“Every Indian is a citizen of the country first and thereafter only he becomes a member of the religion. When the Act 2006 prohibits child marriage, it supersedes the Muslim personal law, and every citizen of this country is subject to the law of the land, which is Act 2006, irrespective of his or her religion.” (Para 23)

Thus, through this judgment, the bench of Justice P. V. Kunhikrishnan held that a person’s primary standing as a citizen of the nation supersedes their religious beliefs. The Court declared that religion comes second and citizenship first. The Court so observed that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act applies to as well as binds all citizens, irrespective of their religious affiliation—Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, or any other.

In the said 37-paged judgment of the Court, the bench also mentioned to the psychological impact that marriage has on the child, impacting their education, career and lives, making child brides are more vulnerable to domestic violence and abuse. As per the judgement, marrying a child invoking religious texts and norms denies the child the enjoyment of their basic and fundamental rights. The judgment further emphasised upon the duty of every citizen to see that there is no child marriage.

Background of the case:

An FIR had been filed against the petitioners on the complaint made by Integrated Child Development Scheme Officer (ICDS Officer), Vadakkencherry to the Circle Inspector of Police, Vadakkencherry, in which it had been mentioned that a child marriage happened within the jurisdiction of ICDS Alathur Additional on December 30, 2012. The FIR had been registered at the Vadakkencherry Police Station alleging offences punishable under Sections 10 and 11 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

As per the FIR, the 1^st accused had conducted the marriage of his minor daughter with the 2^nd accused as per the religious tenets and rites in Islam. Accused Nos. 3 and 4 are the President and Secretary of Hidayathul Islam Juma Masjid Mahal Committee. The 5th accused is the witness who signed the record regarding the conduct of the marriage. As per the FIR, all the accused were guilty of committing an offence under Sections 10 and 11 of the Prohibition Act.

The present case had reached the Kerala High Court as the petitioners urged the Court to quash proceedings against them for allegedly committing the offence of child marriage punishable under Sections 10 and 11 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Arguments submitted to the Court:

By the petitioners (accused in the FIR) – The petitioners put forth two major arguments. Their first submission was that under Islamic law, a Muslim girl has the ‘Khiyar-ul-bulugh’ or ‘Option of Puberty,’ granting her the right to marry upon reaching puberty, typically at 15 years old. They claimed that the marriage of a minor girl is not considered void, it is voidable at her discretion once she attains puberty. It is stated that Muslim personal law prevails over the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, and any marriages solemnised before or after the said Act is voidable only at the option of the married girl. Therefore, it is contended that a Muslim girl, who has attained puberty, that is 15 years, could marry and such a marriage would not be a void marriage.

The other argument raised by the petitioners was that the birth date of the minor girl in question had been incorrectly noted by the school authorities. Since the parents of the girl were illiterate and came from a very remote and economically backward village, the mistake was not rectified. It was submitted by the petitioners that the 1^st petitioner’s wife delivered his daughter on November 27, 1994, however, the child did not join the school at an appropriate age. Based on the abovementioned circumstances, the petitioners stated that the girl was admitted to the primary school by giving an incorrect date of birth by the school authorities, and therefore, the wrong entry of the date of birth in the school records occurred.

Lastly, the petitioners also highlighted the issue of there being a delay in filing the complaint, which showed that the same was filed with malafide intention. Based on these submissions, the petitioners urged the Court to quash the case against the petitioners.

By the Amicus Curiae- The Amicus Curiae filed a paper book containing the relevant provisions and also all the decisions of different courts, including the Apex Court on this issue of child marriage permitted under personal laws. The crux of the submission of the Amicus Curiae is that when the Act 2006 is in force, the same will override the personal law of the parties. The Public Prosecutor had also supported the argument of the Amicus Curiae and submitted that there is nothing to interfere with the final report.

Observations of the Court:

The bench discussed the objective and provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in detail. Including the important provisions from the 2006 Act, the bench highlighted that the special legislation was brought in response to the mounting calls for strengthening the provisions of the erstwhile Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 by making it more effective and for making the punishment thereunder more stringent so as to eradicate or effectively prevent the evil practice of solemnisation of child marriage in the country.

The bench highlighted that as per Section 1(2) of the Act, the application of the said legislation extends to all citizens of India without and beyond India. Based on this, the bench provided that that the 2006 Act has extra territorial jurisdiction and is applicable to Indian citizens living abroad, regardless of their location. As per the bench, this further clarified that the Act is also applicable to all citizens irrespective of their religion.

“Section 1 (2) of Act 2006 says that, it extends to the whole of India and it applies also to all citizens of India without and beyond India. From the above provision itself it is clear that if a person is a citizen of India, Act 2006 is applicable irrespective of his religion, whether he is a Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, Christian etc. Therefore, from Section 1(2) of Act 2006, it is clear that it extends to the whole of India and it applies also to all citizens of India without and beyond India.” (Para 9)

The Court noted that every citizen, non-governmental organization etc. must inform the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer or Court about any information regarding child marriage.

“So, it is the duty of every citizen of the State to inform the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer if information is received about any child marriage in the State. The citizens of the State should be alert about the above provision and the Child Marriage Prohibition Officers also should be vigilant about their duties and powers as per Act 2006 and Rules 2008.” (Para 15)

The bench further noted that the special law specifies that Judicial Magistrates of the First Class or Metropolitan Magistrates can issue injunctions to prevent child marriages and, under Section 13 of the Act, have suo-moto powers to act on such complaints/information. The Court urged Magistrates to be alert about their powers to take suo moto cognizance on being informed about child marriages.

“Therefore, if any reliable report or information is received about a child marriage, it is the duty of the Judicial Magistrate of First Class/the Metropolitan Magistrate to suo motu take cognizance based on such reliable report or information. There are other procedures also mentioned in Section 13. Therefore, I am of the considered opinion that, all the Magistrate in the State should be vigilant to take cognizance, if any reliable report or information is received about any child marriage.” (Para 18)

The bench additionally pointed to the important role that that print and visual Media can play in spreading awareness regarding the evil of child marriage as well as the laws that exist in India that prohibit child marriages in the country. As per the bench, it is the duty of the print and visual media to publish articles highlighting the evils of child marriage, sharing stories of survivors and victims, creating awareness about the loss and consequences of child marriage, promoting education and empowerment of girls and exposing perpetrators and their actions.

“The visual media should also broadcast documentaries and shows on child marriage, creating public service announcements and awareness campaigns, depicting the negative consequences of child marriage in movies and TV shows, interviewing experts, survivors and activists. The print and visual media should be a platform for voices against child marriage, encouraging public discourse and debate, supporting and amplifying initiatives working towards eradicating child marriage, holding those in power accountable for enforcing laws and policies, educating the public about the physical, emotional and psychological harm caused by child marriage etc.” (Para 19)

Coming to the contentions raised by the petitioners in the present case through which the petitioners have provided that since the personal law of Muslims permits every Mohammedan of sound mind who has attained puberty to enter into a contract of marriage, the provisions of Act 2006 does not apply to Muslims, the Court said that even Mohammedans are not exempted from the applicability of Act 2006.

“I am of the considered opinion that, the provisions of Act 2006, which was subsequently enacted, is applicable to Muslims also as far as child marriage is concerned. This is because of the importance of Act 2006 and also because it is a special Act enacted with a great object. It is true that the Principles of Mahomedan Law by Mulla says that, every Mahomedan of sound mind, who has attained puberty, may enter into a contract of marriage. But, as I observed earlier, every Indian is a citizen of the country first and thereafter only he becomes a member of the religion.” (Para 23)

The bench also clarified that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act would also override the provisions of the Majority Act of 1875. This is because Section 2 of the Majority Act stipulates that the Act does not affect a person’s capacity to act in matters such as marriage, dower, divorce, adoption, and it also specifies that it does not apply to the religion or religious rites of Indian citizens.

In Para 27 of the judgment, the bench went on to state that it is in disagreement with the decisions of the Patna High Court in Md. Idris v. State of Bihar and Others (1980), Punjab and Haryana High Court in Kammu v. State of Haryana (2010), Delhi High Court in Tahra Begum v. State Of Delhi & Ors. (2012) which held that a Muslim girl can marry upon reaching puberty and that such marriages are not considered void.

In regards to the argument raised by the petitioner on the wrong age of the Muslim girl being mentioned in the school register, the bench provided that the Court cannot accept that version of the petitioners and quash the proceedings at this stage as this is a matter of evidence.

“The petitioners are free to adduce evidence on that before the trial court at the appropriate stage and the court concerned will consider the same in accordance with law based on the evidence adduced by the petitioners.” (Para 28)

The third contention raised by the petitioners was that there was a 1½ years’ delay in filing the complaint after the marriage. Upon this, the bench noted that while it was true that there was some delay in filing the complaint, the bench cannot ignore the purpose of Act 2006 which is to eradicate child marriage. Thus, when a citizen, that also a person belonging to Muslim community, submits a complaint stating that there is a child marriage in his religion, the Court cannot reject the same saying that there is a delay in submitting the complaint. With this, the bench rejected the third contention raised by the petitioner.

