Hello and welcome to an ND TV Special Child marriage Free India. I'm Rishika Bwa. Did you know that a staggering one third of child marriages globally happen here in India? A UNICEF report says that every year 1.5 million girls are married off before they turn 18, and that if the progress of the past 10 years doubles, child marriage can be reduced to 1% in India, but only by 2050. But the Child Marriage Free India campaign has found that if there is a sustained focus just on 275 focus districts where the practise is in high prevalence, child marriage can actually be eliminated by 2030. That is 20 years before the UNICEF's projection that will save 30 million girls from becoming a generation lost to child marriage. But how will all of this happen? That is what this book that we're going to discuss today when Children have Children is essentially telling us. Joining us in the ND TV Studios is child rights activist Van Ribo, the author of this book. Thank you very much for being with us in the ND TV studios. You know, before we get into this discussion. I have to first show our viewers. This is a copy of the book. This is what it looks like. It has an absolutely stellar image at the cover of this book. So tell us a little bit. Uh, before we begin on this, uh, you know, on the story behind this image? Uh, well, about 20 years ago, in 2004, I was travelling in Nepal, and I found this child who had a baby on her back. And it was a beautiful day, and she looked like an angel. She looked angelic, and I stopped the car, and I just spoke to her for a few minutes, took a couple of pictures and then went on, Uh, it just so happened that a few years later we were demanding a fundamental right to education in Nepal, and we were running a campaign for that. And, uh uh, as a precursor of that campaign, we were running some pilot projects, uh, providing education to Children in Midwestern Nepal. And we found a few Children who had joined that campaign, uh, from their school. And I found the same child who was carrying a bag now instead of a baby. And that, to me really portrays what the fight against child marriage is all about. She got another chance and let us all resolve together to get the same chance that that image is is at the back of that is at the back of the This is the image. So it's it's It's essentially from this to this. From this to this. Yes. Well, what a beautiful story, indeed. Uh, you know this this book, if I can just ask you it's been a significant step in a child marriage free India, uh, so to speak. But before telling us more about what's in the book, if you could just tell us why you needed the book Child Marriage free. India is a dream. It's a vision. And it is a reality that we can just see now in a few years time. There are over 1.5 million girls who are married every year in India, at the very least, which means that in the time that we have spoken every minute, if three girls are getting married, uh, maybe 30 Children have been married on an average these Children face violence. They face crimes. They are trafficked. They are made to bear Children. Child marriage is one of the biggest reasons for child mortality. Uh, a lot of Children are dying because the mothers who are giving birth to these Children are also Children. In fact, one of the starting points of this book has been a lady with whom I spoke and realised that she got married when she was 12 years old. She had her first child when she was 14, and the child died within six days of being born. She lost her other five Children. The next five Children she gave birth to all died within a few days of being born. Her sister had also gotten married with her when she was nine years old, and the sister also lost the first five Children. I want to play out for our viewers. What happened to Shaun? She became a mother at 14 and had to go through the devastating pain of losing not only her first child, but four Children who were to follow as well. Take a look at this report. Child marriage has been associated with an increased likelihood of infant mortality that isn't just a statistic or a fact. That is the tragic reality of 50 year old Shaun, who got married when she was just 12 to a boy aged 15. But no, we give out the to go with that. The three pregnancies that followed brought even more grief to Shaka. As none of the Children could survive. The physical trauma did not end there. It lingered on to grow into long term ailments, which now manifest in Utah's health, is now helped by her three daughters and two sons. The youngest daughter, Ruby, works with Kala Satis Children's Foundation and has made it her life's ambition to fight the very evil that caused her mother's suffering. Shaun's sister was also married off when she was just nine years old. Her sister also had to endure the tragedy of losing four Children. Shaun's decision to break the chain of child marriage by not perpetuating with her own Children marks an important shift in the way this tradition has been followed in her family, perhaps setting just the right example needed for her community. You know, it's fairly easy for most of us to understand and you know, especially for the benefit of our viewers. It's It's easy to understand why child marriage is wrong. You know why your campaign is as important as it is. But what, according to you, is the reason why parents still feel compelled to marry off their young girls, their little girls at an at an early age. What is the reason? What is the root cause that we need to address the root cause are many causes are many, but the compelling force is ignorance, coupled with a lack of options. If we are providing education to all our girls till the age of 14, and then the girls do not have