Hidden Truth of Child Marriage in India

Hidden Truth of Child Marriage in India

Assessment through Sustainable Development Goals

von Avijit Roy

This book offers the most comprehensive and multidimensional examination to date of child marriage in India, situating the country’s experience within global debates on gender, health, and development. Bringing together quantitative, qualitative, spatial, and policy analyses, the book moves beyond prevalence statistics to interrogate the complex drivers, lived realities, and evolving patterns of child marriage in diverse contexts. Spanning eight interlinked chapters, the book opens with a critical reframing of child marriage research in India—highlighting both progress and persistence, and identifying underexplored domains such as intersectional vulnerabilities, youth perspectives, and crisis-induced triggers. It proceeds to map the fine-grained geography of child marriage at district and community levels, exposing local disparities and pinpointing high- and low-prevalence clusters. Household- and individual-level determinants are unpacked alongside intimate accounts of agency, resistance, and familial negotiation, revealing how socio-economic disadvantage interacts with aspirations and constraints. The qualitative core delves into cultural norms, dowry practices, and gender expectations, while also incorporating fresh perspectives from adolescent boys and expert stakeholders. Emerging structural vulnerabilities—such as climate change, displacement, and pandemic-related disruptions—are examined for their role in intensifying the precarity that sustains early marriage. Subsequent chapters explore how child marriage intersects with women’s education, work participation, and aspirations, and how it shapes both immediate and long-term health outcomes, underlining its role as a social determinant of entrenched inequality. The legal and policy analysis traces the evolution of child marriage laws in India, evaluates enforcement and implementation challenges, and assesses the impact of state and national schemes. Comparative insights from other Global South contexts deepen the analysis, providing lessons for policy adaptation. The concluding chapter synthesizes these findings into a multi-level, feminist-informed policy agenda that centers adolescent voices, promotes gender-transformative education, and balances universal goals with local realities.

This book makes the case that ending child marriage in India—and globally—requires not only tracking its decline but also understanding its persistence, interrogating structural and cultural drivers, and designing responses that are context-specific, intersectional, and transformative. By integrating advanced spatial analysis, robust statistical modeling, participatory qualitative methods, Delphi-based expert consensus, and policy evaluation, this book addresses critical gaps in the literature and speaks to scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and advocates working on gender equality (SDG 5), health and well-being (SDG 3), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and sustainable development more broadly.

This book offers the most comprehensive and multidimensional examination to date of child marriage in India, situating the country’s experience within global debates on gender, health, and development. Bringing together quantitative, qualitative, spatial, and policy analyses, the book moves beyond prevalence statistics to interrogate the complex drivers, lived realities, and evolving patterns of child marriage in diverse contexts. Spanning eight interlinked chapters, the book opens with a critical reframing of child marriage research in India—highlighting both progress and persistence, and identifying underexplored domains such as intersectional vulnerabilities, youth perspectives, and crisis-induced triggers. It proceeds to map the fine-grained geography of child marriage at district and community levels, exposing local disparities and pinpointing high- and low-prevalence clusters. Household- and individual-level determinants are unpacked alongside intimate accounts of agency, resistance, and familial negotiation, revealing how socio-economic disadvantage interacts with aspirations and constraints. The qualitative core delves into cultural norms, dowry practices, and gender expectations, while also incorporating fresh perspectives from adolescent boys and expert stakeholders. Emerging structural vulnerabilities—such as climate change, displacement, and pandemic-related disruptions—are examined for their role in intensifying the precarity that sustains early marriage. Subsequent chapters explore how child marriage intersects with women’s education, work participation, and aspirations, and how it shapes both immediate and long-term health outcomes, underlining its role as a social determinant of entrenched inequality. The legal and policy analysis traces the evolution of child marriage laws in India, evaluates enforcement and implementation challenges, and assesses the impact of state and national schemes. Comparative insights from other Global South contexts deepen the analysis, providing lessons for policy adaptation. The concluding chapter synthesizes these findings into a multi-level, feminist-informed policy agenda that centers adolescent voices, promotes gender-transformative education, and balances universal goals with local realities.

