Child Marriage in South Asia: Brutal Murder of Innocence

The book "Child Marriage in South Asia : Brutal Murder of Innocence" deals with the problem of child marriage in all SAARC countries–Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Such violate even the most basic human rights of a girl child and are an anachronism in this enlightened twenty-first century yet they are widely performed under the garb of cultural practices and social norms despite the existence of several laws and international conventions prohibiting them. The transgression of laws is effectively condoned by the tacit silence of the state and the passivity of the enforcement machinery. It is a great challenge to do away with this evil tradition. This book provides an in-depth information on various types of practices followed under the garb of marriage. It reveals their causes, compulsions, magnitude and exposes the discriminatory practices against girl child in education, health, nutrition etc. This book brings out the sexual exploitation of small girls under outdated and traditions. The patriarchal system which exists in this region, treats the girls as a non entity, it is not willing to give her even her most indispensable human rights; this unjust treatment results in her suffering adverse psychological, physical, emotional consequences throughout her life. ‘Child Marriage in South Asia’ takes stock of various studies, documents, laws, international conventions and the findings of research efforts, which highlight the issues, interventions, good practices, gaps, challenges and the advocacy efforts to eliminate this custom. The weak legal framework and the haphazard implementation of marriage laws are responsible for the continuance of this evil tradition. A threadbare analysis of the failure of the legislative reforms and the initiatives taken by the states to redeem the situation brings out the reasons for the resilience of this evil custom. It also explains the reasons why the laws have not succeeded in their endeavor. An important aim of this book is to find out the most suitable measures for the prevention of early marriages; therefore, after reviewing the interventions and good practices of various countries and identifying the challenges and impediments pragmatic suggestions are made for framing the policy guidelines and for legislative interventions in devising effective programmes to eliminate this obsolete practice.