PIB TrackerBal Vivah Mukt Bharat: child marriage falls to 20.1%
A PIB Backgrounder on two years of Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat: 6.85 lakh awareness programmes, 42.01 lakh pledges and 71,882 CMPOs on the portal, with child marriage among women aged 20-24 down from 23.3 to 20.1 per cent in NFHS-6.
What happened
- A PIB Backgrounder reports that child marriage among women aged 20-24 fell from 23.3 per cent (NFHS-5, 2019-21) to 20.1 per cent (NFHS-6, 2023-24), a drop of 3.2 percentage points.
- Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat, launched on 27 November 2024, has run 6.85 lakh awareness programmes reaching 12.47 crore participants, with 42.01 lakh pledges registered.
- The BVMB Portal lists 71,882 CMPOs, 59,686 at Gram Panchayat level, and records 4,536 child marriage incidents; it also hosts reporting and pledges.
- A 100-day campaign ran from 27 November 2025 to 8 March 2026 in three spells: educational institutions, religious institutions and service providers, then Gram Panchayats and Municipal Wards.
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu logged the biggest fall at 10.1 percentage points; 28 States and Union Territories are doing better than the national average.
For Prelims
- Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006: replaced the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 (Sarda Act); a child is a male under 21 or a female under 18; offences are cognizable and non-bailable.
- Status of the marriage: voidable at the option of the party who was a child, who may petition the District Court, generally within two years of reaching majority; void where the child was trafficked or taken by force or deceit.
- Penalty: rigorous imprisonment of up to two years and/or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh for an adult male marrying a child and for those who perform, abet or attend; women are not liable to imprisonment.
- CMPOs: appointed by State Governments under Section 16; they prevent solemnisation, gather evidence, counsel communities and send periodic returns. Judicial Magistrates can issue injunctions to stop a marriage.
- Supreme Court, 18 October 2024: in Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action v. Union of India, it asked States and Union Territories for dedicated, full-time CMPOs and shifted emphasis from punishment to prevention.
- Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: launched on 22 January 2015 to address the Child Sex Ratio and girls' empowerment; the nodal ministry is Women and Child Development and it sits within Mission Shakti.
- NFHS: the National Family Health Survey, run under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, as nodal agency.
- Minimum marriage age: the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 sets 18 for the bride and 21 for the groom; SDG Target 5.3 calls for ending child, early and forced marriage.
For UPSC: Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat (27 November 2024): 6.85 lakh programmes, 12.47 crore reached, 42.01 lakh pledges; 71,882 CMPOs on portal; prevalence 20.1 per cent, from 23.3 (NFHS-5).
What it is NOT: The Backgrounder does not say how many child marriages were stopped or annulled, how many CMPOs work full-time as the Supreme Court framework asks, or how much money has been spent. It gives no prosecution or conviction figures under the 2006 Act and no district data for the 257 high-burden districts. NFHS-6 covers 2023-24, before the campaign began, so the 3.2 point fall cannot be credited to it. The 4,536 incidents are not compared with the scale of prevalence.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.12 · GS1.7 · Linkage L1
Anchor
One in five young women is still married before 18, though the law has barred it for nearly two decades. The campaign tests whether enforcement, schemes and community pledges together can change a social norm.
Substantiation (data)
Prevalence fell from 23.3 to 20.1 per cent between NFHS-5 and NFHS-6. The campaign reports 6.85 lakh programmes, 42.01 lakh pledges, 71,882 listed CMPOs and 4,536 recorded incidents; Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu fell by 10.1 points.
Position
A public CMPO register, an online reporting route and focus on 257 high-burden districts turn a dormant statutory post into something a citizen can find, and the 100-day spells reach schools, priests and caterers.
Counterpoint
NFHS-6 refers to 2023-24, before the campaign began, so the decline predates it. Pledges and programmes are inputs, and 4,536 incidents set against a prevalence of one in five suggests most marriages are never reported.
Way forward
Make CMPOs full-time as the Supreme Court asked, publish outcomes (marriages stopped, cases filed, convictions), track the 257 districts, link girls' schooling and cash support to age at marriage, and survey independently.
Conclusion
The fall of 3.2 points is real but older than the campaign. Whether BVMB speeds it up will show only in outcome data the portal does not yet publish.
Deploys into: Child marriage and women's empowerment · Statutory enforcement officers and law-versus-norm questions · Convergence of schemes (BBBP, Mission Shakti) · SDG 5.3 and NFHS data
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-11-06 · PRID 2333696 · PIB source ↗