Published Paper Details:

Over the years marriage has been developed as one of the most important social institutions, marriage forms the basis of the family system and is indeed combined as one of the important foundation stones in the development of society, culture, economics, and politics. For affluence and powerful sections of society marital union are utilized for securing economic and political benefits. Undoubtedly, marriage throughout civilization has always been used as one of the important tools of partnerships. For the rich privileged and ruling classes partnership as a means of marriage served to promote their economic and political interest for the poorer and weaker sections, marriage serves social and economic purposes. The age of marriage is preferred to change over time and depends on the prevalent social norms. Though puberty is always seen as a biological indicator for determining marital age. Religious sanctions and societal norms always had an upper hand in deciding at which age the girl and boy should form a union of marriage. Thus there is no uniformity related to the age of marriage across the times of civilization and the continents. In the modern era due to the development of secular humanistic jurisprudence and through international understandings such as the 'convention of the right of child', Any human being below 18 is considered a child. Internationally this convention found wide acceptance to the extent that around 194 countries ratified these conventions and converted these international norms into domestic policy. Therefore now it is internationally understood that any individual below the age of 18 years of age is a child and if any such individual gets engaged into a marital union before the age of 18 then such marriage will be called child marriage. However, these modern norms though scientifically established, people find difficult to follow because of several historical, cultural, and religious research. especially putting a girl child into marriage before the age of 18 is one of the most prevalent instances we see in several Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle- East, South America, and even in some countries of Europe. However, governments across the globe are more or less autonomous and committed to changing the old practice of marrying children before the age of 18. In India, any marriage that is done between a girl below 18 years and a boy below 21 years of age is considered void and people to promote such marriage including parents are liable for criminal action. Prevalence of the Child Marriage and Prevention Act puts responsibility on the government to discourage and stop child marriages. Needless to say, the practice of child marriage is prevalent more in the rural, backward, and socially and economically vulnerable sections. However, even some socially prominent and economically well-off people in the name of customs and traditions, are seen encouraging the The practice of child marriage, early marriage, especially the marriage conducted during childhood puts a great physical, psychological, and financial burden on girls and boys both. The position of a girl especially becomes vulnerable because of the aided physical and psychological pressure, especially during the birth of a child. High instances of maternal mortality, low birth fetus, infant mortality, and other medical complications put life-threatening consequences on the mother, who is herself a child, and also the financial burden of dealing with a medical complication on already empowering her parents. This paper attempts to analyze the reason for marriage and its wide negative impact on participating children and families also it attempts to illuminate various measures taken by the state government and the success stories related to it. When India is at creating a volume of 5 trillion economy, such a gigantic task cannot be fulfilled without the participation of a healthy and gender-inclusive workforce. This paper also discusses long-term social and economic benefits that couldn't be harnessed by the country by preventing child marriage.