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- Child marriage negatively affects the Indian economy and can lead to an intergenerational cycle of poverty.
- Girls and boys married as children more likely lack the skills, knowledge and job prospects needed to lift their families out of poverty and contribute to their country’s social and economic growth.
- Early marriage leads girls to have children earlier and more children over their lifetime, increasing economic burden on the household.
- Child marriage is estimated to cost economies at least 1.7 percent of their GDP.
- It increases total fertility of women by 17 percent, which hurts developing countries battling high population growth.
- As per IRCW study, the welfare benefit in ending child marriage is estimated to be $22.1 billion globally in the first year (2015). This number increases to $566 billion annually by 2030, for a cumulative welfare benefit of more than $4 trillion. Considering how one out of three such marriages happen in India, this impact is huge on India.
- Decreased household sizes would lead to an increased availability of funds which then could be used to pay for food, education, health care and other expenses for other members of the household.