India tackles child marriages

Shanta was only 13 when her parents forced her to leave school and married her to a man twice her age. At 15, while most of her peers were in school, she gave birth. Now 17 and emaciated, Shanta is back in her parent's home after her marriage collapsed: Her husband is in prison for a serious crime that Shanta didn't want to reveal, just as she didn't want to reveal her real name.

"I didn't even understand what marriage meant at 13," she says, her eyes brimming with tears, as her 2-year-old lolls in the background. Shanta hadn't even seen her husband, let alone known him, before she tied the nuptial knot.

More than one-third of all brides in India are below the age of 18, an estimate that activists say could be low, as many marriages - both child and adult - seldom get registered. A Supreme Court decision in February now compels couples to register. Nevertheless, this month, on Akshaya Tritiya, an auspicious festival for Hindus, child marriages were reported to have been solemnized in parts of the country, under the nose of police and despite a 1929 law that sets the legal age of marriage at 18 for girls and 21 for boys.

Child-welfare activists are pushing for tougher legislation and enforcement. But it's an uphill battle in a nation where much of the population is rural or poor, and the societal values are shaped by sparse resources, limited opportunities for women, and family traditions that are slower to change than those in India's more cosmopolitan urban centers.

"It has been a well-accepted social norm for centuries," says Anjali Bapat, a volunteer working with Swadhar, a nongovernmental organization dealing with underprivileged children and women in Pune. The city is known more for its high-tech parks, malls, and multiplexes, but it also is home to Shanta and other residents of the Chaitraban slum.

Here, as in rural parts of India barely touched by the industrial revolution let alone the information age, many Indians see early marriage as in the best interest of young girls. Ms. Bapat explains that, in their view, marriage ensures security - financial and social - for girls. Also, parents prefer to marry girls off early - one of the biggest social obligations if they have a daughter - before the costs of marriage, including dowry, surpass their means.

Nanda Lodha, an elderly woman, got married even before she hit puberty. She says she grew up in a feudal society where the presence of young unmarried girls is a potential invitation for social disaster.

"A girl's virginity is prized and associated with family honor," she says. "Getting girls married early, then and even now in most cases, is a way to protect daughters from rape or the lure of premarital sex. Parents prefer to get them married early before their family honor is breached."

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