Half of India’s brides are children

Nearly half the women in India are married off before they reach the legal age of 18, found a study out today. About 44.5% of 20 to 24-year-old women got married before the age of 18, found the report in medical journal, The Lancet.

Reforms in India have failed to cut child marriages, fuelling risks of multiple unwanted pregnancies, said researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). They also warned that resulting sterilisation could reduce condom use in such couples, which would heighten the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.More than one in five — 22.6% — were married before age 16, while 2.6% were married before age 13. India introduced laws against child marriage in 1929 and set the legal age for marriage at 12 years. The legal age for marriage was raised to 18 years in 1978.

"These results suggest that neither recent progress in economic and women's development, nor efforts to prevent child marriage and promote maternal and child health, have been sufficient to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in India," said author Dr Anita Raj.And child marriage is increasing India's maternal and infant deaths, specialist aid workers said. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. If a mother is under the age of 18, her infant's risk of dying in its first year of life is 60% greater than that of an infant born to a mother older than 19.

"More than 40% of the world's child marriages take place in India. Worldwide, more than 60 million women between 20-24 were married before they were 18. Child brides become mothers much before their bodies are physically mature for pregnancy," Karin Hulshof of children’s charity, UNICEF told The Times of India.She added that child marriage prevented many girls from continuing their education and were also less likely to seek medical attention and immunise their babies.

The survey says:

• Child brides are 37% more likely not to have used contraception before their first child was born
• Seven times likelier to have three or more births
• Three times likelier to have a repeat childbirth in less than 24 months
• Fifty percent likelier to have an abortion
• Six times likelier to seek sterilisation

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children