Random Thoughts And Opinions

UNICEF has published a report stating India as the country with highest number of cases of child marriages and also a failure in taking appropriate actions against it. Its not a mistaken fact and we Indians in metropolitan may be hardly aware of the continuation of this evil. Many people have suggested various theories to state the reason for the commencement of this practise. Firstly, study of Indian history and social development has shown that the practices of child marriage had started back in Medieval Era when India was under the control of Delhi Sultanate. During those time and even now the worst and easiest victims of any form of war are the women and the children. The Delhi Sultanate also targeted this strata and wanted to carry out mass conversion of Hindus into Muslims by marrying Indian daughters. This led the parents of the children to marry them off before age to prevent conversion or abduction as then married women were generally left alone.

One more theory is that under the governance of a foreign troop the powerful rulers in India wanted to keep themselves strong by military cooperation and hence maintain mutual faith and trust. A much better way to keep up good relation between the smaller kingdoms was to have relationship between the royal families by marriages and grown up children were obviously supposed to have their own choice and hence a way to succeed in this matter was to marry them when they were too young to chose or refuse to an alliance.

What had started as a safety measure or a way to foster royal ties has changed into a lethal curse for our society. Till date millions of girls in rural ares have children before the age of 16 and that’s a government report. So many more goes unreported and we believe we have come a long way? People in the metropolitans or urban ares have become so disconnected from the facts of rural life in India that the ones who have the power to speak for the poor and suppressed hardly knows where or how to start from.