Over 1,500 cases of child marriage have been reported between 2013-2017, Women and Child Development minister Smriti Irani asserted on Nov 28.
In response to a query in Rajya Sabha, Smriti Irani presented the five year data according to which the highest number of cases was recorded in 2017 at 395 while in 2016 the number of cases received were 326.
In 2015, 293 cases were received while in 2014 as many as 280 cases were reported. In 2013, the number of cases received was 222, the data remarked.
However, The most current data from UNICEF (2018) signify that about 21% of young women worldwide (aged 20 to 24) were married as children; this is a 25% decrease from 10 years ago.
The countries with the highest observed rates of child marriages below the age of 18 are Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea and the Central African Republic, with a rate above 60%.
