'No Voice': Child Brides Will Be Left Out of India's Domestic Violence Data

[danieldemol]

'
MUMBAI, April 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Child brides being beaten by their husbands will no longer be included in India's biggest survey of domestic violence — potentially hiding the problem and making it even harder for married girls to get help.

India's national health survey is a mine of statistics on key social indicators — from fertility rates to immunization, marriage age to gender-based violence, and is used to craft government policies and pinpoint charity spending.

But girls married before the legal age of 18 have been omitted from the latest survey due to new child protection laws — even after the previous report found nearly 1 in 6 married girls aged 15 to 19 had faced abuse.'

Apparently because it is a legal requirement to report abuse of minors to the police, the organisers of the surveys can't guarantee confidentiality.

So my question is should India exempt confidential government surveys from mandatory abuse reporting?

 

[Subduction Zone]

'
MUMBAI, April 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Child brides being beaten by their husbands will no longer be included in India's biggest survey of domestic violence — potentially hiding the problem and making it even harder for married girls to get help.

India's national health survey is a mine of statistics on key social indicators — from fertility rates to immunization, marriage age to gender-based violence, and is used to craft government policies and pinpoint charity spending.

But girls married before the legal age of 18 have been omitted from the latest survey due to new child protection laws — even after the previous report found nearly 1 in 6 married girls aged 15 to 19 had faced abuse.'

Apparently because it is a legal requirement to report abuse of minors to the police, the organisers of the surveys can't guarantee confidentiality.

So my question is should India exempt confidential government surveys from mandatory abuse reporting?

Unfortunately because the average man is significantly stronger than the average woman our world has a history of men treating women as property. The same applies to children. These poor child brides are getting a double whammy of that iron age thought.

Somebody wake me up when India enters at least the 20th Century.

 

[Spiderman]

How old must a girl be to marry in India? Are child brides in India typically a Muslim thing?

 

[darkskies]

How old must a girl be to marry in India?

18. But tradition takes precedence in many parts of India.

Are child brides in India typically a Muslim thing?

Nope.

 

[McBell]

'So my question is should India exempt confidential government surveys from mandatory abuse reporting?

Does not matter in the least bit.
You are not going to get honest numbers from them anyway.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Apparently because it is a legal requirement to report abuse of minors to the police, the organisers of the surveys can't guarantee confidentiality.
So my question is should India exempt confidential government surveys from mandatory abuse reporting?

That will be a retrograde step. Domestic violence must be reported and punished. I will not believe in any survey by foreign or non-government agency. They are always mal-intentioned and biased.

Any Indian woman facing abuse, physical or mental, can approach the police, the courts or Women's Commissions in their state. These can be contacted on a mobile phone. There are help-line numbers in each state. Courts take 'sue moto' cognizance of such crimes. If the women wants it, a child marriage does not have any legality in Indian law. Taken to Courts it stands annulled and will mean punishment for all involved. And moreover, child marriage is on the backfoot. When reported it involves brush with law, and that (in India) is quite expensive.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Somebody wake me up when India enters at least the 20th Century.

India is awake. It is you who are sleeping believing on all what the non-Indian media dishes out.

We had the elections in five states, including four major ones (Assam 31m, West Bengal 91m, Tamilnadu 72m, Kerala 33 m, the smallest, Puducherry was just 1m; Total more than 228m). Assam had two phases of election, W. Bengal had 8, necessitated by internal conditions. Conducted the elections successfully, got the result in one day, i.e., yesterday. No controversies. Now compare this with any election in the world.

 

[stvdv]

So my question is should India exempt confidential government surveys from mandatory abuse reporting?

IMHO:
India should do what is best to reduce "child bride beating"

If excempting these surveys would help, they better do it

I think that seeing the tip of the iceberg is still very dangerous, to fight it's danger its best to know the whole iceberg

 

[stvdv]

I will not believe in any survey by foreign or non-government agency.

But

The OP said "exempt confidential Government surveys"

What would you think is better in the case of "Government surveys"? Do you trust those?

 

[Aupmanyav]

Yeah, I trust them. Better than anything else.

