Poverty and insecurity keep child marriage entrenched in Maharashtra’s Marathwada

Child marriage remains a persistent reality in parts of Maharashtra’s drought-prone Marathwada region, where families cite poverty, migration and concerns about girls’ safety, according to The Hindu. The report focuses on families in Beed district and follows Kirti, a teenager who lives with her maternal grandparents. She is distressed by the prospect of marriage and hopes to continue her education.

Her family’s circumstances, however, reflect the pressures that have led generations of women to marry young. Kirti’s grandmother, Suman, said her own mother was married at 13 and that she too was married at the same age. Suman and her husband work as daily-wage labourers and migrate during the sugarcane-crushing season.

Their uncertain income has shaped decisions about their daughters, all of whom Suman said were married before turning 16. Several of those marriages ended in disputes, and the women returned with their children. Kirti’s mother, Chaya, has also returned to her parents’ home periodically and has experienced domestic violence, the report said.

Kirti’s fear of marriage is linked to what she has witnessed. Suman said families face difficult choices when they migrate for work. They cannot always take their daughters with them, she said, but also worry about leaving them alone.

Kirti’s grandfather, Achyut, associated family honour with a girl’s sexual conduct and saw early marriage as a way of transferring responsibility to a husband. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act classifies marriages involving females under 18 or males under 21 as child marriages. The report also notes legal protections under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the POCSO Act.

The Government of India’s Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign aims to reduce child marriage by 10% by 2026 and make India child-marriage-free by 2030.