Posted on 02/17/2023 9:56:33 PM PST by Olog-hai
Standing outside the local police station in her village in northeast India, 19-year-old Nureja Khatun is anxious. Cradling her 6-month-old baby in her arms, she has been waiting to catch a glimpse of her husband before the police take him away to court.
Nearly an hour later, she sees her husband, Akbar Ali, for just a few seconds when he is shuffled into a police van. An officer slams the door in her face before she is able to get any answers.
“Please release my husband. Otherwise take me into custody as well,” she pleaded.
Khatun’s husband is one of more than 3,000 men, including Hindu and Muslim priests, who were arrested nearly two weeks ago in the northeastern state of Assam under a wide crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18. […]
In India, the legal marriageable age is 21 for men and 18 for women. Poverty, lack of education, and social norms and practices, particularly in rural areas, are considered reasons for child marriages across the country.
UNICEF estimates that at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India every year, making it home to the largest number of child brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total. India’s National Health Family Survey data shows that more than 31% of marriages registered in Assam involve the prohibited age group. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
When you hire workers (professors) from other countries, the two things you have to worry about is polygamy and child marriages. I remember a case where a professor was dealing with his wife being required to attend high school due to her age.
Then there is changing the spouse on the medical insurance.
I believe their culture is at pace with the time in their culture. The government is creating criminals.
There’s probably such a low crime rate in their country that police are twiddling thumbs down at the station, so create some work.
The thing I most noticed is that they are using an example of a woman who is 19, with a baby born when she was 18 at the earliest — not an unheard of or shocking situation, even here in the US — I am sure there are many more Indian (Hindu/Muslim) “brides” who are aged 12 to 15 (or younger) with children born very soon after their “marriage”.
But they're all for the age of consent being 12 or 13 here.
maybe they should use birth control if they are too poor to feed their kids.
Or eat all the cows hanging around.
“These child marriages have become a social evil and as a result the mortality rates have been quite high,” he said.
The article doesn’t say how these marriages cause increase in mortality rates, it just sounds like a dismissive comment.
In poor countries there is no Social Security or pension plans. You starve when you get too old to work, unless you have grown kids to take care of you.
Perhaps the US could abolish welfare, so as to encourage poor girls to get married instead of depending on a government check? And reform the family court system so as to make marriage more attractive to men?
I know that Alabama in the 1970s allowed girls as young as 13 to get married with parental permission and 16 without permission. Now, it’s 16 with permission and 18 without.
“When a girl is poor, getting married to a guy with a good job is a way out of poverty.”
I read an article, many years ago, about young ladies under the age of 18 getting married to much older men here in the US. Many of those were girls age 15-16 marrying civil war veterans for their pensions. The last person to draw a civil war era pension was Irene Triplett of North Carolina in the amount of $73/month.
Irene Triplett received her father’s pension because she herself was disabled and unable to care for herself. Irene passed away in 2020 at age 90.
If you really want to reduce poverty, make it easier for poor girls to get married to guys with good jobs, but who may have difficulty getting wives of their own social class due to attractiveness or whatever.
“Many of those were girls age 15-16 marrying civil war veterans for their pensions. “
I could see an old pensioner marrying a poor young girl to take care of him in exchange for inheriting the right to his pension.
My grandmother on my mother’s side married my grandfather at 15. He was her 8th grade school teacher and he was 35. My grandfather got her father’s permission to court her and then they were happily married til she died. She had 3 children at age 22.
the government can afford to give away birth control with all the aid they get from the USA. and God knows which other countries feel obligated to give away money to other “poorer” countries. stop having kids you can’t feed.
People on welfare in the US have access to any birth control they want, through Medicaid. They still have lots of kids.
As I said, people in India with no kids have nobody to care for them when old.
“I could see an old pensioner marrying a poor young girl to take care of him in exchange for inheriting the right to his pension.”
That was the motivation for most of those old guys and younger women. A whole lot of women were getting those pension checks into the 60’s, 70’s and even the 80’s. The gals would get a guaranteed check in their old age and the old fellows wouldn’t have to die alone.
If the girl was very young when she married the pensioner, she would be a young enough widow to remarry. Or have a guy move in if remarriage would end the pension.
Somewhat similar here. Great Grandma and Grandpa came over from Italy around 1900, Great Grandpa died here during the Spanish flu pandemic. She was on her own with six kids.
Great Grandpa from Dad’s side came over from Italy around the same time. I’d imagine they too didn’t have it easy, certainly not like it is today.
>>The age of marriage should be no higher than the age of sexual consent.
Logical. And sensible.
The disparity between castes in India guarantees it will never change.
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