Childhood: sold, silenced, stolen

(Names of all the minors in the story have been changed to protect their identity) 

Most nights, Kirti, in her teens, is jolted awake by nightmares of a marriage ceremony she never chose: the raucous twang of a banjo band rattling out popular Hindi-film songs, garlands swaying chaotically, and a stranger, nearly twice her age, waiting at the other end of the mandap, where Kirti is dressed like the bride.

Kirti’s nightmare is triggered by the harsh generational reality of childmarriage, which continues to be practised by families across Maharashtra’s drought-prone Marathwada region.

Here, child marriage is not simply a consequence of tradition. Families say fears over girls’ safety, so-called family honour, migration, and economic insecurity leave them with few choices. Activists point to predators, weak institutional protection and a growing marriage market that exploits vulnerable families.

The result is a cycle in which married minor girls often face violence or abandonment and return to the same homes where the next generation of girls is growing up.

Despite laws and government campaigns aimed at ending child marriage, breaking the cycle remains a long and lonely battle for the girls who choose education and independence.

Kirti lives in Kathoda, 27 kilometres from the region’s historical Beed district, with her maternal grandparents Suman and Achyut Ovhal.

Suman says her own mother was married at 13 and hated it. “But then there was no other option, and I was married at the same age. Mulgishyanizali ki gharatthevta yet nahi [Once a daughter attains puberty, she cannot be kept in the house],” says Suman. After she was married, she adds, her foremost responsibility was to deliver children, preferably sons. She birthed four daughters and then a son.

A majority of children born to underage mothers are not delivered in medical institutions, even though there are some government hospitals in the region. In fact, the Aadhaar cards of many women here mention only their ‘tentative’ ages.

Both Suman and Achyut work as daily-wage labourers, even though they own a 1.5-acre patch of dry land.

They migrate to western Maharashtra and other States like Karnataka and Telangana to work as sugarcane cutters during the six-month crushing season — October-November onwards.

Marathwada records high numbers of farmer suicides. In 2025, the region’s eight districts recorded 1,129 farmer suicides between January 1 and December 31, with Beed being among the worst hit, as per government data.

In the remaining six months Suman and Achyut work in their fields and take up odd jobs in their village. With an unsteady income and an uncertain future, Suman got all her daughters married before they turned 16. They have all returned to her with their children following marital disputes. Suman and her husband have been convincing their sons-in-laws to reconcile with their respective spouses.

Trapped into tradition

Kirti’s mother, Chaya, has been living with her parents for a few months. Every few months, her husband leaves her and she returns to her maternal home. Suman refuses to say why he leaves or why the couple fights. She is worried he will not come back if he comes to know about the matter being discussed publicly.

Kirti has witnessed her mother suffer through domestic violence and it colours her views on marriage. She is reticent and refuses to speak to strangers.

At the mention of school, her eyes twinkle, yet she doesn’t speak much. Circumstances have forced her to mature beyond her years and any talk of marriage brings her to tears.

Chaya blames her mother for “destroying” her life by not allowing her to finish school. Yet, even as Chaya complains, she remains unsure whether she can avoid repeating her mother’s mistake and enable Kirti to study as she wishes. Chaya, who is a mother to three girls, including Kirti, works as a daily-wager and sometimes joins her husband as a sugarcane-cutter.

Suman does see child marriage as a social evil, but also explains how society is unsafe for girls. “There are predators all around. As daily-wage workers we cannot take our daughters when we migrate for months as they are unsafe in a new place; we cannot leave them home, because they are unsafe alone,” she says.

A family in Beed district weighs the future of its daughters amid poverty and seasonal migration.  | Photo Credit: Radheshyam Jadhav

For Achyut, the family’s respect in society rests upon a singular, unyielding pillar —ijjat (honour) that is inextricably bound to a girl’s character. The girl’s character is measured solely by the preservation of her virginity. He believes that if a girl elopes, is molested, abducted, or raped, it is an insult to the family.

The best solution, in his view, is to marry the girl off as soon as possible so that the responsibility shifts to her husband.

Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, marriages involving females under 18 or males under 21 are classified as child marriages and are associated with cycles of poverty, inequality, and health risks, particularly in rural and tribal regions. Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, sexual acts with a wife under 18 constitute rape.