ACCESS TO JUSTICE SHOWS ENFORCEMENT OF CHILD MARRIAGE LAW WORKS DESPITE SUPREME COURT STATEMENT
- Access to Justice for Children
- Jul 19, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Oct 5, 2024
In July, the Supreme Court of India made a damaging statement on the prosecution of child marriage.
“Prosecuting persons involved in child marriages will not resolve the problem which has social dimensions,” stated the bench, which was comprised of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The statement was in response to a Public Interest Litigation filed in 2017.
However, Access to Justice partner, India Child Protection, conducted a survey to understand how strict enforcement of the law has impacted villages across the state of Assam.
The survey found an 81% reduction in child marriages being reported by village heads or village-level officials of the Panchayati Raj Institution across 20 districts in the last three years, with survey participants indicating that the crackdown had a preventative impact on child marriage across all villages.
India has stringent child marriage laws, which include a complete ban on marriage under the age of 18 for girls. From these initial survey findings, it is clear that implementation of the law and pursuing legal action against those involved in child marriages can have an enormous positive impact. The partnership has made significant efforts to work with village and local leaders, as well as law enforcement agencies, to prevent child marriages over the past 18 months, and will continue to do. Moreover, partners are considering next legal steps to challenge this harmful statement from the Supreme Court.
