Child Marriages Are Up In The Pandemic. Here's How India Tries To Stop Them
Local sources say there's been a spike in child marriage during the pandemic. A key reason: By marrying off girls early, poor families have one less mouth to feed in desperate times.
Sometimes the call comes from a teenage girl.
She is pleading for help, "saying her parents are trying to get her married but she wants to stay in school," says Vijay Muttur.
He's the child protection officer in the town of Solapur in south-central India. After India went under a coronavirus lockdown in late March, his phone has been ringing off the hook. He's hearing from girls under the age of 18, from village elders, from social activists and child-care workers.
The message from all these callers: Desperate parents, left without a livelihood in the middle of a pandemic, are rushing to marry off their underage daughters. (In India, it is illegal for a girl under age 18 to wed. The legal age for men to marry is 21.)
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