How to break your child marriage?

In India, child marriage is considered a crime, still according to a UNESCO report of 2015-16, child marriage’s rate was still around 27% . This dangerous prejudice has believed to destroy millions of children’s dreams & bounded them with a lifelong relation at an age where they don’t even know what is a marriage?

According to a survey conducted, over half of the Indian child brides live in these five states –

• Uttar Pradesh
• Bihar
• West Bengal
• Maharashtra
• Madhya Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is a home to largest number of child brides ie. 36 million.

According to the Indian Law System, the age of getting married for a girl is 18 years & for boy is 21 years. Inspite of all this, there are still so many young kids who are forced to get involved in this devastating prejudice.

DISADVANTAGES OF CHILD MARRIAGE

1. Risk of under-age pregnancy – If the girl gets married before the age of 18 years, she is expected to give birth to a child soon after. It is observed that it is very less likely for the baby to survive if the mother is minor. This is also a health risk to the bride.
2. Handicapped child birth or dead child births.
3. Hurdle in studies
4. Children opting to work for the maintenance of the family.
5. Trafficking of girls becomes easier.
6. Mental & physical health issues.  

 Because of this, when the girl & the boy attains puberty & the adult age, sometimes they don’t want to continue with a relation that was made when they didn’t know the worldly wise. Hence, this child marriage acts as a knot in the neck for both of them. Because of the child marriage, they are considered married & cannot marry again. Therefore, when the couple attains their respective age of being an adult & if they want to dissolve the wedding, they need to take legal assistance.

If you are stuck in a relation that was formulated when you both were a minor, then you need to follow a certain procedure.

First of all, you need to declare your child marriage illegitimate.  To dismiss your child marriage, you need to appeal to your district’s court. One also needs to remember that he can dismiss his child marriage only when he attains the age of 18 and before the completion of 2 years after that. If he fails to dissolve his marriage before the completion of 2 years after attaining the adult age, he would have to face some real issues. 

If you are not able to explain your case properly or if your case is getting complicating, try to use previous child marriage cases’ verdicts & other state’s laws as examples to give a better understanding of your case to the authorities. In this way, your case will get strong.

For example – A law by Karnataka’s govt. was passed in 2017, under which any & every child marriage in Karnataka would be termed and considered as illegitimate from the day it has been done. That is why the couples won’t have to worry about dismissing it.

Child marriages leads to the destruction of children’s career, their lives as well. While seeing these things, a  majority of people are demanding lawful ban on child marriage. If this demand gets accepted and child marriage gets banned, a lot of children’s childhood would be protected & they would be able to live their lives on their terms & conditions. The adult boys & girls would not have to struggle for dismissing their marriages, because it will automatically considered void if the new law banned child marriage.

Our children are the future of the nation. Do not push them into such prejudices which will later hamper your child’s mental, emotional & physical growth. Let them grow, nurture them, give wings to your children’s dreams & let them atleast reach to an age where they would be ready to understand and handle the responsibilities of the others.

“Be that support for your children, you wanted your parents to be for you.”