The Effort to Reduce Child Marriage in India

The battle against child marriage around the world seems to be gaining some traction. According to the latest UNICEF data, about 1 in 5 young women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married as children. This represents a 5 percent decrease from a decade ago. 

The negative impact of child marriage is widely documented. Child brides suffer domestic violence more often, drop out of school in greater numbers, and are more likely to experience poverty. Curbing child marriage is a United Nations sustainable development goal.

India accounts for some of the progress. While Indian girls still account for one-third of child brides in the world, the prevalence of child marriage there has declined about 7 percent in the past eight years.

On today’s episode of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, we’ll hear how India has been able to reduce its child marriage rates. First, host Reena Ninan revisits a conversation she had in Season 2 with Mabel van Oranje, the founder of Girls Not Brides and the global movement VOW for Girls. 

Then, journalist Ayushi Shah reports on a girls’ support group organized by the Indian nonprofit Child Rights and You (CRY) in the village of Tondar—and specifically how members of the group help girls resist pressure from their families to marry young. 

The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University.

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