), we fear that most of these girls will permanently drop out of the education system.” Coupled with the economic downturn, loss of livelihoods and reduced access to childcare protection and social support, the district has also been recording a steep increase in cases of violence against girls and women, as well as early and child marriages.
Vaishnav is among the 41 signatories of a pan-India memorandum submitted last week to the task force constituted by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to examine and provide recommendations on issues including age of motherhood, maternal health and child mortality in India. The formation of the task force is in line with the statement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Budget Speech in February, where she recalled that women’s age of marriage was increased from 15 to 18 years in 1978 by amending the Sharda Act of 1929. Thus, as a potential solution to tackling poor maternal health outcomes and child mortality, the 10-member task force is examining whether to raise the legal age of marriage for females from 18 to 21 years. The report is expected to be submitted at the end of this month. While the government’s age-centred move is publicly being lauded as “empowering” and “progressive”, frontline workers, child rights activists and advocates (signatories of the memorandum) have advised strict caution against this move, particularly at a time when various state officials and activists have been reporting a spike in child marriages amid the lockdown. “How can this be a moment to add further to the burdens of families struggling for their very survival?” questions the memorandum. “Poverty, not early marriage, is the main cause for the ill-health of mothers and their children.” On 9 July, an additional submission was also put forward by members of the National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns (NCAAC), a group of civil society organisations, academics and activists in the country. In response, on Friday, the task force participated in an online exchange titled “Youth Voices” with 20 adolescent girls and young women leaders from various States to listen to their first-hand experiences.
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