The bench underlined the detrimental effects of child marriage, pointing out that it violates fundamental human rights and results in the exploitation of minors. It stated that early marriage and pregnancy create health problems for victims of child marriage. The bench further highlighted that child marriage restricts girls’ access to the workforce, forces them to drop out of school, and keeps them in poverty. It was said that child brides are susceptible to emotional and psychological harm from domestic abuse. The bench continued by saying in its judgment that it is the responsibility of every citizen to stop child marriages.

“Let the children study according to their wishes. Let them travel, let them enjoy life and when they attained maturity, let them decide about their marriage. In the modern society, there cannot be any compulsion for marriage. Majority of the girls are interested in studies. Let them study and let them enjoy their life, of course with the blessings of their parents.”

Decision of the Court:

Based on the observations made by the bench as provided herein above, the bench rejected the contentions of the petitioner that their minor daughter can marry upon attaining puberty since she is a Muslim. Accordingly, the Court dismissed the case and stated that the petitioners had not made a case to quash the proceedings.

The complete judgment can be read below:

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The post Kerala HC reiterates that every Indian citizen, regardless of their religion, is bound to adhere to the law prohibiting child marriage appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The police made arrests after they received a complaint at the Mandawali Police Station from the family of the victim.  The harrowing incident occurred on March 20, at the home of a tuition teacher in Pandav Nagar, East Delhi, according to police reports.

The victim was referred to AIIMS for treatment. The following day of the incident on March 24, Delhi Minister Atishi had written a letter to Lt Governor V K Saxena and urged for strong and quick action against the perpetrator of the assault and to provide a safe environment for women in Delhi, “Today I am writing to you not just as a minister, but as a woman who lives in Delhi. Article 239AA of the Constitution gives you the responsibility of police and public order. Kindly ensure that swift and strongest possible action is taken against the perpetrators of this horrendous crime.”

दिल्ली के पांडव नगर इलाक़े में 4-साल की बच्ची के साथ बलात्कार हुआ है। इससे ज़्यादा वीभत्स अपराध क्या हो सकता है?

LG साहब: दिल्ली की महिलाओं और बच्चियों की सुरक्षा आपकी संवैधानिक ज़िम्मेदारी है। इन अपराधियों को तुरंत सज़ा होनी चाहिए, और सख़्त-से-सख़्त सज़ा होनी चाहिए।

एक महिला… pic.twitter.com/N3kwOrYL29

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) March 24, 2024

Following the news of the incident, a huge crowd of hundreds of people had gathered outside the accused’s residence the following day. The crowd started protesting for police action and soon the demonstration turned violent as protesters damaged vehicles in the vicinity.  The Delhi Police had to deploy additional police personnel to maintain law and order.

DCP East Delhi Apoorva Gupta has debunked rumours, and has claimed contrary to rumours saying that the victim’s health is critical, the child is doing well under recovery. Furthermore, on April 1, DCP Gupta told ANI that the local residents of Pandav Nagar had organised a Mahasabha, a public meeting, with the police officials’ presence and told them of their demands. The police have stated that they will consider the demands and undertake all necessary steps in the case.

Ten days after the incident, the ANI reported the name of the alleged rapist as Appu. However, apart from this no other information about the identity of the teacher and accused has not been disclosed by the media so far. It has been observed that if the accused is of a minority community, then the entrenched commercial (especially television and social) media is noted to publish the name of the accused in its reports immediately after an incident which often leads to social media becoming rife with stereotypes about minority groups as a whole. However, no online campaign has followed the incident against the accused in this case.

According to the latest yearly report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released in December 2023 titled Crime in India 2022, crimes reported against women and children have increased exponentially over the years. Around 445,256, cases were registered in 2022 alone for crimes against women, which averaged at about nearly 51 FIRs every hour, as per a report by The Hindu’s Frontline. Meanwhile, cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 have witnessed a huge rise, of about 94 % in the past six years, from 2017 to 2022, according to reports. Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of reported offences under the POCSO Act with 8136 out of 63414 total cases.

In relation to crimes against women, Delhi was ranked at number one among 19 metropolitan cities in India with regards to reported rape cases and fifteen percent of the total cases come from Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi. On a daily average, the city witnessed three rape cases daily and reported having a total of 1,212 registered sexual assault cases.

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The post Four-year-old raped in New Delhi, locals protest and organise public meeting appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Adieu Sheela Barse- Salutes

I was informed last night of the passing on of Sheela Barse. I am fully aware that this name may not mean a lot to the new generation of activists. Law researchers may have heard of her and referred to orders with her name.

But for me, I am feeling a sense of loss. I have not met Sheela for over 30 years and yet I feel I never quite lost touch with her in my heart and mind. Every time I think of or mention juvenile justice, Sheela’s is the name that comes to my mind. I was delighted to find an interview with her in Live Law which was feisty as she has always been. I recall her as I think child labour- because that’s why I got to meet her in 1986!

It is impossible to write on children’s issues without citing Sheela Barse and all her PILs. Her work on women prisoners in the early eighties could be considered path breaking. A simple internet search is enough for that. But like many feisty fighters of peoples rights , she remains unknown to most of the larger public. I doubt that whether my own children or even my spouse recognise the significance of her life, despite their relationship with me. I realised as I spoke to many young activists, they were unable to recall her. How do we make people like Sheela Barse as much a national heritage in the minds of the public she spent her life fighting on behalf of, as the sportspersons and actors or even other ‘celebrities’? My yoga teacher, with whom I was talking about Sheela said, how come we do not know her….our children of course never will. That is so sad indeed!

It was 1986 and the draft child labour law was under way. Rajeev Gandhi was the Prime Minister and P.A Sangma the Labour Minister. The new terms – Prohibition and Regulation were to be added to the amended child labour law. My friend Neera Burra and I met at the Indian Social Institute, Delhi, where we both worked. Neera introduced me to Vasudha Dhagamawar, who had just set up Multiple Action research Group (MARG), and whom I worked with for 10 years. Neera and Walter Fernandes, the Director of Indian Social Institute, were busy with a research project on child labour. I knew nothing on the issue. But, as my first assignment with MARG, I was roped in to coordinate a huge national conference on child labour. I was given an assistant, a typewriter and a room. The mandate of the conference was to argue the draft law.

The luminaries who co-convened this conference were Tara Ali Baig (SOS Children’s Villages), Sharadchandra Gokhale (CASP) and of course Walter Fernandes and Vasudha Dhagamwar. I only remember being totally overawed by them all to begin with. Sadly except for Walter, we have lost all of them.

Among the invitees was Sheela Barse. She was already quite a legend. Even before she arrived there were stories about her – how she had jumped over factory walls in Bhiwandi to discover children working there, travelled alone into ‘dangerous’ spaces and filed cases in court.

When she arrived, she was direct and outspoken – and told off anyone she was unhappy with. She was a tall and imposing woman with a quicksilver mind and oozed confidence and stature. As co-ordinator of the national conference, I was expected to ‘deal’ with her. Anyone can imagine how overwhelming it can be for a 25-year-old to meet such person. I cannot remember, what she was annoyed with, but do recall the feeling of terror when she stamped her feet in irritation!

India would not have had a juvenile justice law had it not been for Sheela Barse who filed for children to be treated differently in criminal cases. She was relentless. (PIL on rights of children in custodial institutions Sheela Barse v. Children’s Aid Society & Maharashtra 1987 AIR 1987 SC 656, (1987) 3 SCC 50; Children below 18 years kept in jail, this Hon’ble Court called for complete information and directed strict compliance Sheela Barse (I) v. UOI (1986) 3 SCC 596; Physically and mentally retarded children and abandoned or destitute children kept in jails. Sheela Barse (II) v. UOI (1986) 3 SCC 632; PIL on behalf of children in police lock-ups (1986) 3 SCC 596 PIL against minor children in jail. Sheela Barse v. UOI (1987) 1 SCC 76; PIL against jailing of mentally ill children in West Bengal. Sheela Barse v. UOI (1993) 4 SCC 204; PIL against lodging delinquent children in regular jails. Sheela Barse v. UOI 25 ACC 370).

She was also one of the early activists to have reported and fought sexual exploitation of children. Remember the Freddy Peats Case in Goa? Her PIL against international organised Child Sex Exploiters Sheela Barse v. Goa & UOI, exposed the pedophilias in India. This led to the prosecution of the foreign perpetrators who were extradited and the German Police Tape recorded her evidence in Frankfurt where she was invited. She was part of drafting of several of the policies and laws in her life time and continued to fight for the causes she so believed in.

I remember you Sheela Barse! You are not forgotten ! zindabad!

Advocate Anurag Bhaskar did this interview on LiveLaw with Barse in 2020

(The author of the blog is Co- Founder and Former Co- Director of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights. I am an Honorary Professor- National Law University, Odisha. Ashoka Fellow. (2003).

