Dear Editor,
The marriage of underage girls is a blatant violation of human rights as they are married before legal age and are robbed off an opportunity to lead a dignified life. It not only has adverse physical and mental consequences for a girl child, but also perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty. There are several factors that have made this despicable practice widely prevalent across the country – patriarchal set up of the society, orthodox traditions like a girl’s body is the repository of family honour, fear of being ostracised from community, greed for dowry or ‘bride price’ etc.
It is time society changed its attitude towards girls and put the despicable practice of child marriage to an end. There is a need to dismantle the obsolete notions of parentalism that exist across the Indian polity. People need to embrace Government initiatives like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ to fight everyday discrimination faced by girls.
Shreyans Jain
Delhi