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Monday, May 24, 2010

Child Marriages in India

From: $AMIN.K <samin_rk@yahoo.co.in;
Subject: Child Marriages in India
Date: Sunday, May 23, 2010, 12:13 AM

Many girls in India get married when they are still kids. Children marriages are banned in this country, but they still happen. Government survey in 2006 reported that 45 % of Indian girls were married being younger than 18 years old. Local police raids child marriage ceremonies when it gets a chance because young girls who are forced to marry boys or old men are often at risk of violence and sexual abuse. Inside this post you can find photos of child brides taken by Reuters' photographers.

Newly wed Krishna, 11, lifts her veil during her wedding ceremony with 13-year-old Kishan Gopal in a village near Kota in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, May 16, 2010-

Mamta, 9, rides pillion with her groom Ram Singh, 14, after their wedding in Biaora, in India's central Madhya Pradesh state April 22, 2009.




11 comments:

  1. Omg..So young already married. Are they happy?

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  2. MY GOODNESS...these people are so sick!

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  3. Even Saidatina Aishah was married when she was very young. But it's way back then and our time now has changed a lot of youngsters perspective minds.

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  4. But not at 3 years old...! She may still wear diapers and bottle feeding. Sad...!

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  5. I think it is premature for us, as outsiders of this particular culture to so quickly condemn their actions as being "immoral" or "sick". After all it is of a cultural context that is alien to us, that we do not understand in its entirety.

    Consider this, if the the childrens' wellbeing are not effected by it (Something again, as outsiders we can only speculate to) then I suppose what right do we have to impose our views on marriage morality upon these people? I would like to remind us all again, that most of what we consider "normative" or "moral" stems from highly Western notions of ethics, which have come to seem naturalised in the sense that they become an umbrella term for all forms of ethical behaviour which, is not necessarily true when taken into full cultural context.

    For example, FGM or Female Genital Mutilation is generally frowned upon by all people around the world. We consider it inhumane and wrong because it hampers and restricts - sometimes even obliterating completely - the sexual pleasure of women (through removal of the clitoris in some methods, or the stitching up of the vagina in others). As a result, there have been calls to ban entirely the practice of all forms of FGM as it is seen as abuse of women.

    However, in the context of some cultures in Indonesia, "FGM" (and I use the term loosely) is practice in yet another form of female circumcision. The process it carried out by women for women for cultural purposes (similar to male circumcision if I"m not mistaken) and is done by scraping a needle against the clitoris of the girl, removing a small part of it. The sexual health of the child is not affected by this process and indeed her personal wellbeing not ignored.

    If we were to condemn these practices based on the umbrella notion of "ethics" then such practices should indeed be banned, because as I will point out again, all of these practices have been lumped into a singular, non distinctive category of FGM that is characteristic of Western ideals of homogenizing the "other".

    Quite similar to child marriages in India, I believe that there needs to be a lot more study and information regarding the cultural context of the practices (after all, they are not being married off to lecherous old men, from the pictures here at least ) before we can make any judgement calls to condemnt, applaud, or seem indifferent to such practicies.

    After all, I would like to caution, that when we consider the notion of "ethics" and "human rights" we need to ask ourselves... WHOSE notions of rights are these, and to whose notions of justice do they serve. After all, "human rights" and "ethics" are reflected through the embodied and lived experiences of individuals, amd we most certainly cannot honestly believe that the way a middle-class American woman lives her life would be exactly equal or the same with which a woman of lower-caste India lives hers.

    regards.
    Cyren.

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  6. travesty such as this happens, with the notion of all happening under cultural rights. haih...

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  7. Children should not be married. They have not matured physically and mentally yet. They supposed to go to school to get knowledge and education.

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  8. Children are "supposed to go to school to get knowledge and education" from whose perspective is that coming from? Which society, which nation? Not that I personally agree with Child marriages, but these are some things we must consider and not be too hasty to "knock off" culture in favor for a more "rational" mindset, because really, at the end of the day, its all just different idealogy, and as we all know, ALL ideaology, pushes a different point of view, a different propoganda.

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  9. what the duck? how on earth can anyone let this happen in the first place?? downright wrong!!

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