Birth Date On Wedding Cards: How Rajasthan's Bundi District Is Tackling Child Marriage

As many as 10.3 crore girls in India got married before they turned 18, and 78.5 lakh girls were married off before they turned 10, according to Census 2011. Despite fixing the legal age for marriage as 18 for women and 21 for men and enforcing laws to prevent child marriages (Child Marriage Restraint Act), the prevalence of this practice is alarming.

In a bid to tackle this issue, the district administration of Rajasthan’s Bundi is going the extra mile. From now, the wedding cards printed in the district will have to carry the date of birth of the couple as well. Bundi district administration has made it compulsory for the printing press to obtain the date of the birth certificate of the bride and groom. It has also made it mandatory to mention a statutory warning that child marriage is a punishable offense in the cards. This comes ahead of the Hindu festival of Akshaya Tritiya which falls on May 7. The festival is seen as auspicious, and sees a rise weddings in the state.

According to The Times of India, the district magistrate has also set up a team of school principals, land record inspectors, gram sevak and anganwadi workers to keep a watch on various activities that are usually associated with weddings such as whitewashing in homes, henna in the palms of child, or absence of the children from school.

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