anything else to do if there are no alternatives, if there is no future that the parents can see, coupled with the fact that a large number of parents fear for the safety of their daughters. So, uh, they have no options, and so they are being compelled to, uh, to find an alternative. And so they are marrying off the, uh, the the girls. But at the same time, the reasons for child marriage may be many, uh, and that is not a compelling force. There is trafficking in areas in our country. We have a very, uh, strong gender disparity. Uh, the girls are not there, so they are being trafficked into marriage. Uh, the lack of enforcement of laws is a huge contributing factor. There are cultural reasons where there is acceptance of child marriage and has traditionally been We have not been able to educate the Children, the parents and we have not been able to educate the men that daughters are also as important and can be a contributing economical force in the family in the same way as sons can be. So, yeah, this this mentality that I have to marry off my daughter That patriarchal mindset is also a contributing factor. Poverty is a con factor. Lack of education is a contributing factor. These are contributing factors. But the compelling factor is that parents ignorance, coupled with a fear for the safety and a lack of law enforcement. I think you put it really well because there's a whole host of social socio economic reasons. As you explain. And of course, there's also fear fear for their lives, fear for their safety, fear for their security, where parents often feel that marriage is perhaps a solution to many of these problems. Unfortunate, as unfortunate as that may be, but child marriage, you know, often results in inescapable compulsions and circumstances. It has crushing consequences for the girl child. It brings an abrupt end to her childhood. It impacts her health. It takes away her rights, her choices. I want to, you know, before we talk to you further, play out this story of two sisters from UDEUR whose lives changed forever well because of child marriage. This is the story of two young girls who have suffered the pain of one tragedy after another. First, the loss of their father, the only breadwinner in the family, then a slide into grinding poverty, which led their mother into getting them married at the ages of 12 and 14. When they should have been playing with friends or going to school, ASHA and Niha were cut adrift from the only family they had known and thrust into marriages they wanted to escape from when they finally did escape and made their way back to their mother. Little did they know the danger they had invited home. One of the husbands I read that the girl had escaped his possession murdered the only support these girls had left their mother often left alone, forced to deal with the loss of both parents, nobody to call their own. This is not something that a 12 year old or a 14 year old should ever have to deal with. In August this year, the incident came to the notice of Child Welfare Committee, who then reached out to Udaipur based NGO Gari Seva Santan left with no place to call home. The first step towards consoling the sisters was to provide a safe shelter, which came in the form of Kasturba Gandhi, balik vile in Udaipur, where they are currently studying. Yet their grief did not stop them from giving up the legal fight, finding the strength to nullify their marriages. Their case was presented before the court in September this year. As per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, which is currently under process for Russia and Niha, their unimaginable trauma has been compounded several times over at an age when Children are provided the hope of a good life. The two girls are recovering from their tragic situation, a pain which no child should have to deal with child marriage costs them not only their childhood but their own mother's life. Various stakeholders are helping both the girls get their lives back on track, but they will truly begin to heal once they are liberated from their marriages. Achieving the goal they had courageously stood for coming back to the book. I also wanted to ask you, what does the book propose in terms of solutions in terms of, you know, a proposal to accelerate the reduction of work towards the reduction of child marriage? You've talked about the statistics as well. What is the picket strategy that you're talking about? The picket strategy is a holistic approach and strategy to end child marriage. It proposes that we should have a uniformity of policy. We should have a uniform application of that policy. So prevention, protection and prosecution is an integral part of the policy interventions. We should have a focused investment. If we are able to increase our education budget by just 0.4% we would be able to provide education up to class 12th or education up to the age of 18 to all girls. That is also a key investments in the policy and the enforcement of the policy So infrastructure and incentivization coupled with the application of policy C is for convergence. We have sporadic interventions. People who look at child marriage from the point perspective of health are only trying to delay pregnancies. People who are looking at it from the perspective of protection are trying to enforce the law and not looking at the health aspects. Right? People who are looking at illiteracy and education are not looking at the other three. So convergence of schemes, convergence of programmes, convergence of approaches and participation of the community. So knowledge amongst the Children knowledge amongst girls knowledge amongst boys Boys have to come forward and say No, I will not marry a child. Young men have