Child Marriage: Why Law Alone Fails Without Social Change
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 29, 2025
- 2 min read
Pralay Dutta, LL.M. (Human Rights and Duties Education), Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University
ABSTRACT
Child marriage remains one of the most persistent violations of children’s rights, particularly affecting girls in developing societies despite the existence of comprehensive legal prohibitions. Over the past few decades, national legislations and international human rights instruments have unequivocally condemned the practice and prescribed minimum wages for marriage. However, the continued prevalence of child marriage demonstrates that legal intervention alone has been insufficient to eliminate a practice deeply rooted in social, cultural, and economic structures. This article examines the limitations of a purely legal approach to addressing child marriage and argues that meaningful social change is indispensable for the effective implementation of law.
The paper analyses child marriage as a socio-legal phenomenon sustained by patriarchal norms, poverty, lack of education, and entrenched notions of family honour and gender roles. It highlights how social acceptance and economic compulsions often undermine statutory prohibitions, leading to weak enforcement, underreporting, and circumvention of legal safeguards through informal or clandestine marriages. The study further explores the adverse consequences of child marriage on health, education, psychological well-being, and intergenerational poverty, demonstrating that the harm extends beyond individual victims to society at large.
By examining legal frameworks alongside social realities, the article underscores the gap between law on the books and law in practice. It emphasises the need for a holistic strategy that combines legal enforcement with community engagement, education of girls, economic support for vulnerable families, and involvement of local leaders and civil society. The article concludes that while law plays a crucial normative and protective role, sustainable eradication of child marriage is possible only when legal measures are reinforced by transformative social change that challenges and reshapes deeply embedded cultural practices.
Keywords: Child Marriage, Social Change, Gender Inequality, Legal Enforcement, Human Rights.
