The Sad Truth Behind Indias Child Brides

Eight year old Saudi girl has finally received her divorce from her 50 year old husband, after an out-of-court settlement. Earlier the girl's mother had been refused a divorce, by a court order, until the girl reached puberty. The girl's father had forced her into marriage, for an exchange of US$ 13,000. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism over child marriages, where there are no age limits.

Things however, are no better in India. Forced into marriage at the age of approximately 6 - 8 years old, the young girls are a mother by the age of 12, with their bodies severely damaged through multiple pregnancies by the age of 20. It is common for a young woman to require a hysterectomy by the age of 23.

Manemma, a child bride says "When I was getting married, I had no idea what was going on. I was only six years old and all I knew was that I had to leave home. I cried and cried and said I didn't want to, but they made me".

Girls are expected to adjust to the situation and to conceive as soon as they reach puberty. Around 300,000 girls under the age of 15 give birth, some for the second time, according to a census.

In the remote village of Kottaiyur Kollai, a young girl was married at the age of 10. At 20 she has five surviving children. Mallamma is also 20 years old. Married at age 12, she has 6 surviving children. Malli married at age 8 has 8 children living.

With underdeveloped bodies, that are often malnourished, early childbirth for these girls often proves to be a death sentence. Around 100,000 mothers and one million babies die each year in India. Doctors report there are many cases of rape of prepubescent girls.

During the May festival of Akshaya Tritiya, the most auspicious day in the year for weddings, streets resound to the sound of steel bands, firecrackers and women's voices singing as they prepare young brides to meet their grooms. Most girls never see their husbands prior to the wedding ceremony. The girls will have no opportunity to continue their education in their in-law's homes, as they enter a term of slavery to their mother-in-law and abuse from their husbands. The girls have nothing more to look forward to than repeated pregnancies and unremitting childcare, if they manage to survive their first pregnancy.

Marriages have been known to take place with girls as young as four years old. All this is blatantly in the face of the fact that child-marriages are not legal in India. Many of the marriages are unregistered, in a country where social customs are given more power than the law. Ancient texts state that a girl who has fully arrived at puberty should be abandoned as a prospective wife. Some parents even believe it a sin to hold a girl in her parental home after she has achieved puberty.

When a young woman becomes too weak to conceive and unable to work in the fields, the husband discards her. Young girls continue to be ripped out of their childhood, for a life that has no future.