On Friday 27th September, CLPR’s Associate Deekshitha Ganesan will discuss on ‘Early and Child Marriage’ where she will address the cases of elopements as well as the usage of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) for preventing and exiting under age marriages.

More about the Consultation:

This Southern Region Consultation is in continuation of meetings, dialogues and studies undertaken over the last three years, to address the harmful impact of laws that criminalize adolescent sexuality. In the context of the SDG 5 driven calls to declare under-age marriages void without exception, a uniformity in legal age of consent and the minimum age of marriage, exemplary punishments for sexual activity involving adolescents (regardless of consent), the legal regime in India has created conditions for aggravating harm, rather than helping adolescents. Responding to these concerns, and the troubling lack of consensus between the child rights, child protection, women’s rights and public health spaces, this consultation seeks to take stock of intersecting ways in which different laws operate and build consensus against criminalizing adolescent sexuality.

Apart from facilitating an exchange of research findings, experiences of service providers in working with adolescents (particularly in the context of consensual relationships), the regional consultation seeks to widen cross sectoral outreach to bring together concerns relating to sexual and reproductive health, law, child abuse, and sexuality education. It seeks among other things, to explore alliances and build a community of stakeholders committed to recognition of adolescents as a distinct population group, deserving of rights protection commensurate with their development, within child rights narratives.

This meeting is in continuation of national level consultations held by PLD with CEHAT and RCI- VAW (TISS) in Mumbai (August 2017); and by PLD with AJWS in New Delhi (December 2018), to document grassroots experiences of working with the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) to help girls prevent/ exit forced marriages; as well as PLD’s socio-legal studies on elopements by under-age girls; the use of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) in cases of consensual relations.