Haryana bears child marriage shame

SHE was just 12, barely out of childhood, when her parents decided it was time she became a bride. In the darkness of the night in Kaithal’s Dhand village of Haryana, dressed in borrowed finery, she was married off to a 17-year-old boy. The match, they said, was “too good to refuse.” Fifteen hours later, the police arrived. The law had been broken — again. And the cost was her childhood. Meanwhile, in Punjab’s Muktsar district, eight such marriages have been quietly stopped in the past two years. Teachers, helplines and district officials intervened in time. In each case, the girls were saved — just barely — from a fate they hadn’t chosen. Most came from migrant worker families, where poverty and tradition still whisper that a girl is safest when married early.

These are not isolated incidents. According to recent data, over 4,400 child marriages occur in India every single day. Yet, only 3,863 cases were registered between 2018 and 2022. The disconnect is staggering — and deeply troubling. Assam has shown what is possible. With over 3,000 arrests and strict law enforcement, child marriage declined by 81 per cent in just two years. Punjab’s proactive model — appointing school principals and CDPOs as watchdogs — offers hope.

But hope is not enough. We need outrage. We need accountability. We need to ask why a girl who should have been in school was instead sitting before a pandit. Why justice crawls while child brides are lost in a backlog of cases that may take 19 years to clear. The 12-year-old in Kurukshetra thought she’d still be allowed to study. That was the promise her parents made. It was also the lie her future was built on. Child marriage is not tradition. It’s abandonment. And we must no longer look the other way.

Editorials