UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 (IPS) – As the sun rises over coastal Gopalpur, Odisha, in eastern India, dozens of children prepare for school. Unfortunately, for many girls in the state, the arrival of their first period can mean the end of their school years as they face societal pressures to become brides.
Despite significant progress in recent decades, India still accounts for one-third of the world’s child brides. This share is equal to the next 10 countries combined.
“At the feast, there were some people who wanted me to become their daughter-in-law. But during that time, I did not know much about marriage or if it was good or bad. Among them, the person who wanted to marry me brought me a lehenga (Indian traditional dress). I was only 14 years old at that time.”
Child marriage is a global challenge. Worldwide, over 640 million girls and women alive today were married as children. Annually, around 12 million girls become child brides before turning 18.
For impoverished communities, child marriage is often viewed as an escape from poverty. Yet, it frequently leads to lifelong hardships like early pregnancy, exclusion from education and limited opportunities. Intersecting crises like conflict, economic instability and climate shocks further intensify the vulnerabilities of young girls.
Thankfully, effective interventions can shift societal narratives and end child marriage. For example, in 2019, the Government of Odisha, in partnership with UNICEF, launched a five-year Strategic Action Plan to end child marriage by 2030. At the heart of this initiative is Advika (“I am Unique”), a programme that empowers adolescents through education, leadership training and community engagement.
So far, it has reached 2.5 million adolescents, declared over 11,000 villages child marriage-free and prevented approximately 950 child marriages in 2022 alone.
Progress and persistent challenges
Programmes like Advika prove that child marriage is preventable. In the past 25 years, significant progress has been made in reducing child marriage globally, with 68 million child marriages averted during that time. However, child marriage still remains a sad reality for too many girls, with stark regional differences highlighting the need for tailored strategies:
- • South Asia continues to drive global reductions and is on pace to eliminate child marriage within 55 years, but it still accounts for nearly half (45 per cent) of the world’s child brides — 290 million in total.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 127 million child brides, shouldering the second-largest global share (20 per cent). At its current pace, the region is over 200 years away from ending the practice.
• Latin America and the Caribbean are falling behind and are on course to have the second-highest regional level of child marriage by 2030.
• In the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, progress has stagnated after previous periods of steady improvement.
These regional disparities underscore the urgent need for intensified efforts and context-specific interventions to ensure no region is left behind in the fight to end child marriage. To meet Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 to end child marriage by 2030, progress must accelerate twentyfold.
Effective interventions for ending child marriage
We know that child marriage is preventable. A recent UNFPA-UNICEF evidence paper highlights three strategies that have proven particularly effective:
1. Increasing girls’ economic independence
Poverty is a primary driver of child marriage. Vocational training, financial literacy and cash incentives for schooling have proven successful in helping girls develop a sense of agency and economic self-sufficiency, resulting in a decreased need to marry as a child for means of financial security.
In Odisha, girls like Shilo can begin to imagine brighter futures when they feel empowered with education and skills training. Favorable job markets for women, social protection programmes with additional ‘cash plus’ services such as education, health or livelihood interventions alongside cash transfers can contribute to girls’ health and wellbeing, build the sense of agency and empower adolescent girls with a greater say in the decisions that affect them, breaking the cycle of poverty and child marriage.
2. Enhancing education and life skills
Education remains one of the most effective shields against child marriage. Studies indicate that secondary school completion could reduce child marriage by two-thirds. Education provides life skills, literacy and confidence, equipping girls to make informed choices and build supportive networks. Beyond formal education, life skills like financial planning and digital literacy can equip girls to envision futures outside of marriage.
3. Focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)
Many young girls are at risk of early marriage due to a lack of SRHR resources and support. In some areas, unintended pregnancies drive child marriage. By providing comprehensive sexuality education and access to adolescent-friendly health services, we can help girls make safe, informed and empowered choices, which delay early marriage and promote healthy development. They can also enhance girls’ awareness of their own rights, making it easier for them to resist pressures that may lead to child marriage.
Long-term investments for sustainable change
Addressing the root causes of child marriage requires long-term commitments. Challenging harmful gender and social norms and promoting gender equality are essential. Legal reforms, policy changes and targeted support for health, education and child protection sectors will reinforce these efforts and foster environments where girls are valued for more than their marital status.
As the world approaches the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+ 30) in 2025 — a visionary blueprint for achieving gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights everywhere — it’s crucial to renew our commitment to gender equality and ending violence against women and girls. We need urgent, collective action to address the pervasive harms that perpetuate gender inequality, including child marriage.
By accelerating our actions now, we can build a future where every girl is safe, educated and empowered to choose her own path. Ending child marriage is not merely a goal, it is a call for justice — for every girl, every community and every future generation.
Sheema Sen Gupta is Director of Child Protection and Migration, UNICEF. She has been Representative in Iraq and Deputy Representative in Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Prior to these, she was Chief of Child Protection Programme in Somalia and in Ghana.
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