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The post Sheela Barse, a gutsy champion for child rights, juvenile justice and rights of women prisoners appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh

In MP’s Ujjain, a 12-year-old child was found unclothed and bleeding after a horrific rape. She had been trying to seek help in this state by going door to door of people’s homes, but nobody reached out to help her. One man even callously shooed her away as she approached him for assistance. These incidents was captured by a CCTV camera on Badnagar road, approximately 15 kilometres from Ujjain in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

The young girl eventually managed to reach an ashram where a priest at the ashram immediately suspected that she had been subjected to sexual violence. He proceeded to quickly covered her with a towel and rushed her to the district hospital where medical examination confirmed that she had been subjected to rape.

Given the seriousness of her injuries, the girl was urgently transferred to a hospital in Indore. When questioned by a senior police officer about her name and address the traumatised child could not answer or speak clearly.

A case of rape has been registered against unidentified perpetrators under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Ujjain’s police chief, Sachin Sharma, has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to identify and apprehend the culprits. The officer also mentioned that the girl could not provide her place of origin however her accent suggested she may be from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh and thus the police has also urged people to come forward with any information that could help in the investigation. 

Mumbai, Maharashtra

In another harrowing incident of violence, an eight-year old was raped in Mumbai’s Jogeshwari area. A 53 year old man has been arrested in relation to the case. According to ANI, the victim and her mother used to live in the same building as the accused. The mother used to leave the child with the accused man when she went out for work.

The child one day complained of the abuse to the mother, who went and lodged a complaint in the local police station. The accused has been charged under Section 376 of the IPC as well as the POCSO Act.

8-year-old girl allegedly raped in Mumbai’s Jogeshwari area. The accused is a 53-year-old man. The accused and the victim lived in the same building and the girl’s mother used to leave the child at the accused’s home while going to work as there was nobody at home to take care of…

— ANI (@ANI) September 27, 2023

Maharashtra continues to lead with the number of POCSO cases that are lying in wait with over 33000 in number. In fact, this is not just unique to the state, but overall a growing number of cases filed under the act have been lying pending – with over 170% increase since 2016 to 2023, according to The Times of India. With this scenario, where does this leave the children of young India? 

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The post Horrifying instances of rape in MP and Mahrashtra, accused booked under POCSO appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 Evolution of laws on child marriage in India

In the late 19^th century, there was emerging opposition from the victim of this practice to mobilise and protest this prevalent social ill as it was contrary to basic human rights. Till the issue of child marriage gained any attention, neither was there any minimum age of marriage nor any point of distinction between “age of marriage” and “age of consent”.

The former refers to the age when the marriage was solemnised according to rights and rituals and the latter mirrors the age at the time of actual consummation of marriage. The effort bore fruit when “Age of Consent Act” was sanctioned in 1860 stipulating minimum age of consent to be 10 years however no minimum age of marriage was introduced.

The minimum age concept was followed by society and rendered its motive futile. The Phulmoni Dasi rape case ¹⁰of 1889 which involved the issue of child marriage and martial rape. This spoke volumes about glaring inequality of age in martial relationship.

The case of Rakhmabai in 1885¹¹ which was instrumental in the drafting of “Age of Consent Act 1891” stipulating minimum age of consent to be 12 years however no minimum age of marriage was introduced. The erstwhile state of Mysore enacted a law¹² in 1894 under which marriage of a girl below 18 to a man more than twice her age was punishable. Yet, again the age of consent was increased to 13 in 1925.

These stark incidents put the spotlight on the issue of child marriage victims, and for the first time, the Child Marriage Restriction Act (CMRA), 1929, was enacted after an intense push by women and men social reformers of that time who wanted the passage of special legislation on child marriage. This law emphasised on the age of marriage to be 14 for girls and 15 for boys.

In 1949, two years after Independence, the age for girls was set at 15 and for boys at 18 then finally in 1978 by a major amendment the age for girls and boys was altered to 18 and 21 respectively.

Though these appeared to be breakthroughs, their societal impact was not felt. The practice persisted unabated for almost 70-80 years after the statute was passed and owing to the vacancy of women in the legislative process, the system of child marriage grew stronger. Their distinct and sensitive needs were never recognised, as their participation in the legislative process was regarded irrelevant. Feminist legal criticism can be advanced to all levels of law formation as well as the legal study of child marriage.

The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 introduced a passive optimistic change by making it a condition for a valid marriage¹³ that “the bridegroom should have completed 21 years of age and the bride must have completed 18 years of age.” The utter futility of the clause was that its violation invited no legal penalty but was inculcated for a social and decorative purpose only.

The uncodified Muslim personal law in India, being a step ahead, did away with the requirement of any certain age but rather links the age of marriage to the age of puberty. One can legitimately get married after being hit by puberty, this is a rather vague consideration as there is not standard age of puberty but in the general terminology, the age is taken as 15.  As an escape route which permits child marriage, it sanctions the concept of ‘khyar ul bulugh’ or the ‘option of puberty’ which is to  either ratify or revoke the child marriage after attaining the age of 18 provided the marriage was not consummated and can be exercised by both genders.

It was only the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which rendered a child marriage void¹⁴ altogether. The conflicting stand of the government while silently approving child marriage under personal laws but declaring the practice void under special marriage law was an indication that culture, tradition, and patriarchal stereotype overweighed science, ethics and social security in the union legislature.

India being largely a religious country most of the marriages are solemnised under personal laws and the special laws are majorly seen as option of the last resort and even at times an object to culminate marriages without parental permission. Marriages under the SMA are not widely recognised but more the exception.

Child rights activists and women’s rights groups achieved some measure of victory when the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 was passed. This was under the UPA-I government.

With this legislation, changes sought under the CMRA were adopted. According to the CMRA, child weddings declared were neither void nor voidable. They have been declared voidable¹⁵ in the PCMA at the discretion of the party who was a child at the time of marriage. The practice has been declared void under certain circumstances¹⁶.

This implies that girls and boys who married as children were vested with the right to petition  the court to get their marriage dissolved. The Act also raised the penalty to up to two years of rigorous incarceration or a fine of up to one lakh rupees, or both¹⁷. The new act did not aim   at doing away with child marriage altogether but rather categorised it and opened avenues for new debates.

Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006: a critique

The Prohibition of child marriage act, 2006 grandly promulgated with great pomp and show claiming to eradicate the evil concept subtly supplements its predecessors and is a sneaking validation of this idea makes me to argue on the following questions.

• Why does Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 render child marriage voidable and not void in the normal course of events?
• Why is Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 gender biased at certain loci?
• How does the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 get along with personal laws?

Under section 3 (i) of PCMA, 2006 a child marriage is rendered voidable at the will of the party who was a child at the time of marriage.

The plea for the same can be registered with the competent court any time before the party who was a child completes two years of attaining majority.

Section 3(ii) If the petitioner is a minor, at the time of filing of the petition, it may be filed through his or her guardian or next friend along with the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer.

The paradox of the entire act lies in its very fundamental, in the benevolent facade of criticising the evil practice of child marriage explicitly it does not altogether render it void but rather voidable in the normal course of events. Clearly, it can be commented that the act is elementarily inefficient, aiming at curbing the social evil without explicitly acknowledging it to be a social evil is just a glittery delusion to evade reality, presenting itself as a social legislation it fails to accost the issue socially. It is insensitive to the real situation and gives no considerations to the plight it inflicts owing to its inefficiency. In a leading case¹⁸ the court observed that¹⁹:

“In other words, a voidable marriage is not invalid. But, at the same time, it cannot be construed stricto sensu that it is a valid marriage as per the classification referred to above. In our considered opinion, so far as the victim of the voidable marriage at whose option the marriage can be annulled is concerned, all rights emanating from a valid marriage will ensure in favour of her / him. But, so far as the other spouse is concerned, the said marriage shall confer only limited rights upon him/her…..”

The irony of the situation lies in the introduction of the concept of child marriage by this act, by this it deems to accept the peril of the social evil and admits that it not evil enough to be scrapped altogether.

In a 2017 Supreme Court Judgement (Independent Thought vs Union of India) a bench of justices M.B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta called it “strange” for the PCMA not to declare child marriage void, while prohibiting and criminalising it.

The court observed²⁰:

“The legislature even made the child marriage a punishable offence by incorporating provision for prosecution and imprisonment of certain persons. At the same time, except in certain circumstances contemplating under Section 12 of the Act, the marriage is treated as voidable. The interplay of this Act with other enactments compounds this anomaly…”

A very popular argument advanced to bolster the concept of voidability is that criminalising and making it entirely illicit under ordinary circumstances will threaten many marriages and will complicate matrimonial relationships, further a social evil like this will eradicate by itself over a period. Drawing a corollary to the same situation, bigamy was also practised in India but with changing times and developing laws it was discarded from the Hindu men rights, also the concept of Triple Talaq was abolished recently in the Shayara Bano case²¹, these instances indicate that to curb a social wrong it must be terminated rather than introducing an option for termination according to personal choice because something which is hazardous should not be allowed to percolate.

