Item #15101 Groundbreaking Act Saves Girls from Child Marriages in India, 1929. Child Marriages in India Slavery.

Groundbreaking Act Saves Girls from Child Marriages in India, 1929

Booklet

This rare pamphlet "Act No. XIX of 1929 Passed by the Indian Legislature…An Act to Restrain the Solemnisation of Child Marriages" was a critical step in protecting girls. At the time that this description was written, there are no copies of this work in American institutions and OCLC search results are at best an estimate that can vary over time

Child marriage was historically prevalent in India, where the International Center for Research on Women reported that 47% of Indian weddings in the early 20th century involved brides under the age of 18. Poverty was a driving factor in child marriage, as families in financial straits could improve their economic standing by marrying their daughters to wealthier older men. Yet as other countries began making improvements for women and girls, India too recognized the dangers inherent to girls' health and well-being when they were married and became mothers while still in their own childhoods. This pamphlet, which is the only known copy according to OCLC Worldcat, details the "punishment for male adult below twenty one years of age marrying a child, punishment for male adults over twenty one years of age marrying a child, and punishment for solemnizing a child marriage." While child marriage does persist in India, its rates have gone down, and modern India has joined the South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), which adopted a regional action plan to enforce the marriage bans and end child marriage in and beyond its own borders.

Item #15101

Price: $285.00