Working closely with the government’s National Council for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), our evidence contributed directly to the Supreme Court of India’s 2017 landmark judgement ruling that a man who has sex with his wife where she is less than 18 years old is committing rape. In 2020, Young Lives was again invited to work with the NCPCR to provide evidence to a new government task force (the ‘Jaitly Taskforce’) which is considering increasing the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years of age, at a time of huge social and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

YL Impact Case Study Child Marriage.pdf