Repetition strengthens. There can be no other logic except this belief behind the recently proposed prevention of child marriage bill, 2004, because laws for the ?prevention? and ?restraint? of child marriages have been in force in their various incarnations since 1923. But the renewed emphasis is welcome, since it indicates that the government is prepared to provide protective measures for the youngsters whose health, minds and lives are destroyed by being married off anytime between four and 16 years, sometimes younger. The government is also planning to set up an exclusive department for children to ensure their all-round development ? instead of compartmentalizing their welfare in cubby-holes called ?health? or ?education? ? and is reportedly also thinking about a law for the protection of children alone. These might herald a change, if only a change in attitude, in a country that is remarkable for its callous inattention to its 40 crore children.

It is not necessary to look up the records for the number of child labourers and street-children or to attend a flower-bedecked wedding where a screaming, frightened, sleepy four-year-old girl is solemnly given away to a 12 year-old boy in order to comprehend the depth of society?s callousness. Underprivileged children are helpless victims of society?s exploitation, and if the child is a girl, the oppression and cruelty undergo a manifold increase. While poverty and the lack of education are the chief reasons for the persistence of child marriages, ?tradition? and family or community ?honour? are also cited as causes of a practice that simply perpetuates gender domination and generates free labour. Recent records show that 20,000 minor girls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were married off during the festival of Akha Teej alone. A 1993 survey of 5,000 women in Rajasthan found that 56 per cent of them had married before they were 15. Among them, three per cent had married before they were five, and 14 per cent before they were 10. The growing trade in women has encouraged a huge racket of false marriage contracts for poor minor girls, who are exported for sexual and domestic labour. While laws are necessary, what the government must tackle is the complicity of society in the deliberate oppression of women and girls, which alone allows the practice to continue. All that is needed is a will. Good intentions are not enough.