India: Government launches national campaign to end child marriage

A groundbreaking move forward has been taken by the Government of India in the effort to eliminate child marriage.

Launched by the Government of India’s Minister for Women and Child Development, Annpurna Devi (image right), the ‘Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat’ (Child Marriage Free India) campaign, calls for urgent collective action to make India completely free of child marriage by 2030 and will deliver practical tools and inter-department collaboration to realise this ambition. Minister Devi also led a pledge to end child marriage with village councils, students, Child Marriage Prohibition Officers, campaigners, and survivors from all over India.

The campaign will run for three years, with the participation of more than 250 million people. As part of the campaign, more than 65 government orders have already been issued by departments at the state level.

A Child Marriage Free Bharat Portal was also launched, which enables members of the public to report child marriage incidents, file complaints, and access information about Child Marriage Prohibition Officers (CMPOs), who are appointed by State governments, and operate at local levels. The campaign also calls on all citizens to actively oppose child marriage and invites people to take a pledge against child marriage. 

This government campaign is an important development, and builds on more than two years of work conducted by the Just Rights for Children Alliance, which initiated the campaign and successfully advocated with the government to achieve this historic national launch. Just Rights for Children has undertaken grassroots mobilisations in 2022 and 2023, with more than 50 million people pledging to end child marriage.

Just Rights for Children (JRC) is India’s leading network of civil society organisations working for child protection and for the prevention of violence and violent crime against children, in accordance with India’s Constitution and laws. With more than 216 NGO partners, JRC supports the new Government campaign, and is assisting in the Government’s efforts directly in over 416 districts and also across India through awareness programmes, research studies, training, and capacity-building programmes.

The Times of India reported that “the national campaign comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgement the October 18 that has emphasised the need for a ‘whole of govt and whole of society’ approach to combat child marriage and bring a cultural shift.” The Supreme Court judgement came as a result of a public interest litigation brought by the Just Rights for Children Alliance, demonstrating the power civil society organisations can have in securing access to the justice system for child survivors.

Campaigners are hoping the new Indian government campaign will inspire other governments to take similar action and to pledge and act to eradicating child marriage in their country.

On launching the campaign, Minister Devi announced that more than 200,000 child marriages have been stopped and prevented in India since 2023, which is testament to the work done by the NGO partners of the Just Rights for Children Alliance who have led this mission. Just Rights for Children provided details of more than 204,000 child marriages prevented and stopped by the NGOs in association with local government.