• Kirti Agrawal

UN Women has proposed that child marriage be defined as a forced marriage because they believe children under age 18 are incapable of giving a legally valid consent. Child marriage in India, according to the Indian law, is a marriage where either the woman is below age 18 or the man is below age 21. Most child marriages involve underage women, many of whom are in poor socio-economic conditions. The Census of India has counted and reported married women by age, with proportion of females in child marriage falling in each 10 year census period since 1981. In its 2001 census report, India stated zero married girls below age 10, 1.4 million married girls out of 59.2 million girls aged 10–14, and 11.3 million married girls out of 46.3 million girls aged 15–19. Child marriage was outlawed in 1929, under Indian law. However, in the British colonial times, the legal minimum age of marriage was set at 15 for girls and 18 for boys. Under protests from Muslim organizations in the undivided British India, a personal law Shariat Act was passed in 1937 that allowed child marriages with consent from girl's guardian. The Paper lists out reasons for child marriages, its societal impact and Government initiatives to prevent child marriages.

Child Marriage, Socio-economic conditions, Census, Shariat, Society.

"CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 4, page no.105-107, April-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1804023.pdf

"CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 4, page no. pp105-107, April-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1804023.pdf