to do that and uh so for that to happen, they have to have the understanding on why it is wrong. Along with the application of law uh, from E, we are saying change the entire ecosystem. Think of the child at the centre of this ecosystem. The family is the first level of protection and so the family must be made aware and the family must provide that protection. Then the school and the community and then the state. All must come together to ensure that there is an ecosystem level approach to solving this and use technology. So what we are proposing in the book, along with a budgetary increase, is a national attendance monitoring grade. If we are able to monitor the attendance of every child who's going to school, we can control midday meals. We can ensure there is no trafficking. We can ensure that Children are empowered to also raise the voice in case something is going wrong. So something which is that holistic and which is also that focused and time bound that it is converted into a programme and in a very focused approach, like what we did recently with the N, a programme in a few districts that were most vulnerable. If we can do a similar programme in 257 districts with the political will and with the community participation, we will be able to end child marriage. With that, we're going to slip into a very short break. We'll continue this fascinating conversation on the other side. Welcome back to this ND TV special. We're discussing a very special book. We have and with us in the studios, you know, in the book, very interestingly. And, you know, through the course of the show, you've repeatedly talked about these 257 focus districts. I want to understand. You know, what kind of an effort and how different is this effort going to be across these 257 districts? I mean, you know, you obviously understand better than most others that there isn't a one size fits all formula. As far as anything in our country is concerned, how are you looking at dealing with different contexts and implementing your strategy in certain districts where the problem is acute and involves trafficking and the criminal justice angle? We would be approaching it from that angle that the application of law to prevent the trafficking of girls for marriage has to be there at the source areas at the destination areas. We would be working with the community trying to explain to them that you can't buy a girl as a commodity, and marriage is something that is, uh, well, much bigger than just, uh, you know, purchase of a child or for child bearing. Uh, secondly, we will be involving religious leaders. We will be involving faith leaders, community leaders, school teachers across all districts. We would be focusing in areas where there is a cultural acceptance which is slightly more than others. There are communities of minorities of tribals. There are certain other communities where there is more of a fear for the safety of the girls in those communities. The awareness generation and the application of law would simultaneously flow To answer the problems that the community is faced with. Education is needed in certain areas. Skill development is needed in certain other areas, so we would be focusing and tailoring the solutions. According to that, in many areas where the girls would be coming out of child marriage, rehabilitating efforts would be necessary. For example, in Assam right now, there is a major crackdown on child marriage with the application of law. Earlier this year, over 3000 people were arrested and just yesterday on the second or the third of October, over 1000 people have been prosecuted and many of them over 900 have been arrested in these situations. The girls also require rehabilitation and care because the girls were victims of a crime as well, so that rehabilitation is needed in areas where such interventions are happening. I want to specifically ask you about you know, the criminal justice system, the law and order situation. You've talked about that in the past. But do you think the flip side, you know, the fear of a stringent law against child marriage could perhaps serve as a deterrent? Uh, you know, in order to prevent child marriages from happening, whatever be the circumstances? Definitely, definitely. Right now we are looking at child marriage as a social evil where the parents are poor and so they are forced to marry off their daughters. And that is where it stops. Child marriage may involve trafficking. It may involve rape. It may involve violence. It may involve kidnapping. It may involve wrongful confinement. It may involve slavery. It may involve a whole bunch of issues that arise because of child marriage. But non application of law does not create the legal deterrent. Behaviour change and awareness generation can be created when there is a legal deterrent, and that there is a fear of law, which is the basic notion of a society itself. We have created a law to provide protection. It is time that we enforce that law that has been created by us and enforcement with parity, not enforcement. Uh, that is, uh, uh, you know, subjected to personal laws, not enforcement that is subjected to cultural norms. When there is enforcement with parity, only then we will be able to create the legal deterrent. And it is high time that we understand child marriage for what it is. It is a crime, and that is wrong in society and unacceptable. Well, thank you very much for being with us. It's been a fascinating conversation and all the very best with your book. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. The book is nothing but a blueprint. The blueprint to end child marriage, which we will see by 2030 God willing. Thank you all the very best. Thank you. Thank you.
