In recent years, the practice of child marriage has gained a great prominence on national and international development agendas. Now, being a responsible citizen of the country, we have to act on this scenario and accelerate our efforts to change the lives of children, who want to achieve something in their life. Ending child marriage has its utmost importance to bring empowerment to the country. It needs us to understand the factors and consequences responsible for the practice of child marriage, many researches and surveys have shown that child marriage truncates childhood of innocent children, impacts their health, stops their education and what not. Also, many young girls die due to pregnancy and deliveries at their early age. Raising awareness about child marriage in India is one of the effective solutions to stop child marriage practices. Children, who get married in their early age, don’t have much knowledge about safer sex or prevention from pregnancies
Here ways to stop child marriage in rural India:
• Educate Parents Most parents, who belong to traditional communities think that child marriage is a way to protect their daughter from sexual violence, harassment or premarital sex. Unfortunately, these parents often do not understand the negative impacts of early child marriage. That’s the reason, it is important to educate these parents and causes of child marriage and let them understand the right age of marriage so that they can save their children from lifelong trauma.
• Empower Girls In many regions of India, especially in rural India, girls are forced to get married and take care of their family while boys are favored to get the education. Hence, it is important to pay attention towards gender equality and bring empowerment through educating rural girls. This leads girls to gain self-confidence and self-esteem to achieve their dreams.
• Support Adolescent Girls Who Are Married Young girls in rural areas who are already married also need support as there are more chances for them to get exploited physically, psychologically and mentally. Elderly members of the community or women’s rights activists need to take action about this practice and encourage people to educate their girls even after marriage.
• Support Anti-Child Marriage Organizations and Charities There are several anti-child marriage organizations and charities available in India, running various campaigns to stop child marriage with effective results. we all should support them to keep going and bring a positive change to the society.
• Support Journalists, Photographers, And Artists Who Raise Awareness Towards Child Marriage Many journalists, artists, and photographers in India raise awareness towards child marriage and bring their ideas about how to stop child marriage through their creativity on canvas, photographs or news reports. People should support them and let children live their dream into reality.
Considering the aforementioned ways are quite enough to stop child marriage and associated issues from the society and ensure empowerment for people of all ages.
