Educating girls for Assam’s demographic balance

Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda’s call for the Centre and states to collectively work to ensure that women can exercise their right to make family planning choices and are not burdened by unwanted pregnancy has great significance for Assam. The high prevalence of child brides and teenage pregnancies in the state poses a grave threat to the demographic balance. Educating the girl child is critical to empowering women to exercise their rights in family planning choices and protect themselves from child marriage. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) Round 5 data shows that immigrant Muslim majority districts in the state recorded the maximum prevalence of child marriages and teenage pregnancy. The World Population Day observed on Thursday reminds the state that child marriages in these districts have also precipitated the demographic threat to the indigenous population, and measures to curb it need to be strengthened. The NFHS found that more than 50 percent of girls in Dhubri were married before the legal marriage age of 18 years. Other immigrant Muslim-majority districts that closely follow Dhubri are South Salmara-Mancachar, Darrang, Goalpara, and Barpeta. More than 40% of girls in these districts are married off before the age of the age of 18.. Two key measures initiated by the state government to curb child marriage include a crackdown against social evil and the repeal of the Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act. The crackdown helped build awareness of the legal consequences and punitive actions all stakeholders in the marriage must face, but reports of child marriage still taking place in a discreet manner are a cause for grave concern. The state government justified the repeal of the Act on the ground that it contained provisions that allowed marriage registration even if the bride and groom had not attained the legal marriage age of 18 years and 21 years, respectively. The abolition of the Act also led to the abolition of Muslim marriage registrars. It was a bold move on the part of the government to prevent child marriage, protect young Muslim girls from becoming child brides, and push to take on the burden of teenage and unwanted pregnancy. High population growth in these districts and migration of people to other areas have not only adversely affected the state demography but also dragged down the overdevelopment indices for the state. Because of the high incidence of poverty owing to high population growth, infant mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, and dropout rates in schools are very high in these districts, which is reflected in poor indicators for the entire state despite significant improvement in other areas of the state. Besides, the migration of poor people from these districts, more particularly from sar areas of the state, to districts across the state to work as cheap construction workers has led to a shortage of livelihood avenues for the local population in these districts. If the migration of people within the state is not properly balanced, the state could be missing its targets of demographic goals, indicating the fear of complete marginalisation of the indigenous population in the not-too-distant future. The Assam government announced a major welfare scheme aimed at preventing child marriage under which a monthly stipend will be provided to all girl students from class XI to post-graduation to pursue higher education. The state government has estimated that about Rs 1,500 crore would be required over the next five years to implement the scheme. Married girls, except those enrolled in post-graduate courses, will not be eligible, which is expected to encourage girls to aspire for higher education and lead a better life. Once the girl students can get a higher education, they become empowered to make their own choices, including job, marriage, and family planning choices. When they become mothers afterwards, they will also be empowered to prevent their daughters from being compelled to become child brides by other members of the family or under any form of community pressure. It will help break the vicious cycle of poverty and child marriage in demographically sensitive districts and go a long way towards checking the population explosion. Community leaders from these districts must take the lead in building awareness among the parents to avail themselves of the opportunity of educating the girls to reverse the population trend and overcome poverty. Bringing down the family size with the two-child norm will automatically augment household savings and ensure better education and healthcare for mother and child. The construction of 21 model residential schools in minority areas has created huge opportunities for the expansion of girls’ education in these districts. Of these, nine are ready, and 12 are in different stages of construction under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikash Karyakram. Assam has chosen the right path of population control through prevention of child marriage through enforcement of legal provisions against it and promotion of girls’ education in minority areas to make them crusaders against it.