The act blatantly fails to consider the fact that child marriage is more prevalent amongst the lower socio-economic strata of the Indian population, where the various factors apart from the immediate become the  justification to solemnise a child marriage disregarding any considerations for health, education, etc. Most of the time the parents convince their children emotionally to get married which end up devastating their lives, now had this been illegal or simply void, fearing the insecure future of the couple especially the girl child the cases would have had reduced immensely. Besides, girls being married off at such an early age mostly lack courage and education to speak up for themselves and many of the times aren’t even acquainted with the fact of having a legal recourse.

The most erroneous and challenging dilemma created by voidability is categorisation of child marriages, the former and the more prevailing one where parents force their children to marry prior to the requisite age, it is criticized at every echelon by the vocalist society but the latter category when children themselves opt for marriage without consent of parents it is at times labelled as the right to love which is wrong because child marriage as a concept is not just a moral wrong but it is a social, physical, educational and vocational wrong whose definition remains unchanged by fitting it into different stencils.

In the case of Amninder Kaur v State of Punjab²² the court declared the marriage as void concluding that the girl who was a minor at the time of marriage was enticed and observed²³

“This Court is flooded with the petitions filed by runaway couples in which the girls, who have just attained the majority, are filing petitions seeking protection for life and liberty allegedly threatened by their parents, who could be seen wailing helplessly and haplessly chasing their daughters in the corridors of this Court, who out of infatuation, are marrying young boys who could hardly provide them any future….”

The judicial stand however has been fluctuating while dealing with elopement cases according to the circumstances and merits of the case, all this is just an outcome of the term voidability because the court is bound to be reasonable and prudent and not read the law literally but pragmatically, for instance in the case of Kawalijeet Kaur v State of Punjab²⁴ the court has observed:

“It is the bounden duty of the State as per the Constitutional obligations casted upon it to protect the life and liberty of every citizen. Right to human life is to be treated on much higher pedestal, regardless of a citizen being minor or a major. The mere fact that petitioner No.2 is not of marriageable age in the present case would not deprive the petitioners of their fundamental right as envisaged in Constitution of India, being citizens of India….”

In yet another judgement²⁵ the court reiterated the need to reconsider and modify the existing laws on child marriages otherwise this so-called practice of social security and surety will ripen into social segregation. The court remarked²⁶:

“The sooner the legislature examines these issues and comes out with a comprehensive and realistic solution, the better, or else courts will be flooded with habeas corpus petitions and judges would be left to deal with broken hearts, weeping daughters, devastated parents and petrified young husbands running for their lives chased by serious criminal cases, when their “sin” is that they fell in love….”

The judiciary has always been critical of the way in which PCMA aims at tackling child marriage and has expressed disenchantment at times.

In another leading judgement²⁷ the court made a sceptical remark about the intention of the government with respect to child marriage:

“It is quite clear from the above that Parliament is not in favour of child marriages per se but is somewhat ambivalent about it. However, Parliament recognizes that although a child marriage is a criminal activity, the reality of life in India is that traditional child marriages do take place and as the studies (referred to above) reveal, it is a harmful practice. Strangely, while prohibiting a child marriage and criminalizing it, a child marriage has not been declared void and what is worse, sexual intercourse within a child marriage is not rape under

the IPC even though it is a punishable offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO)….”

The concept of voidability gives child marriages a subjective tone rather than an objective one, the legislature by this concept seems to accept the violation of human rights and fails miserably to remedy from this disaster which the inefficiency of the state showers upon people. There is an urgent need to reconsider and amend the provisions of this act to buttress the motives of it.

The second segment of this critical analysis focuses on some provisions of the act which explicitly and vocally advocate the stereotypical mindset which is again a product of patriarchal norms and beliefs. The first and the foremost gender differentiation of the act lies in its very foundation as it prescribes a higher marriage age for boys but lower for girls which clearly reflects discrimination, and reason for the same lies in the social bifurcation of gender roles, where men being the economical unit require more time to complete education and mature to maintain a family and women being associated to the household chores mature early which barely does synchronise with the prevailing circumstances as of now.

In the case of Hardev Singh vs Harpreet Kaur²⁸ the Supreme Court pitched:

“although both men and women are deemed to have attained majority at eighteen years of age under other laws, a differential metric has been adopted for the purposes of defining child marriage. A higher age is prescribed for men, based on the prevailing societal notions that the age of eighteen years is insufficient for a boy to attain the desired level of education and economic independence, and that an age gap ought to be maintained between the groom and the bride……”

A comprehensive examination of the bare act revealed some more gender-bigoted elements. For example, Section 9 of the legislation specifies a penalty for a male adult marrying a child.— Anyone, who is a male adult over the age of eighteen, enters into a child marriage is penalised by rigorous imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to one lakh rupees, or both., again Section 11 of the act which talks about the punishment for promoting or permitting solemnisation of child marriages entirely discounts women from any kind of imprisonment. Although, there is a strong reasoning behind such provisions as delineated in a Supreme Court case inferring²⁹:

“Thus, it can be inferred that the intention behind punishing only male adults contracting child marriages is to protect minor young girls from the negative consequences thereof by creating a deterrent effect for prospective grooms who, by virtue of being above eighteen years of age are deemed to have the capacity to opt out of such marriages….”

Though there may be strong moral justification behind the same which is pragmatically true but with the world changing apace this doesn’t seem to fit in anymore and beside judicial scrutiny it requires a legislative amendment. In the above judgement the apex court pronounced a verdict stating that the act does not punish a male between the age range of eighteen to twenty-one for marrying an adult female, this torched light upon the subtle incompetency and necessity of the act, the court observed³⁰:

“The 2006 Act does not make any provision for punishing a female adult who marries a male child. Hence, a literal interpretation of the above provisions of the 2006 Act would mean that if a male aged between the years of eighteen and twenty-one contracts marriage with a female above eighteen years of age, the female adult would not be punished, but it is the male who would be punished for contracting a child marriage, though he himself is a child….”

Preventive measures

There have been a sequence of efforts and attempts to curb the occurrence of child marriage but to end a social evil we need to empower the basic building block of the society that is an individual, innumerable legislation and social drives would be a sheer wastage if the mindset of the society does not change, it is not the laws which bring the change but the people who bring an optimistic change, a legislation is a mere reflection of the society it comes from, the demerits symbolise the limitations of outlook because it is the people who make law and an inverse is unfeasible. Individual actions to prevent child marriages entails:

• Inform the appropriate authorities about any child marriages that occur in your
• Educate your friends, family, and community about the dangers of child
• Take a vow to never participate in any event that encourages child

The crucial government measures aiming at prevention of this social upheaval encompasses the following³⁴.

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development runs the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)’ scheme, which educates women and society at large on gender equality and the negative consequences of child
• The Government of India, in collaboration with police and others has launched CHILDLINE with the short code 1098, a 24X7 telephone emergency outreach service for children in crisis that responds with appropriate interventions to calls for any form of assistance that a child requires, including child marriage
• To deal with the issue of child marriages, The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) runs a variety of programmes in collaboration with relevant parties such as Child Welfare Committees (CWC), police, the Women and Child Development Department, and civil society organisations.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)³⁵ is partnering with India to prevent child marriages and assist the victims. They encourage social change through empowering teenagers and enhancing aid for victims of abuse in their rehabilitation. In 2016, UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched the Global Plan to End Child Marriage. Since 2016, the campaign has reached nearly 14 million adolescent females with life-skills training, comprehensive sexuality education, and school attendance support. UNICEF³⁶ assisted the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)’ initiative in expanding its coverage from 16 to 80 districts, allowing 5.4 million girls and 2.4 million boys to receive access to information, gender-responsive services, and life skill programmes.

These policies will only be effective if there is societal push for change at the individual and community levels. But in the India of 2023, no matter how worrying the statistics are, is it a surprise that child marriage (which are on the increase) is not a priority?

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

– Nelson Mandela

An egalitarian society can be envisioned only when children in India are treated equally. There must be a transition from a superficial feeling of equality to one that is genuine and unwavering. Every single child marriage is a threat to true equality and must thus be avoided.

The trajectory of this study began with the introduction of the topic of child marriage to then position the study within the legal and rights framework. It moved into a discussion of the statistics in India and the laws floating around it. It winds up at suggestions of preventive measures and polices.

Child marriage is a social evil that can harm a female child’s life and health wreaking havoc in her life, as they are unable to endure the stresses and strains of marriage, and it leads to the premature death of such minor mothers. It also showcases the Indian society’s misogynistic attitude.

This menace is depicted in the following lines from a song sung during marriages in Rajasthan³⁷:

“Choti si umariya main parnanaya o babosa, kain main tharoo kario kusoor”

 “Oh father why had you given me off in the marriage at such a tender age, for what sin did I commit.” 

“These lines itself symbolize the mixed pain of leaving the father‟s house and at the same time the anguish as to why was she being married off at such a tender age. Such situation is unprecedented and the inner pain unimaginable. The word „Child Marriage‟ is itself contradictory in itself as one would wonder how marriage and child could go together.”

