The Borgen Project
Each year, approximately 15 million girls under the age of 18 are forced into marriage. These child brides normally have their husbands selected for them by their fathers, and they are not given any power or choice when it comes to their marriage. Many of them are forced to marry men much older than they are...
Would-be Indian child bride fights back and helps others
Rajni Devi liked school and had big dreams. She was not going to end up like so many other girls in India: married off as a child bride.
Rajni was 14 years old when her mother told her she must get married, but she refused. She was determined to stay in school, and she wasn't ready to be a mother yet.
However, for a girl in rural India, it wasn't as simple as just saying no...
India's Forgotten Child Brides
The smells and colors—bold yellow turmeric smeared on hands and faces, a strip of red powdered vermillion applied to the hairline—offer the first clues that a wedding is about to happen or has just happened. The girls at this event are often too young to understand marriage, but they’re old enough to know what the spices being ceremoniously applied to their bodies signify...
Child marriages on decline but 12 million girls still married every year
Child marriages are declining, with the largest drop in South Asia, according to UNICEF.
Ten years ago, a South Asian girl's risk of getting married as a child was about 50%, but now that has fallen to about 30%. A UNICEF release Tuesday attributed the progress in India to increasing rates of girls' education, government investments and public messaging around the illegality of child marriage...
Tamil Nadu Sees Most Child Marriages In India, And Chennai Leads The State With Most Child Brides
These are registered cases, for which Prohibition of Child Marriage Act was invoked against the offenders.
And it is Chennai, South India’s biggest hub of cultural, business and education, which with most married girls under 15 years of age, according to 2011 Census data.With 5,480 girls under the age of 15 married, Chennai is followed by industrialized Coimbatore that had 3,025 married girls below the age of 15...
The girl who sabotaged her own wedding
On the morning of any wedding there’s a lot of preparation. On 4 November, Monika’s hair needed doing and her make-up had to be artfully applied. The bride needed her maroon wedding sari put on, as tradition dictated...
Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse
Child marriage, defined as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18, is a reality for both boys and girls, although girls are disproportionately the most affected. Child marriage is widespread and can lead to a lifetime of disadvantage and deprivation...
