One-third of world's child brides from India: UNICEF

123Sunny

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One-third of world's child brides from India: UNICEF
India, 6 October 2009

MUMBAI – More than a third of the world's child brides are from India, leaving children at an increased risk of exploitation despite the Asian giant's growing modernity and economic wealth, according to a UNICEF report.

Nearly 25 million women in India were married in the year 2007 by the age of 18, said the report released Tuesday, which noted that children in India, Nepal and Pakistan may be engaged or even married before they turned 10.

Millions of children are also being forced to work in harmful conditions, or face violence and abuse at home and outside, suffering physical and psychological harm with wide-reaching, and sometimes irreparable effects, the report said.

"A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced into early marriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman.

Despite rising literacy levels and a ban on child marriage, tradition and religious practices are keeping the custom alive in India, as well as in Nepal and Pakistan, the report said.

More than half the world's child brides are in south Asia, which also accounts for more than half the unregistered births, leaving children beyond the reach and protection of state services and unable to attend school or access basic healthcare.

Only 6 percent of all births in Afghanistan and 10 percent in Bangladesh were registered from 2000-08, the report said, compared to 41 percent in India and 73 percent in the tiny Maldives.

Also, about 44 million, or 13 percent of all children in south Asia, are engaged in labor, with more than half in India.

Children in the region have also been seriously affected by insurgency and instability, as well as natural disasters.

Especially in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, past or ongoing conflicts have broken down most child protection systems, leaving children especially vulnerable, the report said.

Trafficking of children for labor, prostitution or domestic services is widespread, especially within Bangladesh and India, and within the region, as well as to Europe and the Middle East.

"Insufficient emphasis has been placed on protecting child victims of trafficking and ensuring that any judicial proceedings brought against them are child sensitive," the report noted.


Source: Reuters
 

sky

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i came to india in 1996 and got married,my wife was then 17 and i was 21.It did us no harm,we are still married and have 2 beautiful kids. stupid article?
 
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There are always regular articles coming out to malign Indian society and culture. There was a time when parents wanted to marry their children at a young age it was a part of the culture the younger the couple the healthier their progeny, it was practiced by Hindus,Muslims,Sikhs,Jains,Christians alike as society progresses and we adapt a more western model do we abandon this part of our culture? Even in the west there are facts like this one being if a woman in USA is not married by age 35 she has a 60% chance of staying a spinster(unwed) her whole life.
 

johnee

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You are right, LF. Such articles come out with surprising regularity. They blame India as if the rest of the world is perfect. Look at the american life-style for instance, the divorce rate is extra-ordinarily high, but how many reports come out to comment on the effects of such a rate on individuals, society and future generation. How many reports come out against polygamy practised by Muslims(specially in oil rich nations). Instead, it is India(particularly, Hindus) who are painted negatively all the time.
 

Mohan

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Whats wrong with these guys. They dont know the population size of ours and also we are developing nation and there is huge cultural difference and literacy rate is not 100%. i challenge them whether they can feed 1billion people even one year. And we were under british for a century. They undermine most of the facts.

We are changing and changing people minds takes time.
 

prahladh

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i came to india in 1996 and got married,my wife was then 17 and i was 21.It did us no harm,we are still married and have 2 beautiful kids. stupid article?
Are you suggesting that there is no problem with minors/below-18 getting married just because "you both" are happy ? :help:
 

johnee

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Are you suggesting that there is no problem with minors getting married just because "you both" are happy ? :help:
Maybe he is saying that things are not as black and white as they are represented often!
 
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Whats wrong with these guys. They dont know the population size of ours and also we are developing nation and there is huge cultural difference and literacy rate is not 100%. i challenge them whether they can feed 1billion people even one year. And we were under british for a century. They undermine most of the facts.

We are changing and changing people minds takes time.
do we need to change to please others IMO there is nothing wrong with young age marriages(i did not say child marriages).
 
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salahsiwati

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its not the age problem ,but the engaged thing,most of you guys are arranged marriage/?/?,is that true?
 

Koji

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do we need to change to please others IMO there is nothing wrong with young age marriages(i did not say child marriages).
B/c psychologically they are not mature yet. The last stages of development usually are achieved in the late teens. There also needs to be a limit b/c in many cases it is the husband who is significantly older and the wife still a teenager/child. Many rape cases are the result. It is an evil that needs to be eliminated.

