Child Marriage In India Touches A Historic Low

recorded its lowest ever rate of child marriage in 2023-24, with one in five women aged 20 to 24 reporting that they were married before turning 18. But behind that national headline lies a more complicated picture, one of deepening regional inequality, a decelerating pace of change, and at least one state where the numbers have gone up rather than down.The National Family Health Survey 6 (NFHS-6), released by the Union ministry of health and family welfare in May 2026, placed national child marriage prevalence at 20.1%, down from 23.3% in the previous round conducted between 2019 and 2021. The survey, the most comprehensive of its kind, covered approximately 6.79 lakh households across 715 districts and serves as India's principal evidence base for tracking the Sustainable Development Goals.The long view is genuinely encouraging. When the first round of the NFHS began tracking child marriage in 1992-93, more than half of all women in their early twenties, 54.2%, had married as children. Three decades later, that figure has fallen by nearly two-thirds. Girls in India today face a significantly different set of possibilities from the ones their mothers and grandmothers grew up with.The shift reflects real changes on the ground. Researchers and policymakers attribute the decline primarily to the expansion of girls' secondary education, rising age at first marriage, urbanisation, and welfare programmes targeted at adolescent girls. A one-year increase in a girl's education raises her age at marriage by roughly 0.36 years, even after controlling for household wealth and place of residence, according to an analytical study of NFHS data by UNFPA India.Yet the rate of decline is slowing, and that is where the concern lies. Between 2006 and 2016, national prevalence fell by more than 20 percentage points. Between 2021 and 2024, it fell by just 3.2 percentage points. A 2023 study in The Lancet Global Health, led by researchers at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, had already flagged this trajectory, noting that India was hitting the hardest phase of the problem, where persistent poverty, gender norms, and social custom sustain the practice in communities that broader development has not yet reached.The state-level data in NFHS-6 makes that unevenness visible. West Bengal leads the country in child marriage prevalence at 36.4%, followed by Bihar at 34.6% and Tripura at 34.0%. Jharkhand (28.1%), Assam (25.3%), Andhra Pradesh (25.1%), and Rajasthan (24.6%) all report figures well above the national average. Together, these eastern, north-eastern, and some peninsular states account for a disproportionate share of all child marriages in the country.The contrast with better-performing states is stark. Kerala records the lowest prevalence at just 2.9%, followed by Ladakh (3.5%), Chandigarh (4.6%), and Jammu and Kashmir (5.1%). Chhattisgarh has seen one of the steepest long-term falls, reducing its rate from 66.8% in 1993 to 10.1% today. Uttar Pradesh, which once recorded 54.5%, now stands at 13.7%, a remarkable shift over three decades.Assam presents a case that cuts across both categories. Its prevalence remains elevated at 25.3%, but the state has pursued arguably the most aggressive legal crackdown on child marriage in India. The government registered over 5,225 FIRs in a sustained enforcement drive, and by 2025, 20 of Assam's 35 districts had recorded an 81% decline in reported child marriages from 2021-22 to 2023-24. The model, centred on police action, community awareness, and coordination with anganwadi and ASHA workers, has drawn attention from other states and from the Prime Minister.Rajasthan raises a different kind of concern. Between NFHS-5 and NFHS-6, the state's prevalence rose from 21.3% to 24.6%, a reversal that runs counter to the national trend. Researchers have consistently identified Rajasthan's high rural population, the gender gap in literacy, and entrenched social customs as factors sustaining child marriage in its districts. A study published in Children and Youth Services Review found that low education among both partners and belonging to a poor household substantially raises the risk of early marriage in the state. The increase in NFHS-6 suggests these underlying drivers have not loosened their grip.India has committed under SDG target 5.3 to eliminate child marriage by 2030. At the current pace of reduction, achieving that target will require acceleration across the board and concentrated effort in the states where progress is stalling or reversing. The 2030 deadline is now less than four years away.What the numbers ultimately reflect is not just a policy challenge but a lived reality. A girl who marries as a child faces sharply reduced odds of completing school, entering paid work, and making autonomous choices about her health and life. The difference between 36% and 3% is not statistical. It is the difference between two entirely different futures for millions of girls born on the same side of different state lines.(The views expressed are personal)This article is authored by Ankit Mishra, ICSSR Fellow, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, and Margubur Rahaman, regional manager, MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child, New Delhi.