New Delhi:
The government is finalising a national action plan to curb child marriages across the country.
The plan on child marriages will define goals, objectives and strategies besides delineating roles of different stake holders, an official release said on Wednesday.
It will adopt strategic interventions which will be implemented by various stake holders like the central government, state governments, local self-governments, civil society and non-governmental organisations using convergent and multi-dimensional approaches, the release said.
Legislation forbidding child marriage in pre-independent India was put in place in 1929. The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, primarily focused on restraining the solemnisation of child marriages.
While boys are also affected by child marriage, this is an issue that impacts girls in larger numbers. Nearly half of women aged 18-29 years (46 per cent) are estimated to have married before reaching the legal minimum age of marriage, according to the National Family Health Survey III.