This book makes the case that ending child marriage in India—and globally—requires not only tracking its decline but also understanding its persistence, interrogating structural and cultural drivers, and designing responses that are context-specific, intersectional, and transformative. By integrating advanced spatial analysis, robust statistical modeling, participatory qualitative methods, Delphi-based expert consensus, and policy evaluation, this book addresses critical gaps in the literature and speaks to scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and advocates working on gender equality (SDG 5), health and well-being (SDG 3), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and sustainable development more broadly.

Highlights

• Offers a unique assessment of child marriage through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Integrates spatial, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions to provide a holistic understanding of child marriage Utilizes both quantitative and qualitative research methods for a comprehensive and data-driven perspective

Über den Autor

Dr. Avijit Roy is a State Aided College Teacher in the Department of Geography at Malda College in Malda, West Bengal, India. He teaches courses related to Population Geography, Gender Studies, Regional Planning, Urban Geography, Social, and Cultural Geography. Dr. Roy completed his Ph.D. in Geography from University of Gour Banga. He conducts research in a range of settings across the globe. His current research interests lie in women’s sexual and reproductive health, maternal morbidity and mortality, maternal and newborn health, geriatrics, health-care services, child marriage, violence against women and spatial analysis. He has published more than 35 research papers in reputed Scopus-and Web of Science–indexed journals. Recently, he has co-edited four scholarly volumes— Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women: Dimensions and Perspectives, Environment and Public Health: Insights Towards Theory, Evidences and Sustainable Solutions, Sustainable Women’s Health: Perspectives from South Asia and Women’s Health Dynamics in South Asia: Perspectives, Challenges, and Innovations —published by Springer Nature. Dr. Roy serves as an academic editor for PLOS ONE, BMC Public Health, Frontiers in Reproductive Health and Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio). He is also the guest editor of the Scientific Reports Collection titled “Understanding the Determinants and Consequences of Violence.” His work reflects a multidisciplinary approach that integrates geography, public health, and social policy to address critical health and gender-related issues in South Asia and beyond.

Dr. Margubur Rahaman is a public health researcher and biostatistician currently serving as Regional Manager (Research & Implementation) at Mamta Health Institute for Mother and Child, New Delhi, India. He holds a PhD in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai. His research focuses on maternal and reproductive health, migration, homelessness, ageing, and mental health, with a strong emphasis on population-based and community health studies. He has extensive experience working with large-scale national datasets such as NFHS, NSS, LASI, and Census, and is skilled in mixed-method research, advanced statistical modeling, and impact evaluation designs including randomized and quasi-experimental studies. He has contributed to multiple national and international research projects, including ICMR-funded trials on cognitive health and adolescent mental health interventions. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in leading journals and contributed to several edited volumes published by Springer and other international publishers. He also serves as an Editorial Board Member for BMC Public Health (Springer Nature) and as an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE and Frontiers in Public Health. His work aims to bridge research, policy, and practice to improve health outcomes among vulnerable populations in India and South Asia.

Pradip Chouhan is a Professor at the Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda, West Bengal, India. Earlier he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His areas of research interest are fertility behaviour, public health, maternal health and child health. Actively engaged in teaching and research in Population Geography for nearly two decades, Prof. Chouhan has published more than 50 research papers in Scopus and Web of Science-indexed journals, edited 3 books and authored 1 book. He is an academic editor of PLOS One and Scientific Reports Journal and a reviewer of Scopus and Web of Science-indexed journals. He has completed a major research project funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Ministry of Human Resource, Govt. of India. Dr. Chouhan has also completed one minor research project funded by the University Grants Commission. He has successfully supervised 7 Ph.D. and 8 M.Phil scholars. Recently, Dr. Chouhan has published two edited books entitled ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women: Dimensions and Perspectives’ and ‘Climate Crisis, Social Responses and Sustainability Socio-ecological Study on Global’ from Springer Nature.