Child marriage-Serious problem faced by the nation

The child marriage menace has been in this country for hundreds of years and despite the efforts made by the social activist, saints and the government not much improvement has been observed. There were reasons for this to begin with and eventually it became a kind of tradition to marry the children at early age. As per the scientist, doctors and researchers early marriages lead to complications and in most cases both the couple suffers. The appropriate age of marriage in our country is eighteen years for girls and twenty one years for the boys. There must have been some scientific and social thought behind this because marriage before this age may not be good as per the health reasons and also for psychological reasons.
When this problem of child marriage could not be handled at social level the government of India enacted a law against this.This act known as Sharda Act that has been in place for many years but not much improvement has been noted. Every year on the occasion of aksya tritiya or akha teez as it is popularly known, many children are forced by their parents to sit for the marriage ceremony which they do not understand at all. The administration does try to stop it but the social pressure is so much that at times they also find themselves helpless in a situation. This problem exists by and large all over the country but one state affected maximum by this is Rajasthan. The successive state governments have tried their level best to control but this continues. It is not only on  this day which was mentioned above but is even prevalent during the year on other auspicious days also.
There are many reasons for the cause and the government and the society should try to tackle those issues first.Initially these were the girls who were considered to be married at a very early age so that the Ghar Ki Laxmi is safe in in-laws house.And the reason of the same may be known to all who are interested in the history of the country. We are aware that when the invaders came to our country they did not take away only the gold, silver and other materialistic things  but also paid no respect to our mothers , sisters and the daughters ,particularly the unmarried girls. They spoiled their life by taking them away to the 'Harams' or even out of the country. The history is full of such incidents where the women of the country were taken away by the invaders as the object of entertainment. Our own people had tremendous respect towards the women folk of our country  in those days and anything wrong done by somebody to them was an insult and the torture to the parents and the family and also to the society. The invaders knew it well and at times they used it to terrorise the people to be on their side. It was then that the parents thought of marrying their daughters at an early age. If the girl was of the age ten or twelve years ,so the boy they would seek will be of nearly the same age.This tradition of child marriage continued even after the invaders were forced to leave the country.
When the government intervened and the social reformers tried to convince the people against child marriage, the average age of marriage went up and in the cities the situation improved. But unfortunately the condition in smaller places and the villages remained almost the same.The reason for that probably is lack of quality education and increased societal pressure. There the girl is still considered a burden on the parents, hence they want to do away with this as early as possible. Another reason cited by them is that if you delay the marriage of the children, then there are less chances of getting a suitable match for the child later. In many cases marriages are fixed by the elders when the children are just born so that you need not to search for that later on.Some of the parents fear that if their son or daughter grow in age then it becomes difficult to find the  match of the right age. The dowry problem also plays a negative role and the people want to be free of this responsibility (sometimes considered as the burden) as early as possible.
To stop it the best remedy may be quality education either free or on a very nominal cost which all can afford. Then there should be some guarantee of employment for all so that the people may not necessarily depend upon others.The expenditure on the marriage should be minimised and in this the wealthy people can play a significant role. The leaders and influencing people should lead by example and here it will be appropriate to mention the example of one of our chief minister's. The marriage ceremony of both his children was kept a low key affair and not many people even knew anything about the family of the in- laws of his children. Not only this he avoids attending those marriage where he feels a lot of money is on display in the form of the variety of food or dowry etc.If all do the same then poor people will not be forced by anybody in the name of the 'dignity'to worry about the money required for dowry or to be spent in the marriage of the child.The awareness campaign by the government and the NGO's can help  a lot in eradicating this system of early marriages.The individuals will have to understand the sanctity of the relationship and act accordingly so that the young couples live a happy and healthy life after the marriage.

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