Perfect gift for Women Day! UNICEF lauds India for decline in child marriages

New Delhi, March 7: Indian women receive a perfect gift for the upcoming International Women’s day, as the country has been lauded by UNICEF was a considerable decline of child marriage. India saw a sharp decline of 20% in child marriages in the last decade. The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said that as against 47% of the girls getting married before the age of 18, a decade ago, 27% girls are getting married, now.

 

The prevalence of child marriage is declining globally and South Asia has seen a substantial decline in the last decade. Girls have been pressurized for marriage from a tender age and therefore in a country like India which is bound by all sorts of customs and traditions this scenario has been prevailing from a long time.

 

Change is necessary and with the changing time the prevalence of child marriage is decreasing globally with several countries seeing significant reductions in recent years. Overall, the proportion of women who were married as children decreased by 15% in the last decade, from 1 in 4 to approximately 1 in 5. This change is quite evident because of the progress that India is witnessing and also with the swift change of outlook of people.

 

Apart from this the UN’s Children Agency also attributed increasing rate of girl’s education, proactive government investments in adolescent girls and strong public awareness about the illegality of child marriage and the harm it causes are among the reasons for the decline.