The Delhi High Court has ruled that the marriage of a girl above the age of 15 is legally valid, provided she does so of her own free will, as she had reached the "age of discretion". In the Indian context, the only viable route to weed out child marriage is positive social legislation and mandatory implementation with due protection by the courts. In March 2005, concerned over the rampant child marriages across India, the Supreme Court had issued directions to all District Collectors and Superintendents of Police to take immediate steps to prevent the illegal practice.



Legislations such as the 86th Amendment Act making free education for all children an inviolable fundamental right have no meaning for a majority of the target beneficiaries as they are oblivious to their own privileges. Girls are usually not equipped with the tools to face life either in terms of education or life-skills. Marriage for girls primarily means the onset of childbearing and they face health problems like premature pregnancies which induce maternal and infant mortality as well as sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.



In many parts of India, foreigners misuse Muslim customary law to marry very young girls and abandon them within a few weeks. Fundamental human dignity is subjugated by religious dogma and sexist traditions in these cases.



If a girl can marry at 15, criminals can use marriage as a bait to lure girls and later, coerce or coax them in to declaring their consent in court. The Suryanelli case of 1996 involves a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted for 40 days by 42 men after running away from home with a bus conductor with whom she was involved. The media lapped up the incident and sleazy stories were splashed across all newspapers. A special court convicted 36 accused during 2000-2 and termed the offences as rarest of rare. The High Court of Kerala overturned that verdict in January this year. It was said that since the girl didn’t resist assault, the accused had no way of knowing the state of her willingness. It is extremely disturbing to note that the case became an inquisition in to the girl’s character instead of taking the perpetrators to task for minor-abuse. It is essential to have a law wherein sex with a minor is considered ‘statutory rape’ irrespective of the child’s consent. It would give law enforcers a clear platform to work on and predators will think twice before taking advantage of children.



On this drab horizon, there are rare flashes of hope like the story of Suseela, a low-caste girl from Andhra Pradesh who in June 2005 successfully fought the tradition of child marriage. Her demand for a divorce was opposed by the elders on both sides, but finally, she won the battle and continued her education.



It is a fact that populations with later average ages of marriage have higher education levels and higher usage of birth control. Later marriage enables women to complete their studies and develop work skills thus encouraging them to limit family size and widen the spacing of childbirth. The World Fertility Survey shows that early adolescent marriage is directly related to illness and underdevelopment among women. Therefore, a higher age of marriage also contributes to population control and women’s liberation.

It is the responsibility of the law to make sure that the baggage of custom, tradition, religion and poverty does not deny rights to today’s children on whose tender shoulders rest the future of India. Both boys and girls must not be robbed of their basic prerogative to simply be children.