FOR AN AKSHAYA TRITIYA WITHOUT CHILD MARRIAGES

Nearly April 2024, the world woke up to the disturbing news of a 62-year-old high priest in Ghana marrying a 12-year-old girl at an event attended by many community members.

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Closer home, while one in four girls in India are married below the legal age, in 257 high-prevalence districts of the country the incidence of child marriage is more than the national average of 23.3 percent, according to the National Family Health Survey.

By the time you finish reading this article, hundreds of marriages would have been planned to be solemnised on Akshaya Tritiya or Akha Teej, which falls on May 10 this year. While the day is considered auspicious for marriages, the socially accepted crime of child marriage also takes place on this occasion.

The law of the land is clear. From the Age of Consent Bill 1860, and the Indian Penal Code provisions barring abduction for the purpose of marriage, to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 (PCMA), India has one of the most comprehensive legal systems to prevent child marriage.

The Supreme Court dealt with the issue of sexual intercourse with a child in a marital relationship as an offence tantamount to child rape, first in Bachpan Bachao Andolan vs Union of India in January 2017 and then in Independent Thought vs Union of India. Yet people continue to celebrate the crime as a happy occasion due to many reasons: cultural acceptance, disparity in laws, poverty, safety concerns for the girl child, patriarchy and gender issues.

In recent years, several high courts have opined that child marriage is allowed under personal laws in various communities.