 

[Aupmanyav]

IMHO: India should do what is best to reduce "child bride beating". If exempting these surveys would help, they better do it.
I think that seeing the tip of the iceberg is still very dangerous, to fight it's danger its best to know the whole iceberg

I do not think there is an iceberg. Number of child brides has decreased. And if you are aware of it, even in the case of marriage before the age of 16, the brides are not sent to their husband's house Immediately. That happens years later, after the girl has attained puberty and her family thinks that she can bear children. This tradition is known as 'gauna' (Gauna - Wikipedia). My grandma was 7 year old when she was married but remained in her parent's house for years.

Before accusing us, kindly know how things work in India. Stvdv, I thought you knew the traditions.
"Gauna is a northern Indian custom and the ceremony associated with the consummation of marriage. It is associated with the custom of child marriage. The ceremony takes place several years after marriage. Before the ceremony, the bride stays at her natal home. Marriage is considered only as a ritual union and conjugal life begins only after gauna; that is marriage is consummated only after the gauna ceremony."

And even after consummation of marriage, it is not that the husband and wife will have a room of their own (of course, the things have changed now). The wife remains with the mother-in-law in the female portion of the house and the husband will be with his father in the male section. The husband and wife remaining together will be considered indecent in Indian villages and will be derided by all by saying, "He hides in the skirt of his wife". That is not considered a manly thing to do. Sex is a stolen act. Normally in villages, their is a clear demarcation of the male portion and the female portion of the house (mardana, jenana). Actually in olden days, parents did not even take the children in their arms when elders were present. The elders did that.

When a woman in our neighborhood was carrying her child and my great-grandpa was passing that way, she put her child on the outer platform of a house. That was an act of respect to my great-grandpa. My great-grandpa brought the child home. And we did not even belong to the community of that woman. We had our ways, right or wrong, of doing our things.

 

[stvdv]

Before accusing us, kindly know how things work in India. Stvdv, I thought you knew the traditions.

Just to avoid a wrong impression this might give, I was not accusing anyone. I said "IF".... "THEN"

I know quite a bit about the traditions, hence the "IF"

BUT

I also know that you can explain it much better than I can.

So, thank you for elaborating on this in detail. I indeed see many good in Indian traditions, the West could learn a lot from it.

 

[Aupmanyav]

A Major Decline Of 50% In Child Marriages In India
That should put a stop to the discussion. We are aware of the problems. Parents now want girls to study. Education is free even up to post-Bachelors level for women in many states. Girls get various kinds of stipends and scholarships. India is not sleeping.

The image in the article is not true. But young children did make such cute brides and bridegrooms. When my seven year old grandma first came to our ancestral house, she rode on the shoulders of my great-grandpa. Our house involved a walking a tough slope which tired her, so my great-grandpa chipped in. Child marriage in India was not exploitation of women in any way, it was fun and love between two families. The grooms family unreservedly gifting all their possessions to the bride, because she would rule the house one day and be the mother to their grand children. Granma had two sons.

Rajasthan gears up to prevent child marriages on Akshaya Tritiya

Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN LXXXV. Sūrya's Bridal. - That was the idea.
42 Be ye not parted; dwell ye here reach the full time of human life.
With sons and grandsons sport and play, rejoicing in your own abode.
43 So may Prajāpati bring children forth to us; may Aryaman adorn us till old age come nigh.
Not inauspicious enter thou thy husband's house: bring blessing to our bipeds and our quadrupeds.
44 Not evil-eyed, no slayer of thy husband, bring weal to cattle, radiant, gentlehearted;
Loving the Gods, delightful, bearing heroes, bring blessing to our quadrupeds and bipeds.
45 O Bounteous Indra, make this bride blessed in her sons and fortunate.
Vouchsafe to her ten sons, and make her husband the eleventh man.
46 Over thy husband's father and thy husband's mother bear full sway.
Over the sister of thy lord, over his brothers rule supreme.
47 So may the Universal Gods, so may the Waters join our hearts.
May Mātariśvan, Dhātar, and Destri together bind us close.