Context: Recently, an Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Save the Children released the report titled "Global Girlhood Report 2021: Girls Right in Crisis" on the International Day of the Girl Child (11th October).
Key highlights

• This is Save the Children’s first adolescent-friendly global flagship report.
• Globally, child marriage kills more than 60 girls a day.

Highest child marriage related deaths

• West and Central Africa accounts for nearly half (9,600) of all estimated child marriage-related deaths globally, or 26 deaths a day.
• The regional teenage maternal mortality rate is four times higher than anywhere else in the world.
• South Asia (2000 every year or 6 per day)
• East Asia and the Pacific with 650 deaths (or two every day)
• Latin American and the Caribbean, with 560 annual deaths (or nearly two a day).

In this report, the organization is calling on governments to

• Safeguard girls’ right to safe and meaningful participation in all public decision-making.
• Take actions against gender-based violence, including child marriage.
• Put girls’ rights and gender equality at the center of COVID-19 and humanitarian responses and other broader efforts.
• Develop inclusive policies and programs.
• Ensure the safe and unrestricted participation of female humanitarian staff in all humanitarian response efforts.
• Join the Generation Equality movement, working to deliver on the Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality.
• Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality by 2026 is an outcome of Generation Equality Forum.
• The Forum launched a five-year action journey to achieve irreversible progress towards gender equality that aims to fulfil the promise of the Beijing Platform for Action 1995.

Beijing Platform Action 1995

• It was a resolution adopted by the UN at the end of the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995.
• It flagged 12 key areas which needed urgent against gender inequalities.

Reasons for Child Marriages in India
Though the issue of child marriage has minimized with the passage of time, but still, it exists on a large scale in the remote areas. The major causes are:

• Poverty
• Insecurity
• Political and financial reasons
• Lack of education
• Patriarchy and gender inequalities
• Inadequate implementation of the law

Effects of Child Marriage

• Girls who get married at an early age are often more susceptible to the health risks associated with early sexual initiation and childbearing, including HIV and obstetric fistula.
• Young girls who lack status, power and maturity are often subjected to domestic violence, sexual abuse and social isolation.
• Early marriage almost always deprives girls of their education or meaningful work, which contributes to persistent poverty.
• Child Marriage perpetuates an unrelenting cycle of gender inequality, sickness and poverty.
• Getting the girls married early when they are not physically mature leads to the highest maternal and child mortality rates.

Laws against Child Marriage in India

• Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 restricts the practice of child marriage.
• The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men, respectively.

Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006

• Aimed to address the shortcomings of the Child Marriage Restraint Act.
• Minimum age of marriage for a boy is fixed at 21 and for girl at 18.
• Child marriage is deemed punishable by imprisonment and fine.
• Under this law, the children have the choice to declare their marriage as void up to two years of reaching adulthood. This law does not apply to the Muslim community.

Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR)

• It is defined as the number of maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births.
• India’s MMR has declined to 113 in 2016-18 from 122 in 2015-17 and 130 in 2014-2016.
• The target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations aims to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 1,00,000 live births by 2030.

Steps Taken by India to ensure Gender Equality

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: The objectives of the scheme include ensuring the survival and protection of female children and eliminating gender-biased sex selection.
• One Stop Centre Scheme: The objective of the scheme is to support women affected by violence in private and public spaces.
• Launched by Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2015.
• Ujjawala Scheme: It is a comprehensive scheme for prevention of trafficking and rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Mumbai and Kolkata had the highest number of women and children trafficked in India in 2020.