India has the fourteenth-highest rate of child marriage in the world1. It is estimated that there are around 24 million child brides in India. UNICEF report says India is home to 223 million child brides.
Approximately one in four young women in India were married or in a union before their 18th birthday.
To meet the Sustainable Development Goal's target of eliminating child marriage by 2030, substantial acceleration is required.
This document profiles India’s child marriage scenario among girls and boys, and UNICEF’s work to end child marriage and empower adolescent girls and boys in India.
The National Family Health Survey estimates that 40% of the 60 million child marriages worldwide occur in India.
Each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world, accounting for a third of the global total.
“We will continue to take bold steps to end this social evil,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of Assam state, said in a statement.
“Assam continues its fight against child marriage,” he added, saying raids have been carried out overnight and that those arrested would be produced in court on Sunday.
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India is home to more than 220 million child brides, according to the United Nations, but the number of child weddings has fallen dramatically this century.
Assam state had already arrested thousands in earlier abolition drives that began in February 2023, including parents of married couples and registrars who signed off on underage betrothals.
It takes the total now arrested to more than 4,800 people.
Sarma has campaigned on a platform of stamping out child marriages completely in his state by 2026.
The legal marriage age in India is 18 but millions of children are forced to tie the knot when they are younger, particularly in poorer rural areas.
Many parents marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security.
The results can be devastating, with girls dropping out of school to cook and clean for their husbands, and suffering health problems from giving birth at a young age.
In a landmark 2017 judgement, India’s top court said that sex with an underage wife constituted rape, a ruling cheered by activists.
