US: 300,000 Cases Of Child Marriage Since 2000; Still Legal In 37 States (image@ Pixabay)

Child marriage are usually tied to the South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Several African countries are also on the list. However, while pointing fingers at these countries, the prevalence of these horrific practices in other parts of the world, especially those labelled as the superpowers, including United States, is highly overshadowed.

While it is widely believed that child marriage is a problem that can be spot only among the backward regions of the world, surprisingly, the practice is still legal in most of US. This shows that the country needs an urgent reform.

Through strict laws and its enforcement, India has come a long way in combating child marriage. In India, the practice is a punishable offense with severe fines, the situation is entirely different in US, which is considered to be far more progressive than countries like India in many ways.

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Child marriage remain pervasive across 37 states in US. As report from Unchained at Last, an organization in US that works to end child marriage, child marriage, or marriage before age 18, was legal in all 50 US states as of 2017. In 2018, Delaware and New Jersey became the first two states to end the practice, which is considered as a human rights abuse.

American Samoa also banned child marriage in 2018; so does countries like US Virgin Islands, Pennsylvania and Minnesota in 2020, Rhode Island and New York in 2021, Massachusetts in 2022 Vermont, Connecticut and Michigan in 2023.

US capital, Washington banned the practice this year. Virginia and New Hampshire also banned child marriage in 2024.

In its report, the organisation revealed that, “child marriage remains legal in 37 states and is happening in the US at an alarming rate: Unchained’s ground-breaking research revealed that more than 300,000 children as young as 10 were married in the US since 2000 – mostly girls wed to adult men”.

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The report states that the age at which children becomes the legal adult is 18 in US, but “children who have not yet reached the age of majority have limited legal rights and therefore can easily be forced into marriage or forced to stay in a marriage.”

“They face overwhelming legal and practical barriers if they try to leave home to escape a forced marriage, get help from an advocate, enter a domestic violence shelter, or retain an attorney”, the organisation said.

Unchained at Last, and other advocates say that child marriage victims, especially girls face extreme abuse and legal exploitation. Since 2000, over 300,000 cases of child marriage were reported in US.