Childhood is the best time of anyone’s life. A time of life to just play around, have fun and not bother about anything or anyone in the world. What if at an age of growth and development one is tied up into a marriage ceremony? This horrifying tradition is widely followed even today in many parts of our country. Child marriages are being practiced from over ages, where young boys and girls are married to each other or young girls are married to elder men.
There are several reasons for these practices in our country. India stills lacks behind when it comes to gender equality, men are valued more than women and women are treated as burden, so in order to get rid of their burden they get them married at an early age to a man who may be twice or thrice her age. They even feel that marriage is the best way to protect their daughters from sexual assault or even because they may go off track after reaching their teens. Child marriages are even done to strengthen family relations and satisfy the elder’s wants of seeing their grand children married before their death. The other reasons are poverty and illiteracy. India is a poor country where majority of people live a life of misery; they cannot afford the expense of their girl child, so they get them married at an early age. Illiteracy is present in the remote areas of the nation, where majority of people are naive about the exact age of marriage and the consequences the girl may face after marriage.
At an age when children must learn, grow and develop, they are pushed into hell of customs and traditions. The fact behind following such tradition is the ignorant nature of the people, who are unaware of the problems the girl may have to face after marriage. The girl may get pregnant when her body is unable to take up the burden of being a mother leading to her death and even the infant is likely to suffer. Child marriages are more prone to domestic violence and sexual assault and even mental torture as they are incapable to raise their voice against violence.
Only the law cannot put an end to child marriage, the initiative should begin from one’s home. Education is the most powerful tool to eradicate this social evil. Offering education facilities and employment opportunities to young girls and women as well as education to people about the exact age of marriage and sex would help to get rid of this evil from the core. It is rightly said “When a man gets education he educates for himself but when a women gets educated she educates all”.
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