The severity associated with this violation of human rights is trivial. Law enforcement agencies are unmotivated to take action on this issue. This is visible from the number of cases formally recorded under the Act each year. The obvious disparity between the number of unions and the number of recorded cases³⁸ is the brutal reality.

An article³⁹ published in a newspaper revealed that a study conducted by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation concluded that the conviction rate in child marriage cases in India is “extremely poor” at 10%, at least 96% such cases were pending trial across the country by the end of 2021. This is alarming because with the growing population the inequality shoots which reinforced with such negligent controllable factors would result in rising cases of child wedlock’s, with no fright of accountability it will prosper more.

The more daunting fact is the extent to which this evil has its root despite people being acquainted with the fact that it is legally wrong and even punishable.

In one case the court observed⁴⁰

“Sociologists even argue that for variety of reasons, child marriages are prevalent in many parts of this country and the reality is more complex than what it seems to be. The surprising thing is that almost all communities where this practice is prevalent are well aware of the fact that marrying child is illegal, nay, it is even punishable under the law. NGOs as well as the Government agencies have been working for decades to root out this evil. Yet, the reality is that the evil continues to survive….” 

Social and biological hazards of child marriage are paramount which demand stringent and coinciding laws to deal with it the drawbacks must be considered in the light of changing social circumstances and suitable alterations must be introduced for the desired effectiveness.

In yet another leading case the Supreme Court remarked⁴¹

“The social cost of a child marriage (and therefore of sexual intercourse with a girl child) is itself quite enormous and in the long run might not even be worth it. This is in addition to the economic cost to the country which would be obliged to take care of infants who might be malnourished and sickly; the young mother of the infant might also require medical assistance in most cases. All these costs eventually add up and apparently only for supporting a pernicious practice….”

I have analysed and studied this topic deeply and I humbly pour few suggestions of mine to evade and end this global social wrong.

• The loopholes in the PCMA, 2006 must be immediately discussed and
• In Seema v. Ashwani Kumar⁴², the Supreme Court imposed mandatory marriage registration and directed all state governments to implement laws or guidelines at the state level to enforce it. Although the judgement has been in effect for a decade, its execution is not uniform throughout the states. Each state government must investigate this to verify that every marriage is To ensure that marriages are formally recorded, a severe penalty or a penalty that discourages non-registration must be applied. Marriage registration might be allocated to one officer at the Panchayat level.
• The Children’s Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009 must be properly enforced. The obligatory education age should be raised to 18 years old in order to encourage girls to seek education.
• The government’s numerous programmes to reduce child marriage and postpone the age of marriage must reach the recipients on the ground. The same initiatives must be migrated to the Gram level. Information should be disseminated at the panchayat level and through Anganwadi
• The police and other enforcement authorities must be trained in the value of enhancing vigilance over the incidence of child marriages within their jurisdiction and pushing for the official registration of FIRs so that those responsible for promoting and holding a child marriage do not go
• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should instruct state governments to maintain and submit an annual report on the state’s status of child
• The Central Government must properly allocate funds to states to facilitate programmes to discourage child marriages. In exchange for it, a record of the utilization must be delivered.

The issue of child marriage requires attention and coordinated action. Every single child marriage draws a dispute into the freedom and equality values enshrined in the Constitution of India. It is therefore vital that we make all required efforts and change current structures to explore what can be practically achieved on the ground to build an India free of child marriages.

Concluded Part 2, Evolution of Child Marriage Laws in India, first published in Legal Lock Journal but has been edited here)

(The author is an intern with cjp.org.in)

¹⁰ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phulmoni_Dasi_rape_case.

¹¹ https://blog.forumias.com/rakhmabai-case-of-1884/.

¹² Mysore Infant Marriage Prevention Act, 1894.

¹³ The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, section 5 (iii).

¹⁴ Special Marriage Act, 1954, section 24 (i).

¹⁵ Prohibition of child marriage act, 2006, section 3.

¹⁶ Prohibition of child marriage act, 2006, section 12.

¹⁷ Prohibition of child marriage act, 2006, section

¹⁸ T.Sivakumar vs The Inspector Of Police, AIR 2012 Mad 62 FB.

¹⁹ T.Sivakumar vs The Inspector Of Police, , AIR 2012 Mad 62 FB, Para 24.

²⁰ Independent Thought v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 800.

²¹ Shayara Bano v. Union of India, (2017) 9 SCC 1.

²² Amninder Kaur v State of Punjab, MANU/PH/1115/2009.

²³ Amninder Kaur v State of Punjab, MANU/PH/1115/2009, Para 1.

²⁴ Kawalijeet Kaur v State of Punjab, AIR 2019 P&H 148.

²⁵ Jitender Kumar Sharma v. State, 2010 SCC OnLine Del 2705.

²⁶ Jitender Kumar Sharma v. State, 2010 SCC OnLine Del 2705, Para 26.

²⁷ Independent Thought v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 800.

²⁸ Hardev Singh v. Harpreet Kaur, (2020) 19 SCC 504, Para 7.6.

²⁹ Hardev Singh v. Harpreet Kaur, (2020) 19 SCC 504, Para 7.8.

³⁰ Hardev Singh v. Harpreet Kaur, (2020) 19 SCC 504, Para 7.2.

³⁴https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1796829#:~:text=The%20Government%20has%20ena

cted%20the,connected%20therewith%20or%20incidental%20thereto.

³⁵ https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/.

³⁶ https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-marriage.

³⁷ Court On its own Motion (Lajja Devi) v State & Ors, 2012 SCC OnLine Del 3937.

³⁸ NCRB Data on child marriage.

³⁹ https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/96-child-marriage-cases-pending-trial-across-india- by-2021-rights-body-101664912525692.html.

⁴⁰ Court On its own Motion (Lajja Devi) v State & Ors, 2012 SCC OnLine Del 3937.

⁴¹ Independent Thought v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 800.

⁴² Seema v. Ashwani Kumar, (2008) 1 SCC 180.

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Increase in child marriages, a side effect of Lockdown?

The post The laws against child marriage exist but are not enough appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This expression of Rakhmabai in 1885 is inscribed in the hearts of women and reflects even today. Child marriage, a deeply embedded societal norm, exemplifies severe gender inequality and prejudice, natively an interplay between social and economic reasons it is an alarming global concern and at its core is a string of human rights violation in continuum.

11 states contributed more than 85% of the cases of last decade

The concept of child marriage retains its hold on Indian society, with neither “education” or “development” being an adequate deterrent. A staggering increase of about 50 per cent in the cases of child marriages has been recorded in 2020 over the previous year, according to recent NCRB data. According to the recent National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data of 2020, a total of 785 cases were registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The number of cases registered under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2018 was 501, in 2017 was 395, in 2016 was 326 and in 2015 was 293.

Of the total 3,604 cases registered under the PCM act between 2011 & 2020, 17.2% of the cases were registered in Karnataka alone. With 621 cases registered in the state, the number of cases registered in Karnataka exceeds the total number of cases registered across the country in 2019.

With 514 registered cases, West Bengal accounted for 14.3% of the cases during the ten-year period. Tamil Nadu (480 cases) and Assam (441 cases) accounted for 13.3% and 12.2% of the cases respectively. Together, the four states alone contributed to 57% of the cases registered across the country during 2011 & 2020. Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Kerala, and Odisha registered more than 100 cases each during this period and together accounted for 26.8% of the cases. Altogether, these 11 states contributed to nearly 87% of all the cases in the last decade.

Each of the five south Indian states registered more than 100 cases each. A total of 1,575 cases were registered in the southern states that accounted for nearly 44% of the cases registered at the national level.  No cases were registered in five (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim) out of the total 8 north-eastern states. One case was registered in Meghalaya, 11 cases in Tripura, and 441 cases were registered in Assam during the ten-year period. In other words, 97.4% of the cases registered in the north-east were from Assam alone, while Tripura and Meghalaya accounted 2.4% and 0.2% respectively.

The article below explores the untenability of the custom and the urgent need for institutional attention and reform

The peaking number of child marriage cases in India despite the existence of Child Marriage Restraint Act, necessitated it to implement a new and effective legislation to hinder the evil practise by introducing intense change in the way of dealing with the cause. Hence, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act was enacted in 2006 by the Indian Parliament with the objective of curbing the instances of child marriage in India but the achievement of this act in terms of fulfilling its aim has always been a topic for debate.

The tradition of child marriage had been practiced in India from time immemorial and is righteously viewed as bringing prosperity to the family, protecting, and securing the lives of children, moreover it is viewed as an instrument for evading social stigma, ensuring safety of the girl child and an object to maintain the sexual purity. It is celebrated and labelled as sacred and divine. The practice precipitated misery upon the couple hailing intensely in the long run especially upon the females who were subjected to rough forceful coitus at a tender age.

Child marriage destroys the childhood of the child tampering with their right to health, education, privacy, protection and much more. It affects both the genders in the apt fabricated stereotypical way, for a boy it is an economic obligation and for the girl it is a household obligation in the normal course of events, though there are indicators of decline in the child marriage cases but the bulk of population engaged in such practices is a matter of grave concern demanding serious fortified actions.

