US Lagged Behind With 300,000 Child Marriage Cases Since 2000 - Here's Why

The global dialogue on child marriage often focuses on South Asia, including countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, as well as several African nations. This concentrated attention has overshadowed the prevalence of the practice in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States, as reported by NDTV.

Though child marriage is widely perceived as a problem confined to less developed regions, the fact that it remains legal in most of the United States indicates a pressing need for reform within the country.

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US Child Marriage Cases - Everything You Need To Know

India has made significant progress in combating child marriage through the implementation of strict laws and enforcement measures. While child marriage is now punishable by severe penalties in India, a stark contrast is presented in the United States, where the practice persists across 37 states, as reported by NDTV.

According to Unchained At Last, an organization dedicated to ending child and forced marriage in the US, child marriage, or marriage before the age of 18, was legal in all 50 states as of 2017. Delaware and New Jersey were the first two states to outlaw this practice in 2018, followed by American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota in 2020. Rhode Island and New York banned it in 2021, Massachusetts in 2022, and Vermont, Connecticut, and Michigan in 2023, with Washington, Virginia, and New Hampshire scheduled to follow in 2024.

Despite these changes, child marriage remains legal in 37 states, and it has been occurring in the US at an alarming rate. Research by Unchained At Last has revealed that more than 300,000 children as young as 10 have been married in the US since 2000, primarily girls wed to adult men, as reported by NDTV.

Unchained At Last's report highlights that child marriage in many US states often conceals a more sinister reality: forced marriage. The report notes that the age of majority when children acquire adult rights is 18 or older in every US state. Children below this age have limited legal rights, making it easier for them to be coerced into marriage or forced to remain in one

Legal and practical barriers significantly hinder their ability to escape forced marriages, seek help from advocates, enter domestic violence shelters, or obtain legal representation. Children are typically not permitted to initiate legal proceedings, such as seeking protective orders or filing for divorce, unless they do so through a guardian or representative, effectively locking them in their marriages, as per media reports.

Advocates and organizations have pointed out that victims of child marriage, especially girls, are subjected to heightened abuse and legal exploitation. Texas has been recorded with the highest number of child marriages (41,774) from 2000-2018, followed by California, Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina, while Rhode Island has documented the fewest cases, with 171.