Books on adolescent sexuality and early marriage series released
Kolkata: The adolescent sexuality and early marriage series comprising of research studies, consultation reports and analysis by partners for Law in development (PLD) was released at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Gol Park on Tuesday.
The two books, Grassroots Experiences of Using The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and Why Girls Run Away To Marriage, were released by retired Calcutta High Court judge Nadira Patherya, National University of Juridical Sciences assistant professor Ruchira Goswami and PLD executive director Madhu Mehra.
"Poverty is a curse for parents. Adolescent marriage calls for counselling. In every district, you have Child Marriage Protection," pointed out Nadira. It might be mentioned that the task of child marriage prohibition officer is to prevent solemnisation of child marriages by taking such action as he may deem fit, collect evidence for the effective prosecution of persons contravening the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and advise either individual cases or counsel the residents of the locality generally not to indulge in promoting, helping, aiding or allowing the solemnisation of child marriages.
Using a socio-legal lens, the series reveals ways in which deterrence approaches and criminalisation render this population more vulnerable to harm and less able to access rights protection.
"It took two years to finally give shape to Why Girls Run Away To Marriage and Grassroots Experiences of Using The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. PLD programme team visited various places in the journey of this study, coordinated with field partners, organised review meetings, verified and managed the date," said Mehra.
The fourth National Family Health Survey results indicated a decline in marriage before the legal age of 18 years, which, at 27 percent for women aged 20-24, was much lower than the 46 percent for women aged 45-49.
This data points to an increase in the median age at marriage for women, noting that for those aged 20-49 years, it was 17.2 years in 2005- 2006 but had increased to 19 years in 2015- 2016.