Hypotheses

Research asserts that the deficiency in the halt and efficiency in the alarming rate of the child marriage is an outcome of the loopholes in the existent laws to curb the same. It is a product of regressive social norms existing in a still conservative society and is deeply etched in the patriarchal mindset of people. The way of implementation of the laws provides yet another scope for flouting it.

Definition of a child   

According to Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”. ²

 Owing to the diversity of statutes, India has multiple meanings of a child. Under the Indian Majority Act, “Every person domiciled in India shall attain the age of majority on his completing the age of eighteen years and not before”. ³ For this research we are considering the definition of a child as defined under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006⁴, which considers a male below the age of 21 years and a female below the age of 18 years as a child.

Definition of child marriage 

According to the universal norms of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund a child marriage is one which is formally or informally solemnised between parties both or either of which are below the age of 18 years.⁵  The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 insisted on minimum permissible age for marriage for boys as 21 and for girls as 18 and any marriage solemnised in contravention to this age requirement would be coined as ‘child marriage’⁶ not necessarily both of them must be below the intended age but even if a single party were below this age that would suffice the condition of child marriage.

Stark Statistics

The development of Indians in terms of education, lifestyle, social values, etc. has not been a deterrence in this arena, besides this the statistics indicate an unfortunate deviation.

Ostensibly making an appearance of decline this widespread practice is nowhere close to elimination. The UNICEF’s estimate claim that every year around 1.5 million girls under the age of 18 years get married which makes India the home to maximum number of child brides.

According to NFHS⁷ 5⁸, the situation is much worse in rural India, which accounts for 27% of child marriages, while in urban India, underage marriage accounted for 14.7% of marriages. According to the data, 6.8 percent of females aged 15 to 19 were either pregnant or had already reproduced at the time of the study, a small decrease was though recorded from 7.9 percent between 2015 and 2016 in the rural geography. West Bengal, Bihar, and Tripura account for 40% of the child marriages. The positive achievements in this field are too little and too late to be celebrated. Ostensibly making an appearance of decline this widespread practice is nowhere close to elimination.

Roots and Repercussions

The root of this practice lies in the ideals established by the patriarchal society. In India, the general notation where a daughter is counted as a liability and son as an asset marrying off the girl is even equated synonymous to fulfilment of responsibility. The word responsibility, though small it may appear on paper overweighs education, desire, needs, aspiration, health, and uncountable many factors relating to girl in pragmatic reality.

Further there is a strong emphasis on the virginity of brides before marriage and therefore it acts as an instrument for hormonal control satisfying retrograde social standards. Poverty is undoubtedly the most dominant cause leading to child marriage and many a times the younger siblings are married along with the elder on to save funds.

The practice of dowry is yet another social ill that encourages the practice of child marriage. In a society where “well-educated and competent” men desire larger amounts of dowry, impoverished parents, simply to evade excessive dowry and execute the responsibility of marrying daughters, often marry young girls to incompetent partners. Marriage is unfortunately presumed to provide stability and safety to women and fearing the mounting crimes against girls and women, parents find it easier and “safe” to marry them off and do away with their duty. The irony behind this being that rather than focusing on making the girl child/ young woman independent, a conservative society ensures every step possible to make her dependent on the other gender in the misguided understanding that this is necessary for her own advantage.

The repercussions of child marriage adversely affect both genders and impacts various spheres of their, social, cultural, educational life.

The Right to a Safe and Secure Childhood is lost: child marriage destroys childhood compelling both partners to act as adults in the normal course of events undertaking responsibility and standard gender roles.

Right to Education is lost: Barely do educated people support child marriage and those who do are majorly the ones having a patriarchal mindset who believe in confining the girl child to the boundaries of household chores, and for the boy’s marriage offers distraction affecting their education.

Right to Health is lost: there is a high probability of coitus at an immature age subjecting them to ill effects on body such as early pregnancy and exposing them to range of physical ailments.

Right to Autonomy is Lost: privacy, independence, overall development is done for by this evil.

Domestic Violence and Abuse: it is the most common outcome of this practice that hardly requires an elaboration, forceful sexual intercourse at a tender age, physical, mental, and economic abuse are the basic characteristics of it. 

Categorisation of child marriage

Indian law is clear when it categorises and classifies child marriages into void, voidable and valid. Indian social perspective categorises it into two branches. A couple of lines from the verdict in the case of Jitender Kumar Sharma v. State⁹, can be quoted for a better understanding of the same.

“We would like to point out that the expression “child marriage” is a compendious one. It includes not only those marriages where parents force their children and particularly their daughters to get married at very young ages but also those marriages which are contracted by the minor or minors themselves without the consent of their parents. Are both these kinds of marriages to be treated alike? In the former kind, the parents’ consent but not the minor who is forced into matrimony whereas in the latter kind of marriage the minor of his or her own accord enters into matrimony, either by running away from home or by keeping the alliance secret…”

The first type is where the parents are the driving force behind the marriage and the children are either not mature enough to understand the repercussions of the ceremony or sometimes despite understanding they are not able to evade it. Often, due of lack of courage to go against an enforced practice or due to social vulnerabilities when they may be against it but their verbal protests are subdued by their own family members and they are pushed into marriages.

The second type is where the children themselves opt for marriage, with or without the consent of the parent. The former kind is clearly a scourge as it shuts out the development of children and is an affront to their individualities, personalities, dignity and, most of all, life, and liberty. The working of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 along with the personal laws has been quite clear and in most of the cases the former being a special social legislation prevails over personal laws and has an overriding effect. In the case of Abdul Khader vs K. Pechiammal court observed³¹

 “It is manifestly clear that this Act is secular in nature which has crossed all barriers of personal laws. Thus, irrespective of the personal laws, under this Act, child marriages are prohibited….”

The Delhi High Court ruled in a 2012 decision, Mrs. Tahra Begum V. State of Delhi & Ors. ³², that the ‘choice of puberty’ or khiyar-ul-bulugh must apply in accordance with the PCMA. In this case, the minor girl was desirous of living with her husband instead of her parents. The court affirmed her agency and choice, despite her age and minority status.

The Delhi High Court in Jitender Kumar Sharma V. State³³ and Another, held that the PCMA is in fact a secular law and has an overriding effect over personal laws. Further, with respect to the application of section 12, the court read Sections 6 and 14 of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act and presented a tolerant view where it held that the girl is capable enough for deciding for herself and hence, cannot be forced into living with her parents or in a Nari Niketan.

The judiciary has been crystal clear with respect to the implementation of PCMA, 2006 when personal laws are involved and the above judgements make it all the way more evident that PCMA, 2006 finds an edge to the personal law and has superseding powers. The stand of the judiciary can be said to be very wise considering the religious atmosphere prevalent in the Indian society. Most of the child marriage are performed under personal laws and to curb the same having a special legislation that proceeds above them was a necessity.

The people need to understand that not all practices prevalent in society were meant for the upliftment of the people. With time some of them were needed to be changed. Child Marriage is one such practice that should be stopped at any cost. It might register protest, and many may think that their religion is tampered with but resentment can never overweigh the plight it could render on the young generation and there is a shimmering hope that with the passage child marriage will cease and the mindset of people advocating for this evil would change too.

To be continued, Part 2, Evolution of Child Marriage Laws in India, first published in Legal Lock Journal but has been edited here)

(The author is an intern with cjp.org.in)

¹ https://scalar.lehigh.edu/…/infant-marriage-and-enforced-widowhood-rukhmabai-june-1885.

² Convention on the Rights of the Child [G.A. Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989].

³ Indian Majority Act, 1875, section 3(1).

⁴ Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, section 2(a).

⁵ https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/.

⁶ Prohibition of child marriage act, 2006, section 2(b).

⁷ National Family Health Survey report published by ministry of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

⁸ https://india.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/analytical_series_1_-_child_marriage_in_india_-

_insights_from_nfhs-5_final_0.pdf.

⁹ Jitender Kumar Sharma v. State, 2010 SCC Online Del 2705, Para 25

³¹ Abdul Khader vs K.Pechiammal, MANU/TN/0934/2015.

³² Tahra Begum v. State of Delhi, 2012 SCC Online Del 2714.

³³ Jitender Kumar Sharma v. State, 2010 SCC Online Del 2705.

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25 million child marriages averted in the past decade: UNICEF

The post Unveiling the Harsh Truth of Child Marriage in India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“Keep rice… incense ready stocked in your homes… for last rites. If you want to live in our land you need to live within the limits of discipline… or else…” a basic translation of what a little boy sitting on the shoulders of a man is chanting/ singing, as an anthem at a march called by the Popular Front of India (PFI).

The video showing the small boy raising hate slogans in a PFI rally in Alappuzha, Kerala, has since gone viral on social media. While any such hateful communal slogans need to be condemned by all, this video is now also being shared by the right wing ecosystem as being a ‘threat’ to the community and a preview of ‘Kerala turning into Kashmir’… further stoking communal sentiments. 

