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Subscribe to RSSThe U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child considers marriage before the age of 18 a human rights violation, but the reasons for it vary from country to country and are complex. Full story.
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Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Child bride Krishna (R), 12, laughs with her husband Kishan Gopal, 14, at her house in a village near Baran, located in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, July 30. The legal age for marriage in India is 18, but marriages like these are common, especially in poor, rural areas where girls in particular are married off young. Some 47 percent of women aged between 20 and 24 years old were married before the age of 18, according to the government's latest National Family Health Survey.
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Child bride Krishna,11, sits during a marriage ceremony at her husband's home in a village near Kota, located in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, in this May 16, 2010 file photo. The legal age for marriage in India is 18, but weddings like these are common, especially in poor, rural areas where girls in particular are married off young. Some 47 percent of women aged between 20 and 24 years old are married before the age of 18, according to the government's latest National Family Health Survey.
Reuters
Sapna Meena, 15, stands in front of her house in the remote Indian village of Badakakhera in Bhilwara District in the western state of Rajasthan, in this June 22 file photo. In April, her family wanted her to become a child bride -- an illegal yet common practice in this part of India. With the support of the local authorities, she convinced her family to stop the wedding plans and became a role model for other girls in the village who also resisted child marriage. India is considered a child marriage 'hotspot', with 45 percent of women married before the legal age of 18, according to the International Centre for Research on Women.
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What I do not understand is that why, western civilation has this overwhelming need to tell every other country and culture how to live and what is ok or not ok?
People need to mind their own d@mn business...This goes not only for other cultures and countries but in the US as well. I am so sick of policies, lives, and cultures being shaped by the most extreme of both the left and right of the country just because they have the biggest mouths....
It’s all about New World Order and the UN control of all countries and every aspect of our lives!
This is not about politics! This is not about culture! This is about human beings! The alarming number of girls who are 'married off' so young is only an indication that too many people in the world still do not believe girls have any rights. This is a symptom of a much deeper problem. It is in the news in the hope that we can think of something we can do to make it better. Even if it is as little as having more respect for the people - especially the females - in your own life, it has made a difference.