NEW DELHI: Even as the global perspective on eliminating child marriage has been quite disheartening with the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres remarking that it could take nearly 300 years to end child marriages across the globe, a book by child rights activist and Supreme Court lawyer Bhuwan Ribhu advocates an action plan to end child marriage incidents by 2030.
On the topic of ‘Child Marriage in India’ at the World Book Fair in the national capital, alongside social entrepreneur and TED speaker Tripti Shinghal Somani, Ribhu, the author of the recently-released book “When Children Have Children: Tipping Point to End Child Marriage” said, it is possible to end the menace of child marriage by 2030 which presently stands at 23.3%.
When asked if the target of eradicating child marriages within the next six years is an ambitious one, he said, “I believe India is self-sufficient and doesn’t need to look outside to seek directions and knowledge on the way forward. India is the land that gave the world the ideas of knowledge, spirituality, equality, and strength; India knows how to fight her battles and how to ensure that she emerges victorious.”
He further said, “Child marriage is child rape. And if we fail to protect our children, nothing else in life matters. The need to write this book emerged from the need to reach the public. The book’s purpose is to ignite a fire and reach the maximum number of people. Law will lay down and define what is right but unless it reaches the common man, it remains a mere piece of paper.”
So our challenge is to translate every macro-level policy to a micro-level deliverable on the ground for the last child. It was important to make child marriage a public issue and translate it into a book that could reach everyone, he added.