According to a report in The News Minute, the march/rally was held as part of the Jana Maha Sammelanam in Alappuzha on Saturday May 21. The young boy has the PFI flag draped around him, while he ‘leads’ the provocative slogans, repeated by the adults around him. The slogans, seen in two videos, according to TNM, “are mostly directed towards ‘sanghis’, asking them to live ‘properly’ or they will have to get ready for their final rites” Many social media users have also said the slogans refer to items used in funeral rites of Hindus, and Christians, and the slogans are thus a ‘threat’ or ‘warning’ as well. According to news reports, police told the media “a preliminary investigation is underway but no case has been registered so far.”

Meanwhile, the PFI state secretary CA Raoof, reported TNK, circulated “an internal note”, to the media stating, “We have given approved slogans which were to be raised in the public rally at Alappuzha. Thousands of party workers and others joined the rally protesting against the RSS. The visual of a boy raising slogans came to our notice now. Those slogans were not approved or given by the organisers of the rally. It’s not the policy of the organisation to provoke or raise provocative slogans.” 

However, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has now taken notice of the issue and sought registration of an FIR against those responsible for allegedly letting a child raise provocative slogans during the rally. In a letter to the Kerala police chief, NCPCR said that it has received a complaint over the child shouting slogans in Malayalam.

केरल के अल्लेप्पी में PFI द्वारा नाबालिगों से अराजक नारे लगवाने व ग़ैरकानूनी रूप से दुरुपयोग किए जाने के मामले का संज्ञान लिया गया है।
कृपया बच्चों का विडीओ,चित्र व पहचान किसी भी रूप में पोस्ट एवं share न करें।

— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (@KanoongoPriyank) May 24, 2022

According to news reports, a complainant told NCPCR, that the PFI flag “is clearly seen in the video,” and also accused Kerala police of “not taking any action against the parents of the child and the PFI.” The NCPCR reportedly wrote to the Director General of Police (DGP) saying, “The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the PFI are using children to spread hatred, enmity and communal violence in the country,” adding that this violated Section 75 and Section 83 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The commission stated, “In view of the sensitivity of the matter, it is requested that your good offices may kindly look into the matter and initiate necessary inquiry to ensure the welfare and safety of children, by lodging an FIR at the first instance, under Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.” According to news reports, the NCPCR has asked Kerala police for an action taken report, and a fact-finding enquiry report, within seven days of receipt of the letter.

Justice P Gopinath of Kerala High Court had on Monday, two days after the PFI rally had observed while hearing a batch of POCSO cases that children “do not have the legal right to vote or even drive till they are 18. Under the guise of freedom of speech and religion, can they be made to be a part of political rallies or religious rallies? I just want to know whether there is any law which prohibits this.” 

According to a Bar and Bench report, Justice Gopinath, said at a casual exchange with the Bar, that he had seen a “provocative” video of a child “spewing hatred” at a political rally, and said, “Children being forced to take part in political rallies and being made to voice all sorts of provocative slogans. That is some new kind of attraction it seems. How far is that legal?” The judge asked if this was “not fostering a new generation that grows up with this religious hatred in mind? I was just wondering about the fact that when this child grows and he becomes a major, his mind will already be conditioned to this kind of rhetoric. Something must be done.”

Justice Gopinath said, “Children must be totally prohibited from taking part in these rallies, sloganeering etc. Using them like this should not be okay. They do not have the legal right to vote or even drive till they are 18. Under the guise of freedom of speech and religion, can they be made to be a part of political rallies or religious rallies? He does not know what he is saying.”

Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has expressed shock at the incident saying, “Hate speech and intimidating slogans are deplorable irrespective of the politics behind them or the religion of those using them. Opposing communalism means opposing the communalism of all sides. I unequivocally condemn the threatening and communally charged slogans raised in the PFI rally held in Alappuzha.I urge the state government to take strong action against such miscreants.”

Related:

Hate Watch: Propaganda website Kreately, was first to mock ‘Shivling’

Ubriddled hate and Islamophobia on display at RSS event

When and How Ram Vilas Paswan made a strong pitch for the Places of Worship Act, 1991

Filmmaker Avinash Das booked for sharing picture of Amit Shah with arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal

The post Using children to chant communal hate slogans fosters hate  appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Horrific details of the Dalit child’s rape and murder in a Delhi crematorium by Radhey Shyam, the priest have emerged, as has news of another child being raped in Rajasthan. However, the massive reaction, political and public, that such crimes typically evoke, are missing. 

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s Crime in India 2020 report a whopping 1.28+ lakh cases of crime against children were registered in 2020, and the number of victims was close to 1.34 lakh. According to the report, “Major crime heads under ‘Crime Against Children’ during 2020 were Kidnapping & Abduction (42.6%) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (38.8%) including child rape.”

In 2021 one of the most horrific cases that made it to the news was that of the nine-year-old Dalit girl who was raped, killed and cremated, by the priest in charge of the cremation ground near the Delhi cantonment area on August 1, 2021. The case received social media attention when prominent leaders like Azad Samaj Party’s Chandra Shekhar Azad and Congress’s Rahul Gandhi condemned the incident. However, it was the locals who had begun the protest after the girl’s mother had brought Purana Nangal villagers to the cremation grounds on learning about her child’s death. The accused priest Radhey Shyam (55), and three others Kuldeep Singh (63), Laxmi Narayan (48), and Salim Ahmed (49), were arrested.

Now the police chargesheet filed in the case has brought forth horrific details of the crime, and put on record that the priest had sexualy molested the child on earlier occassions too. According to the Indian Express citing police chargesheet, “Radhey Shyam told police that on August 2, he spotted the girl, who, he claimed, used to visit the crematorium to drink water and sometimes bathe” adding that he had previously forced the child to give him massages, showed her pornographic content and had “touched her… in the past”.

On the fateful day, he once again “asked the girl for a massage,” and his associate Kuldeep “suggested that they sexually assault the child”. The two took turns to rape  the child, who according to the police then “died due to suffocation while being sexually assaulted.” It was then that the two attackers were “rattled after she stopped breathing” and then told the parents that she died of electrocution, reported IE. The crematorium priest Shyam then allegedly told her that her “daughter’s organs would be removed during the postmortem procedure” to scare here away from complaining to the police, stated the news report, adding that the accused also allegedly “offered the child’s mother Rs 20,000 and offered to cremate the body for free.” The chargesheet stated that “the accused asked Salim to return to the crematorium and, even as the mother kept saying no, Shyam asked Narayan and Salim to prepare the pyre. Shyam took Kuldeep’s help to place the body on the pyre and set it on fire.”

Nearly two months have passed since the nine-year-old girl from the Valmiki community was sexually assaulted and forcefully cremated. The ‘rage’ seems to have dissipated, despite parallels drawn with the Hathras case that shook India last year. Meanwhile, children continue to be raped, and killed.

The latest horror has been reported from Nagaur in Rajasthan, where a seven-year-old girl was raped and killed. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the police have arrested the  20-year-old man who was last seen with the girl by some villagers. According to the report the man, who was known to the child abducted her, took her to a secluded place and raped her. The court remanded the accused to police custody on Wednesday, stated the news report. According to the police, the child was “last seen playing near her home on Monday and when they realised she was missing, the family informed the police by 9 P.M. Her body was found in nearby fields at 3 A.M.” The man accused was the one last seen with the girl, and was arrested. According to police the accused was “drunk when he was arrested” he has been “booked for kidnap, rape and murder”. Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal has demanded strict action against the accused.

श्री @ashokgehlot51 जी,नागौर जिले के पादु कल्ला क्षेत्र के ग्राम केरिया माकड़ा में 7 वर्ष की मासूम की दुष्कर्म के बाद हत्या कर दी गई,आरोपी के विरुद्घ कठोरतम कानूनी कार्यवाही करने के साथ मासूम के परिजनों को 25 लाख की आर्थिक सहायता देने हेतु निर्देश जारी करावें !

— HANUMAN BENIWAL (@hanumanbeniwal) September 21, 2021

Related:

Delhi: Women’s group calls upon media to cover the ire of Nangal villagers

Delhi Cantonment rape case: AIDWA demands action against police for alleged ‘silent complicity’

Nangal village gang-rape, both gendered and caste-based violence: Civil Society Organisations

And now, Hathras-like horror in Delhi!

The post Over 1.28 lakh cases of crime against children in 2020, yet there is eerie silence on issue  appeared first on SabrangIndia.

We give our children loving care, but it makes no sense to do so unless we do everything in our power to give them a future world in which they can survive. We also have a duty to our grandchildren, and to all future generations.

Today we are faced with the threat of an environmental megacatastrophe, of which the danger of catastrophic climate change is a part. We also face the threat of an all-destroying nuclear war.

Finally, because of population growth, the effect of climate change on agriculture, and the end of the fossil fuel era, there is a danger that by the middle of the present century a very large-scale famine could take the lives of as many as a billion people.

