Summary
Contents
Love, Labour and Law: Early and Child Marriage in India is a path-breaking book on an issue that has not been analysed in depth for a while, perhaps since it does not affect the elite. Today, the child brides are usually from poor families. They are of 1517 years as compared to much younger brides in the earlier times. The book discusses why child marriages persist despite numerous legislative and policy initiatives to eliminate the practice. The chapters examine social and legal reforms to raise the age of marriage; contemporary education and health-related policy attempts at prevention; relationship of child marriage with child labour, sex work, human trafficking and other issues. Increasingly, there is greater resistance to marriages arranged by parents from the child brides themselves who can now access institutional and bureaucratic support. How hopeful are these developments? The book goes beyond a simple policy focus on elimination and provides a much-needed understanding of marriage and womens agency within the context of the Indian marriage system.
Linking Child Marriage and Prostitution: The Last Girl
Linking Child Marriage and Prostitution: The Last Girl
ARTI WAS MARRIED at a young age to a boy from the Sapera community who ignored her and spent his earnings on a mobile phone, which he used to stay in touch with other women. Arti was immensely pained by this but she could not change his philandering ways. When Arti conceived, he asked her to go for an abortion, saying he could not bear the expenses of a wife and a child. Finally, one day, he disappeared forever. Arti later learnt that he had started living with another woman in some other part of the town. A few years ago, Arti remarried, again to someone her mother chose ...
