Old habits die hard. Just like resilient virus strains, they find newer ways to survive and spread. The custom of girl child marriage in India is one such old habit. If the analogy were to be stretched, regressive social practices thrive for the very same reasons that aid the growth of diseases: collective indifference and ineptitude of the government. It is hardly surprising then that the grim status of women came to the fore, once again, with the publication of the National Family Health Survey IV. According to the report, the percentage of girls married as children in India is around 27. The figure has come down in the last decade, but, even then, it is still quite high. What is worse is that India accounts for 40 per cent of all child marriages in the world. The problem, however, is more acute in the eastern region, with the states of West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand occupying pole positions when it comes to the prevalence of child marriage. The first tops the ignominious list: a significant proportion of Bengal's girls are married as minors. Incidentally, the state also reports the largest number of missing kids and women. A report by the United Nations suggests that close to 30,000 women and children went missing a few years ago in Bengal. And this number, it has to be remembered, is a conservative estimate. For every case that is registered, scores go unreported. Is there a pattern here, then? Or are these two phenomena correlated? The answer is, definitely, in the affirmative.

Bengal shares a long, porous international border with Bangladesh. Moreover, the lack of effective invigilation along the stretch encourages trafficking of women and children. This combined with the economic despondency in the state has created a dire situation. As a result, parents with straitened economic means desperately try to marry off their girls, lest the latter fall victim to trafficking syndicates. The Mamata Banerjee-led regime might have unveiled a few measures, the most significant of which is the Kanyashree Prakalpa, to arrest the school drop-out rate among girls and prevent child marriage. But they would not be completely successful unless the government addresses the related issues of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women. The Centre, too, needs to pitch in. Child marriage is a complex matter. To defeat it, the State would need to wage a battle on multiple fronts.