From Christina Palmer and Ajay Mehta
New DelhiWhile the Indian media and even Hindu extremist organizations react negatively to Indian Tennis star Sania Mirzas becoming bride of Pakistani Cricket star Shoaib Malik and while Indian Intelligence Agency RAW getting the shock of its history due to this unique neptual knot as it was very much active in spreading hatred against Pakistanis and Muslims amongst the Indian general public, India has obtained a new title of being number one in the world that is being worlds number one country where underage girls are married and that too in very early age.
This tag has been awarded to India by non NGO on children Rights or by no media survey but India earned it through the United Nations as the UNICEF exposed this ugly side of the state of affair in secular India, reveal the findings of The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mails findings indicate that more than a third of the worlds child brides are from India, leaving children at an increased risk of exploitation despite the countrys growing modernity and economic wealth, according to a latest UNICEF report.
Nearly 25 million women in India were married in the year 2007 by the age of 18, said the report released on Tuesday, which noted that children in India, Nepal and Pakistan may be engaged or even married before they turned 10.
The Daily Mails findings further indicate that 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, says 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, the report said.
More than half the worlds 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 labour, with more than half in India. Children in the region have also been seriously affected by insurgency and instability, as well as natural disasters.
Trafficking of children for labour, 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.
According to another study, conducted in various parts of India jointly by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH), the prevalence of child marriage remains high, fueling the risks of multiple unwanted pregnancies in less than 24 months, pregnancy terminations and female sterilizations. This Indo-US collaborative study, that analyzed the data collected during the National Family Health Survey III (NFHS), was published online in The Lancet a reputed international medical journal.
The prevalence of child marriage remains unacceptably high, said Dr Donta Balahia, deputy director, NIRRH and co-author of the scientific paper.
The study found that more than one in five girls were married before age of 16, while 2.6 per cent were married before age 13.
The number of girls who got married before turning 18 were significantly more likely to report no contraceptive use before their first childbirth than those who married as adults.
They think they might lose their potency by using contraception, he said. Nearly half 48.4 per cent of girls who were married when minors, reported giving birth before they turned 18. Such women were also more likely to have had repeat childbirths in less than 24 months and to have had three or more childbirths, than those who married after the age of 18, said Dr Balahia adding,
Sterilization rates were higher in the case of underage marriages than those who married as adults.
There was a gender bias in the sterilization percentage, where over 13 per cent women were reported sterilized as against a mere 0.2 per cent men. The authors recommend that existing intervention programmes should be broadened to emphasize contraception other than sterilization, especially among young women. They said such interventions also should include husbands and in-laws, who might have more control on family planning.
The Daily Mails findings indicate that nearly half of Indian brides wed before they are 18-years-old, the legal age for marriage since 1978, a survey by the Lancet medical magazine, carried out from a geographical and social cross-section of Indian society, says that a total of 44.5% were married by the time they were 18. It says that women who were child brides were far more at risk of having unwanted pregnancies. Marriage at a young age carries grave health consequences, it says. Child marriage has serious consequences for national development, stunting education and vocational opportunities for a large sector of the population, says the research paper, led by Anita Raj, a doctor at Boston University School of Public Health in Massachusetts, quoted by a credible international news agency. Researchers collated data from a national family health survey that was carried out between 2005 to 2006 in India. The survey involved 22,807 Indian women who were aged between 20 and 24 at the time of the survey. India first introduced laws against child marriage in 1929 and set the legal age for marriage at 12 years. The legal age for marriage was increased to 18 in 1978. experts say that while the practice of child marriage has slowly diminished, it remains unacceptably high among rural, poor and less educated girls and among those from central or eastern regions of the country who are more vulnerable to the practice.
The survey says:
Child brides are 37% more likely not to have used contraception before their first child was born.
Seven times likelier to have three or more births.
Three times likelier to have a repeat childbirth in less than 24 months.
Fifty percent likelier to have an abortion.
Six times likelier to seek sterilization.
The researchers say that existing policies and Indias economic development gains have failed to help rural and poor populations eradicate child marriages.
They say that the reason why there are such high levels of sterilisation among young brides is because they have had their desired number of children at an earlier age.
But they say it was also indicative of inadequate fertility control, evident from the high numbers of unwanted pregnancies among the women.
They warned that sterilisation could reduce condom use in such couples, which would heighten the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Compared to a similar survey 10 years ago, the child bride proportion has fallen slightly but the Lancet report said the reduction was insufficient.
The Daily Mails findings indicate that in order to check child marriages in the country, the Law Commission, in 2008, proposed that marriages below 18 years of age for both girls and boys should be banned. It proposed that marriages solemnized between individuals below 16 years of age be made void and recommended that registration of marriages should be made compulsory.
While studying the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA), the Commission found that the existing law does not make a child marriage invalid even if its below the age of 15 years. But under the criminal law, Section 375 of the IPC makes it a crime to have sexual relation with a child under the age of 15 years.
Elaborating on the Commissions proposals, the panels member Kirti Uppal said that the panel had proposed that the age for sexual consent should be raised from 15 to 16 years for girls, regardless of marriage. If the proposal is accepted by the Government, consensual sex would invite punishment for those men who have sex with girls under 16 years of age. Even those men who have sex with their minor wives, aged below 16 years, could be booked under the law.
However, this low or these legal reforms could never be implemented due to corrupt bureaucracy and corruption in the legislatures of India which has now resulted into an worldwide embarrassment for both the Indian government and Indian nation.
Sania Mirza; one of the few lucky proper aged brides in India!
This report was originally published by The Daily Mail of Pakistan. It is reproduced here by PakNationalists.com under special arrangement.
P
You need money, and she need a sexxyy guy like u... Rab ne milla di jodi..