[mod]please stop the use of "b/c", use proper words

thanks.[/mod]
 
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B/c psychologically they are not mature yet. The last stages of development usually are achieved in the late teens. There also needs to be a limit b/c in many cases it is the husband who is significantly older and the wife still a teenager/child. Many rape cases are the result. It is an evil that needs to be eliminated.
In situations like these I agree Koji, but majority of the marriages are teenagers around the same age, that grew up together getting married and they are not forced marriages the bride and groom as well as their families have agreed on the union.
 

Koji

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In situations like these I agree Koji, but majority of the marriages are teenagers around the same age, that grew up together getting married and they are not forced marriages the bride and groom as well as their families have agreed on the union.
Agreed, but a majority in a country of 1.1 billion people still leaves 10's, maybe hundreds of millions of possible sexual abuse cases where young girls can be raped legally by "marriage."

Often times as well, it is not under their consent, but rather that of the parents.
 
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Agreed, but a majority in a country of 1.1 billion people still leaves 10's, maybe hundreds of millions of possible sexual abuse cases where young girls can be raped legally by "marriage."

Often times as well, it is not under their consent, but rather that of the parents.
It is unfortunate but there are these cases, but now with the male/female ratio getting skewed similar to China. Girls are becoming prized usually marrying into well to do families since they have the option picking the boy that the boys side does not have any longer but use to have that created the scenario you mentioned above.
 
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salahsiwati

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In situations like these I agree Koji, but majority of the marriages are teenagers around the same age, that grew up together getting married and they are not forced marriages the bride and groom as well as their families have agreed on the union.
I just google some more details ,"grew up together getting married and they are not forced marriages"is not true ,and give me a break ,i dont know there are so many staff in the marriage ,poor or rich ,religion ,caste,:)>
and it s the first time i feel my back was so cold ,
the bride should pay the money to "marry "the groom,personlly,i like indian style ,its the heavn of men,!!!hoho
http://countrystudies.us/india/86.htm
many others may hurt the feelings ,marry with dog,different religion made the lovers choose the dead way as a result ,etc,,,,so many india news of marriage ,
 
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...g-for-boy-babies-leads-to-bride-shortage.html


India's craving for boy babies leads to bride shortage
Men are paying for the falling sex ratio, reports Rahul Bedi


Published: 12:01AM GMT 07 Mar 2003

For Nachhattar Singh, who recently travelled hundreds of miles from northern India's prosperous Punjab province, to the poorer, eastern region to "buy" his bride, the scarcity of marriageable girls in his district is akin to the shortage of grain in a famine.

Like several of his cousins from the macho Ramdas agricultural belt of Amritsar district, the 28-year-old Sikh farmer gladly paid around Rs10,000 (£280) as the "bride price" to his future in-laws in a poor village in Bihar state and brought home his "prize" somewhat tentatively.

Singh's farming family concurred with his actions, knowing he faced a difficult choice. The grim alternative was bachelorhood and, worse, no sons to inherit his property.

"Punjab's sex ratios left me no alternative but to shop for a bride from wherever I could," Singh said. "At this rate there will be no Punjabi brides left for my sons," he added wistfully and apparently without irony.

In a society that prefers male children, Singh's wife's family too were relieved. They had rid themselves of a liability and were paid for it. But they prayed for their daughter to produce sons for Singh or she would be in trouble, even sent back home to become a drain on their resources for the rest of their lives.

In neighbouring Haryana state, the marriage market is equally dismal, with just 861 females for every 1,000 males compared with Punjab's 793 girls for 1,000 boys.

Balraj Singh, a farmer from Panipat district, 52 miles from Delhi, said that local boys, normally married off at 18, were unable to find brides until they reached their mid-thirties and that they too were buying them from distant Bihar and Bengal states.

Even then, it was not easy for their wives to adjust to life in Haryana, leading to immense problems, he said.

And with galloping unemployment, shrinking land holdings in a predominantly agricultural state and no family responsibilities, Haryana's vagrant bachelors spend their time playing cards, drinking, harassing local females and making a nuisance of themselves. "They have become a social menace," Singh said.

