Abstract

Recent legislative developments on child marriage in India come at a time when the national data shows declining prevalence and a shift from child to early marriage. Evidence indicates that poverty and insecurity within patriarchal contexts are the main drivers of early marriage, a fact corroborated by the reported spike in child and early marriage under continuing Covid pandemic. In wake of economic distress, job losses, closure of schools and complete suspension of learning for girls without digital means, the numbers of those in poverty have only increased. Such developments add to the urgency of addressing the underlying conditions that exacerbate the vulnerability of girls to early marriage. Yet, precisely at this juncture, the proposal to raise the marriage age of girls from 18 to 21 years is made.

Drawing on the studies by Partners for Law in Development (PLD) in its series on child marriage and adolescent sexuality, as well as the collaborative work of the National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns (NCAAC) and the wider civil society mobilization in India, the presentation traces the dangers of static child marriage narratives that obscure complex trends, and underplay the role of structural drivers. In national and global policy framing, child marriage discourse increasingly prioritises punitive legislative responses, without equal urgency placed on provisioning of opportunities and resources that expand life choices for girls from marginalized populations. In India and elsewhere, the emphasis on ‘age’ centric outcomes, propel deterrence measures that delay marriage, while diverting attention from welfare obligations to deliver quality education, health care, skill building and livelihood; as well as, safety, mobility, for girls, which are ultimately transformatory. The presentation outlines how the focus on punitive law obscures multiple intersecting concerns as well as structural drivers; it disempowers the young, rendering them more vulnerable to harm.

The speaker 

Madhu Mehra is a feminist lawyer, she heads research and training at Partners for Law in Development (PLD), a women's rights non-profit in India. Her approach to gender and social justice has been to anchor policy and activism within evidence collection and research through genuinely collaborative methods. Her work critiques the predominant reliance on criminalisation at the cost of transformatory victim centric approaches to redress gender based violence and child/ early marriage; whereas her advocacy for sexual justice combines accountability for sexual violence with decriminalisation of adultery and adolescent sexuality and same sex relations. Within PLD, she has led four studies, involving field work and case law analysis, relating to the overlapping themes of early marriage and adolescent sexuality (available here), and is the convenor of the National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns.

The series

This social reproduction seminar series is part of the Laws of Social Reproduction project led by Prof. Prabha Kotiswaran, and based at King's College London and IWWAGE Delhi. For more information about the project or to join the network, please email Prabha.kotiswaran@kcl.ac.uk. The Laws of Social Reproduction project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (under grant agreement No. 772946).