We owe it to our children to take urgent action to prevent these threats from becoming future realities. We must also act with dedication to save our children from other social ills that currently prevent their lives from developing in a happy and optimal way, for example child labor, child slavery, starvation, preventable disease and lack of education. These, too, are threats to our children’s future.

The climate emergency: Urgent action is needed

The annual Emissions Gap report from the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP), released on November 26, 2019,  warned that nations’ commitments under the Paris climate accord – from which U.S. President Donald Trump began formally withdrawing this month – are not nearly sufficient to bring about the widespread changes needed to avert climate catastrophe.

The report stated that global temperatures are on track to rise as much as 3.2$^o$C by the end of the century, meaning only drastic and unprecedented emissions reductions can stave off the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis. What is needed, according to the report, is a complete halt in the production of fossil fuels.

Renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels, so the transition to renewables could be driven by economic forces alone, if governments worldwide would stop their sponsorship of fossil fuel industries, to which they currently give enormous tax benefits and other subsidies.

Other urgently needed actions are a halt to deforestation, combined with massive reforestation, substitution of other building materials for cement, better climate coverage in the mass media, abandonment of growth-oriented economic goals, shift to more plant-based diet, and deep cuts in military activities.

We must rid the world of nuclear weapons

A Treaty banning nuclear weapons was adopted by an overwhelming majority vote on the floor of the UN General Assembly, following the precedent set by the Arms Trade Treaty. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was passed on 7 July, 2017. It prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance and encouragement to the prohibited activities. For nuclear armed states joining the treaty, it provides for a time-bound framework for negotiations leading to the verified and irreversible elimination of its nuclear weapons programme.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) campaigned vigorously for the adoption of the Treaty, and was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts. Although bitterly opposed by nuclear weapons states, the Treaty has great normative value, and one fervently hopes that the force of public opinion will eventually force all governments to give their citizens what the vast majority long for: a nuclear-weapon-free world.

It is generally agreed that a full-scale nuclear war would have disastrous effects, not only on belligerent nations but also on neutral countries. As long as there are nations that possess nuclear weapons, there is a danger that they will be used, either deliberately or through a technical or human error, or through unconcontrollable escalation of a conflict. Only a nuclear-free world will be safe for our children and the biosphere.

We must address the threat of widespread famine

As glaciers melt in the Himalayas, depriving India and China of summer water supplies; as sea levels rise, drowning the fertile rice fields of Viet Nam and Bangladesh; as drought threatens the productivity of grain-producing regions of North America; and as the end of the fossil fuel era impacts modern high-yield agriculture, there is a threat of wide-spread famine. There is a danger that the 1.5 billion people who are undernourished today will not survive an even more food-scarce future.

People threatened with famine will become refugees, desperately seeking entry into countries where food shortages are less acute. Wars, such as those currently waged in the Middle East, will add to the problem.

What can we do to avoid this crisis, or at least to reduce its severity? We must urgently address the problem of climate change; and we must shift money from military expenditure to the support of birth control programs and agricultural research. We must also replace the institution of war by a system of effective global governance and enforcible international laws.

We must eliminate child labor and child slavery

Worldwide 10 million children are in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labor, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities, according to the International Labor Organization, (ILO). 151.6 million are estimated to be in child labor (ILO). 114 million child laborers are below the age of 14 (ILO). 72 million children are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development (ILO). More than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. More than one in three (about 250 million) entered into union before age 15 (UNICEF). 300,000 children are estimated to serve as child soldiers, some even younger than 10 years old (UNICEF). 15.5 million children are in domestic work worldwide – the overwhelming majority of them are girls (ILO).

Child labor is undesirable because it prevents children from receiving an education. Furthermore, when parents regard their children as a source of labor or income, it motivates the to have very large families, and our finite earth, unlimited growth of population is a logical impossibility. Population growth increases the threat of large-scale famine as well as ecological catastrophe.

Child slavery is unacceptable, as is any form of slavery. Forced marriage, and very early marriage of girls as young as 9 in some countries are also unacceptable practices. The international community has a duty to see that existing laws against these practices are enforced.

We must reduce starvation and preventable disease

According to a recent report published by the World Health Organization, in 2018 alone, 15,000 children died per day before reaching their fifth birthday. A WHO spokesman said, “It is especially unacceptable that these children and young adolescents died largely of preventable or treatable causes like infectious diseases and injuries when we have the means to prevent these deaths,” the authors write in the introduction to the report. The global under-five mortality rate fell to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018, down from 76 in 2000 – a 49% decline.

“Despite advances in fighting childhood illnesses, infectious diseases remain a leading cause of death for children under the age of 5, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia,” says the report. Pneumonia remains the leading cause of death globally among children under the age of 5, accounting for 15% of deaths. Diarrhoea (8%) and malaria (5%), together with pneumonia, accounted for almost a third of global under-five deaths in 2018. “Malnourished children, particularly those with severe acute malnutrition, have a higher risk of death from these common childhood illnesses. Nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45 per cent of deaths in children under 5 years of age,” warns the report. The estimates also show vast inequalities worldwide, with women and children in sub-Saharan Africa facing a higher risk of death than in all other regions. Level of maternal deaths are nearly 50 times higher for women in sub-Saharan Africa compared to high-income countries. In 2018, 1 in 13 children in sub-Saharan Africa died before their fifth birthday – this is 15 times higher than the risk a child faces in Europe, where just 1 in 196 children aged less than 5 die.

We must provide universal reformed education

Illiteracy in the less developed countries exceeded that of the developed ones by a factor of ten in 1970. By 2000, this factor had increased to approximately 20. As our economies become more knowledge-based, education has become more and more important.

Besides universal education, educational reforms are urgently needed, particularly in the teaching of history. As it is taught today, history is a chronicle of power struggles and war, told from a biased national standpoint. Our own race or religion is superior; our own country is always heroic and in the right.

We urgently need to replace this indoctrination in chauvinism by a reformed view of history, where the slow development of human culture is described, giving adequate credit to all who have contributed.

The teaching of other topics, such as economics, should be reformed. Economics must be given both a social conscience and an ecological conscience. The mantra of growth must be abandoned, and the climate emergency must be addressed.

Childhood should be a time of joy

Children’s play is not a waste of time. Children at play are learning skills that they will use later in their lives. Let us allow our children to play and learn, while we work to give them a secure future world. Let us give our children, not predominantly material goods, but rather the love, happiness and future that they deserve.

A new freely downloadable book

I would like to announce the publication of a book, which examines the steps that we must take to give our children and their children a world in which thet can survive. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:

http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Our-Childrens-Future-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

Other books and articles about  global problems are on these links

http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/

https://wsimag.com/authors/716-john-scales-avery

The post Our children’s future appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The incident where the video was shot took place at Salai Banwa Primary School in the Salaibanwa area of Kota village in Sonbhadra. According to the mid-day meal (MDM) menu prescribed by the Uttar Pradesh government, the school children are supposed to be served tehri (rice) with milk.

The school’s head Shailesh Kanaujia washed his hands of the incident. In a statement, he said, “There are 171 children enrolled in the school,” he said. “Eighty-one children were present on that day. I have the responsibility to look after two schools. Milk had to be arranged for both schools and I could not monitor the quantity of milk that reached government primary school in Salai Banwa. The cook was provided the milk, which was distributed among the children and they drank it.”

The area’s Block Education Officer Mukesh Rai said that he received information from locals that water was added to the milk and served to the children. He said a probe had been ordered into the incident and strict action will be taken so that such instances are never repeated in future.

The Basic Shiksha Adhikari Gorakhnath Patel reportedly said, “Such laxity will not be tolerated. A probe has been ordered into the matter. A team of Education Department officials will conduct a probe and submit a report within two days. Strict action will be taken against whosoever is found guilty in the probe.”

India Today reported that since the video showing milk adulteration went viral, an FIR has been lodged against the Shiksha Mitra Jitendra while a teacher of the school has been suspended.

This incident comes months after a government primary school in UP’s Mirzapur was found serving salt-roti and salt-rice to children in the name of mid-day meals. The locals had alleged that they were told milk would be distributed to the school, but it was never served to the children.

In September 2019, at least 28 workers from three districts (Rae Bareli, Kannauj and Pratapgarh) in Uttar Pradesh were booked for selling MDM food for cash. Raids led to the recovery of large quantities of food grain meant for the scheme in the warehouse of a private trader in Rae Bareli. About 155 bags of children’s meals (about 9,300 kilos) were found at an animal fodder godown in the Salon block of Rae Bareli. Initial investigation revealed that the nutritional meals were to be distributed in anganwadis of Pratapgarh’s Rampur Khaas and other areas. But instead, it was kept in godowns and illegally sold to people.

The HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank told the Lok Sabha last week that the most number of complaints about MDM was reported from Uttar Pradesh at 14 of 52. In the funds released by the Centre for MDM Scheme, Uttar Pradesh received the highest amount, at about Rs. 11.2 billion.

Related:

All is not well for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India
Assam Midday Meal workers protest outside education minister’s residence
Akshaya Patra imposing vegetarian food mono culture on children

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