UNICEF: A second chance for a would-be child bride in India

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_53403.html

RAJASTHAN, India 22 April 2010 Bablu, 14, lives with her family in a small village in rural Rajasthan. She was 13 when her community decided she should be married. I did not want to get married, she said. I thought my life would be completely ruined.

Child marriage is illegal in India, but in poor regions, such as the north-western state of Rajasthan, there is enormous social and economic pressure to defy the law. More than half of girls here are married by age 18 often setting up a lifetime of health and social problems for these young women and their children.

UNICEF and the European Commission work with government at all levels in India to help families who decide not to marry off their young daughters. Local health care workers like Durga are at the heart of the programme.

At the community meetings held by the UNICEF-European Commission partnership, villagers are encouraged to discuss issues such as domestic violence and girls education, and to find ways they can all agree on ending harmful social practices. The programme encourages communities to realize that everyone benefits when girls stay in school and delay marriage.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• UNICEF
• India
• child
• brides
• Bablu
• Rajasthan
• children
• protection
• girls

[SuperBarbieSlayer]

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