Lok Sabha Question No. 5047 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-01
Subject: Child Marriage
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UN-STARRED QUESTION NO. 5047 TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.04.2022

## CHILD MARRIAGE

## 5047. SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of child marriages recorded/ reported in India in the last three years, Statewise;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  kept  any  record  of  female  deaths  due  to  early pregnancies and child birth attributed to child marriages and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has comparative data on the rate of child marriages in India before and during the pandemic and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government is working on any legislation that bridges the gap between the Prevention  of  Child  Marriages  Act  (PCMA),  2006  and  the  personal  laws  while  also making it mandatory to register all child marriages across the country; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (c) : The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and publishes the data on the number  of  cases  of  child  marriage  registered  under  the  Prohibition  of  Child  Marriage  Act (PCMA), 2006 in its publication 'Crime in India'.  The said report is available upto the year 2020, which  shows  that  the  number  of  cases  of  child  marriage  registered  under  the  Prohibition  of Child  Marriage  Act  (PCMA),  2006  for  the  year  2018,  2019  and  2020  are  501,  523  and  785 respectively. The state-wise and year-wise details of cases of child marriages reported in the country during last three years is at Annexure-I .

According to 'A Statistical Analysis of Child Marriage in India based on Census 2011', prepared by Young Lives and the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), girls aged  15  to  19  years  are  twice  more  likely  than  older  women  to  die  from  childbirth  and pregnancy.

(d)  &  (e):  The  Government  has  introduced  a  Bill  namely  'the  Prohibition  of  Child  Marriage (Amendment)  Bill,  2021  in  the  Parliament  on  21.12.2021  for  raising  the  age  of  marriage  of women to 21 years to make it at par with the men and also to make consequential amendments in the enactments, inter alia, relating to age of marriage of parties, such as the Indian Christian Marriage  Act,  1872,  the  Parsi  Marriage  and  Divorce  Act,  1936,  the  Muslim  Personal  Law ( Shariat ) Application Act, 1937, the Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969.

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Annexure-I

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  TO  THE  LOK  SABHA  UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5047 FOR ANSWER ON 01.04.2022 ASKED BY  SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA 'CHILD MARRIAGE'

## STATE-WISE AND YEAR-WISE NUMBER OF CASES OF CHILD MARRIAGE REPORTED DURING LAST THREE YEARS

| Sl. No.   | State/UT                    | 2018   | 2019   |   2020 |
|-----------|-----------------------------|--------|--------|--------|
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh              | 14     | 4      |     32 |
| 2         | Arunachal Pradesh           | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 3         | Assam                       | 88     | 115    |    138 |
| 4         | Bihar                       | 35     | 8      |      5 |
| 5         | Chhattisgarh                | 2      | 0      |      1 |
| 6         | Goa                         | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 7         | Gujarat                     | 8      | 20     |     15 |
| 8         | Haryana                     | 21     | 20     |     33 |
| 9         | Himachal Pradesh            | 9      | 4      |      5 |
| 10        | Jharkhand                   | 7      | 3      |      3 |
| 11        | Karnataka                   | 73     | 111    |    184 |
| 12        | Kerala                      | 18     | 7      |      8 |
| 13        | Madhya Pradesh              | 3      | 4      |      5 |
| 14        | Maharashtra                 | 13     | 20     |     50 |
| 15        | Manipur                     | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 16        | Meghalaya                   | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 17        | Mizoram                     | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 18        | Nagaland                    | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 19        | Odisha                      | 22     | 22     |     24 |
| 20        | Punjab                      | 6      | 6      |     13 |
| 21        | Rajasthan                   | 11     | 19     |      3 |
| 22        | Sikkim                      | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 23        | Tamil Nadu                  | 67     | 46     |     77 |
| 24        | Telangana                   | 24     | 35     |     60 |
| 25        | Tripura                     | 1      | 0      |      4 |
| 26        | Uttar Pradesh               | 4      | 4      |     12 |
| 27        | Uttarakhand                 | 2      | 2      |      9 |
| 28        | West Bengal                 | 70     | 68     |     98 |
|           | TOTAL STATE(s)              | 498    | 518    |    779 |
| 29        | A&N Islands                 | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 30        | Chandigarh                  | 2      | 1      |      1 |
| 31        | D&N Haveli and Daman & Diu+ | 0      | 1      |      0 |
| 32        | Delhi                       | 1      | 2      |      4 |
| 33        | Jammu & Kashmir*            | 0      | 1      |      1 |
| 34        | Ladakh                      | -      | -      |      0 |
| 35        | Lakshadweep                 | 0      | 0      |      0 |
| 36        | Puducherry                  | 0      | 0      |      0 |
|           | TOTAL UT(s)                 | 3      | 5      |      6 |
|           | TOTAL (ALL INDIA)           | 501    | 523    |    785 |

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