"Polygamy has not been uncommon in Haryana where men will marry twice and even three times to beget a male child," said Mrs Ram Ratri, a local councillor from 40 miles north of Delhi. "I would not be surprised if, due to the shortage of brides, families are forced to revert to the practice of polyandry where one bride is shared by all the family's male members.

"Decades of sex determination tests followed by female foeticide have finally caught up with Punjab and Haryana," said a sociologist in the shared state capital Chandigarh.

The situation will worsen as sex ratios dip further over the next decade, she added. In Fatehgarh Sahib district, 200 miles north of Delhi, for instance, the present male-female ratio is among India's lowest - 754 girls for 1,000 boys. Some villages in the region dominated by Jat Sikh farmers have only 550-600 girls per 1000 males and the disparity is growing.

The falling sex ratio across Punjab prompted the Akal Takht, Sikhism's supreme religious and temporal seat, to issue an edict last year banning female foeticide. But despite a campaign backed by priests, there has been little noticeable effect.

Given their traditional preference for boys, many Punjabis from rural areas view sex-determination tests and abortion of females as a means of family planning and expect the government to reward their efforts.

While the tests, which cost as little as £8, are illegal across India, the law is frequently flouted and clinics offering them abound.

India has a long history of female infanticide: baby girls are poisoned, suffocated, drowned, starved or simply abandoned and left to die. Girls are considered a liability, because of the expensive dowries that have to be paid at their weddings. Even the poorest of peasants is under tremendous peer pressure to organise lavish weddings, often by taking out big loans.

But boys are an asset. Even the most ineligible comes at a premium, commanding a dowry that can extend over years to a steady demand on the girl's family for money and other goods. Refusal to comply often leads to cases of "bride burning", a euphemism for murder, which remains rife.

One population expert said that having fewer women did not mean that their importance or value increased in Punjab and Haryana. On the contrary, brides are frequently subjected to increased domestic violence and abuse, forcibly cloistered inside their homes to cook, keep house and, above all else, produce male offspring.


OLD ARTICLE AND THE SITUATION HAS WORSENED
 

johnee

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I just google some more details ,"grew up together getting married and they are not forced marriages"is not true ,and give me a break ,i dont know there are so many staff in the marriage ,poor or rich ,religion ,caste,:)>
and it s the first time i feel my back was so cold ,
First and foremost, child marriages are not as popular as they are being made out. Secondly, in those cases where they occur, the things are not straight forward. Some times, the families know each other and hence arrange the wedding of their kids, though they do no resume their married life immediately. They wait till they come to right age. In some other times, when the boy and girl come to teenage, boy around 20 and girl around 18, then they are married, these ages are very close to the actual legal age, so no problem in those cases. Poverty is one of the factors in young marriages. But it is not the only factor. All young marriages are not confined to poor families nor do all poor families take the option of young marriages. The operating word here is 'young' not 'child'. When Child marriages happen, more often then not, only the ritual of marriage is conducted, then the newly wed husband and wife live their bachelor life until they come to the right age. Of course, there are cases of wrong treatment of girls. But that must not be exaggeratted.
 

sky

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Are you suggesting that there is no problem with minors/below-18 getting married just because "you both" are happy ? :help:

Every case is diffrent and we should'nt judge everyone by a pre-defined age of when kids's should marry.Do i need to remind you ,its the parents who decide most of the time when there kid's should marry.So parental consent is required and they play a vital role..
 
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salahsiwati

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Every case is diffrent and we should'nt judge everyone by a pre-defined age of when kids's should marry.Do i need to remind you ,its the parents who decide most of the time when there kid's should marry.So parental consent is required and they play a vital role..
is that true ??and it s the basic HR for people ,!!!,you marry a girl basing on the choice of you parents!!!
you use when ,but not who,tat make sense ,if "whu",,,,,,,,,,,,
 

sky

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is that true ??and it s the basic HR for people ,!!!,you marry a girl basing on the choice of you parents!!!
you use when ,but not who,tat make sense ,if "whu",,,,,,,,,,,,
I have read you quote a few time's and still i don't understand fully what your saying.
Me and my wife both had a right to say no, to our arranged marriage,but we liked each other and the rest is history.Every one who i know that has had an arranged marriage ,had the right to say no. I Imagine the same is not true for everyone but time's are changing,for the better.......
 

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