Poverty, school closure push up child marriages in Karnataka

In 2020-21, Women and Child Development (WCD) department officials stopped 15 child marriages on average, every two days. Total cases prevented in the year stood at a staggering 2,711, about 67% higher than 1,623 child marriages averted by officials in 2019-20 and more than double the cases reported in 2018-19.

Closure of schools along with deteriorating economic situation in rural areas, according to the Department are the cause for the surge.

Among the districts, highest number of cases were detected in Ballari district with 249 while Mysuru was second with 245. In 10 other districts of the state, more than 100 cases of child marriage was stopped.

Data from the Prohibition of Child Marriage and Monitoring Cell shows that more child marriages were stopped in Ballari and Mysuru districts this year, than in the two previous years put together. While Ballari had 170 cases - 105 in 2018-19 and 65 in 2019-20, Mysuru had a total of 153 cases - 69 in 2018-19 and 84 in 2019-20.

Read | Permission to hold weddings at home during Covid-19 lockdown may increase child marriages: Activists

Several other districts too have seen a significant spike in cases. In Bengaluru Rural, just 12 cases were reported in the two years before 2020-21. In 2020-21, 66 child marriages were stopped. A similar situation was in Kolar - 93 in 2020-21, compared with 17 in 2018-19 and 37 and 2019-20.

Koppal district, meanwhile, saw child marriage cases drop from 270 in 2019-20 to 111 this year, according to government data.

Speaking to DH, child rights activist Baburaj Palladan said that the spike in cases was due to a “lot of insecurity about the future of children, especially girls.”

Since there is no school or college, the girls are forced to sit at home and are not engaged. “There are also threats to adolescent girls, and parents worried about their safety think that marriage will provide the girls some security,” he said.

While officials were able to stop such marriages based on tip-offs or alerts from local social service workers and volunteers, sources said that some cases are going unreported as systems to monitor such cases were stretched thin due to Covid work.