Evaluating interventions to reduce child marriage in India

Abstract

Background This paper estimates the costs and benefits of investing in education interventions and specific child marriage programs to reduce child marriage in India. Child marriage in India remains highly prevalent despite considerable progress in the last decade or more, associated, in particular, with a decline in poverty. The economic consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic are likely to reverse these gains, meaning that the interventions to reduce child marriage evaluated in this paper assume even greater importance. Methods A literature search to identify interventions with costs and estimates of impact on reduction in child marriage for India, and other low and middle income countries was conducted. The costs and effectiveness of the interventions were modelled for India, and economic benefits of reducing school dropout rates and increasing secondary school completions were estimated. The ratio of the economic benefits to the intervention costs estimated gave the benefit-cost ratio. Results The interventions resulted in an average benefit-cost ratio of 16.8. The interventions are projected to decrease the estimated marriage rate for girls aged 15–17 years for India from an estimated rate of 16.4% in 2020 by 7.5 percentage points by 2050, with education interventions targeting increased attendance being the larger factor. By 2030, the proportion of girls completing school is estimated to increase by 13 percentage points and productivity to have increased by 16.4%. Conclusions The results indicate substantial economic and social gains to reducing child marriage by interventions that decrease school dropout rates, increase secondary school completions for girls, and address some of the broader social and cultural disadvantages they face in India. This has significant implications not only for their health, but also for the quality of the available economic opportunities and the possibility of attaining Sustainable Development Goal 5.