Child Marriage-Free India (CMFI)<\/a> campaign was born. Dozens of organizations joined, and the number grew steadily until it reached 262.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo far, more than 260 million people have joined in the campaign, with the Indian government launching Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat\u2014a national mission towards ending child marriage in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across villages, towns, and cities, people are speaking up for a child marriage-free India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat used to feel impossible is now within reach,\u201d Ribhu says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking the Fight to Courtrooms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRibhu is a trained lawyer, and for him, the law is a powerful weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2005, he\u2019s fought\u2014and won\u2014dozens of important cases in Indian courts. These have helped define child trafficking in Indian law; make it mandatory for police to act when children go missing; criminalize child labor; set up support systems for abuse survivors; and remove harmful child sexual abuse content from the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One big success came when the courts accepted that if a child is missing, police should assume they might have been trafficked. This changed everything. Reported missing cases dropped from 117,480 to 67,638 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what justice in action looks like,\u201d said Ribhu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking Along Religious Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOne of the most powerful moves of CMFI was reaching out to religious leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason was simple: whatever the religion is, it is the religious leader who conducts a marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf religious leaders refuse to marry children, the practice will stop,\u201d says Ribhu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The movement began visiting thousands of villages. They met Hindu priests, Muslim clerics, Christian pastors, and others. They asked them to take a simple pledge: \u201cI will not marry a child, and I will report child marriage if I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results have been astonishing: on festivals like Akshaya Tritiya\u2014considered auspicious for weddings\u2014many child marriages used to happen until recently. But temples now refuse to perform them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFaith can be a big force for justice,\u201d Ribhu says. \u201cAnd religious texts support education and protection for children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going Global with a Universal Goal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBut the campaign is no longer just India\u2019s story. In January of this year, Nepal, inspired by the campaign, launched its own Child Marriage-Free Nepal initiative with the support of Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli. All the seven provinces of the country have joined it, vowing to take steps to stop child marriage<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign has also spread to 39 other countries, including Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where calls for a global child protection legal network are gaining momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe legal systems of different countries and regions may differ, but justice should be the same everywhere,\u201d says Ribhu, who has also authored two books\u2014Just Rights and When Children Have Children\u2014where he has laid out a legal, institutional, and moral framework to end child exploitation called PICKET. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about shouting for change. It\u2019s about building systems that protect children every day,\u201d Ribhu says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sacrifices and Hope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRibhu gave up a promising career in law practice. Many people didn\u2019t understand why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople said I was wasting my time,\u201d he remembers. \u201cBut one day my son said, \u2018Even if you save just one child, it\u2019s worth it.\u2019 That meant everything to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A believer in the idea of Gandhian trusteeship\u2014the belief that we should use our talents and privileges to serve others, especially those who need help the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI may not be the one to fight child marriage in Iraq or Congo. But someone will. And we\u2019ll stand beside them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Powerful Award and a Bigger Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe World Jurist Association Medal isn\u2019t just a trophy. For Ribhu, it\u2019s a platform. \u201cIt tells the world: This is possible. Change is happening. Let\u2019s join in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also hopes that the award will help his team connect with new partners and expand their work to new regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn 2024 alone, over 2.6 lakhs Child Marriages were prevented and stopped and over 56,000 children were rescued from trafficking and exploitation in India. These numbers show that change is not just a dream\u2014it\u2019s real,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 2030, Ribhu hopes to see the number of child marriages in India falling below 5 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there\u2019s more to do. In some countries, like Iraq, girls can still be married as young as 10, and in the United States, 35 states still allow child marriage under certain conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJustice can\u2019t be occasional,\u201d Ribhu says. \u201cIt must be a part of the system everywhere. We must make sure justice isn\u2019t just a word\u2014it\u2019s a way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
INPS Japan\/ IPS UN Bureau Report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0Stella Paul NEW DELHI, (IPS)\u00a0– Bhuwan Ribhu didn\u2019t plan to become a child rights activist. But when he saw how many children in India were being trafficked, abused, and forced into marriage, he knew he couldn\u2019t stay silent. \u201cIt all started with failure,\u201d Ribhu says. \u201cWe tried to help, but we weren\u2019t stopping the problem. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,13,20,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asia-pacific","8":"category-goal10","9":"category-human-right","10":"category-regions","11":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8809,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8807\/revisions\/8809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}