Child marriage is one of the oldest social practices in human history, yet in the modern world it remains a harmful violation of human rights, a barrier to development, and a source of lifelong disadvantage — especially for girls and young women. In India, substantial progress has been made in reducing its prevalence over the past two decades, but the practice persists in many communities, often rooted in poverty, patriarchy, and limited access to education. The recent editorial in Deccan Herald underscored a powerful truth: ending child marriage begins with education — not as a slogan, but as a foundational strategy for sustainable change.
Understanding the Scale of the Problem
The incidence of child marriage in India has seen a sharp decline over the past 15 years, according to government health surveys. In 2005-06, nearly half of all girls in India were married before the age of 18. By the period of 2019-21, that proportion had fallen to just over 23 percent. This significant reduction reflects sustained legal efforts, awareness campaigns, and improvements in education and female empowerment. However, a rate of more than one in five girls marrying as children is still far too high for one of the world’s most rapidly developing nations, and it highlights persistent regional, economic, and social disparities.
Child marriage is not only a legal issue but a deeply structural one. When a girl marries as a child, several entrenched patterns of disadvantage immediately take hold: her education is often interrupted or completely halted, she becomes more vulnerable to early pregnancy and its health risks, and her lifelong earning potential and autonomy are sharply diminished. Research from global institutions like UNICEF shows that when children drop out of school to marry or manage a household, they lose vital educational and social opportunities that would enable them to break cycles of poverty and dependence.
Why Education Is Central to Ending Child Marriage
Education is far more than textbook learning — it is both a protective and transformative force in a child’s life. Years of schooling equip girls and boys alike with knowledge about their rights, their bodies, and their futures. They gain skills that open economic opportunities and enhance their capacity to make informed life choices. A substantial body of global evidence underscores that the level of education a girl attains is one of the strongest predictors of the age at which she will marry. Girls who remain in school longer — particularly through secondary education — are dramatically less likely to be married before 18.
Education also builds social networks, expands worldviews, and introduces children to role models and mentors outside narrow family structures. It supports health awareness and reproductive rights, enabling young women to understand and assert control over their bodies and life trajectories. When young women delay marriage and childbearing, they are less likely to experience maternal complications associated with early pregnancies and more likely to participate in the formal economy. These outcomes not only benefit individual girls but also have wider societal effects: economies grow, health costs decline, and communities become more resilient and equitable.
How Education Helps Girls Resist Early Marriage
There are several mechanisms through which education helps delay marriage and empower girls:
Delayed Exposure to Marriage Norms: When girls stay longer in school, mentors and peers widen their horizons beyond traditional expectations. They learn to critique and question norms that place family honor or economic necessity over personal development.
Economic Empowerment: Education enhances future employability and income potential, giving girls and their families alternatives to early marriage as a route to economic security.
Expanded Agency and Decision-Making: Educational environments allow girls to learn negotiation skills, self-advocacy, and critical thinking — capacities that help them assert their choices in life, including about when and whom to marry.
Reduced Vulnerability to Poverty-Driven Decisions: In households facing economic strain, marrying daughters early is sometimes seen as a way to reduce financial burden. Educated girls have stronger prospects for supporting themselves, reducing the perceived economic incentive for early marriage.
UNICEF and other development agencies have identified that universal access to quality secondary education could have one of the single biggest impacts on ending child marriage globally. This is because school attendance is directly linked to delaying marriage and reducing other harmful practices like early pregnancy and child labour.
The Legal Landscape and Structural Supports
In India, child marriage is legally prohibited under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. This law sets the legal age of marriage at 18 for girls and 21 for boys and criminalizes the solemnisation of marriages below these ages. It also empowers courts to annul child marriages and provides mechanisms for protection and rehabilitation of affected girls.
Though powerful on paper, legal prohibition alone is not sufficient. Laws must be accompanied by effective implementation, community participation, economic support to vulnerable families, health services, and educational access, all working together to create an enabling environment. Education is the bedrock of this approach — legal frameworks and policies supporting girls’ schooling reinforce the social message that childhood is a time for growth, learning, and self-discovery, not early marriage.
Social Norms and Cultural Transformation
Legal reforms and educational policies are essential, but they must be accompanied by shifts in community norms and practices. Child marriage is deeply rooted in various social and cultural logics — ideas about family honor, gender roles, and economic pragmatism often have deep historical roots. Tackling these requires community engagement, dialogues led by local leaders, and participation from spiritual, cultural, and grassroots organizations to change minds as well as laws.
Normative change is slow but critical. When families and communities value girls’ education as much as they value sons’ schooling, and when they see girls’ leadership, economic contribution, and voices as essential to collective well-being, the rationale for early marriage loses ground. Sustained community awareness campaigns, peer education groups, and male allyship play an important role in shifting harmful social norms.
Addressing Poverty and Economic Barriers
Child marriage cannot be separated from poverty. Families facing economic hardship sometimes view early marriage as a perceived strategy to reduce financial burden or secure a daughter’s future. Ending child marriage therefore requires tackling economic insecurity, parental lack of education, and gendered poverty traps. Government programmes, such as conditional cash transfers for schooling, targeted scholarships for girls, and livelihood training for families, help create economic alternatives that make delaying marriage more feasible. Initiatives that tie education to financial incentives, such as scholarship schemes or savings plans contingent on school attendance, have shown promising results in reducing early marriages.
Global Perspective: Education as a Protective Force
While this discussion is rooted in the Indian context, the link between child marriage and education is global. Across regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, girls with little or no education are far more likely to become child brides. In some conflict-affected and high-poverty regions, early marriage rates remain stubbornly high, underscoring that education is both a human right and a vital tool for peace and security. Global research shows that if child marriage were eliminated today, countries could see significant gains in health, productivity, and gender equality over the long term, and that secondary education plays a central role in realizing these gains.
Education Beyond Schooling
It’s important to recognise that education goes beyond formal classroom learning. Comprehensive sexuality education, life skills programmes, vocational training, and community dialogue are all facets of an educational ecosystem that equips young people with knowledge about their rights, bodies, relationships, and futures. Such holistic education empowers adolescents — especially girls — to make informed decisions about their lives and resist harmful practices like early marriage. International frameworks on education emphasize how such learning fosters dignity, well-being, and respect for human rights.
What It Will Take to End Child Marriage
Ending child marriage is a multifaceted challenge that demands collective action across sectors and society. The editorial’s central message — that education is where the fight must begin — is not just compelling rhetoric, it’s supported by decades of research and global experience. Education:
widens opportunities for girls to pursue careers, skills, and life choices beyond marriage;
reduces vulnerability to poverty and exploitation;
enhances health, nutrition, and well-being outcomes;
increases girls’ voice in marriage and family decisions; and
strengthens economies and societies by tapping into human talent that would otherwise be suppressed.
But education alone is not a silver bullet. It must be paired with robust legal enforcement, community engagement, economic support, health services including adolescent-friendly care, and sustained political will to challenge harmful norms and empower girls at every level of society.
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