TEEMING PEOPLES

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 16 (Supplement)

TEEMING PEOPLES

INDIA’S PROBLEM CHILD MARRIAGES. ALARMING GROWTH. A mine of interesting information is to be found in the two bulky volumes of the Census of India of 1931. Under such formal headings as Sex Ratio, Civil Condition, Occupation and the like, its twelve chapters touch on nearly every phase of social life. . In them, and in the tables which follow, is to be found a wealth of material, which Dr. Hutton has presented with unfailing skill. No one who wishes to keep himself informed concerning the changing conditions of India can afford to neglect this Census, writes Lady Hartog in the Daily Telegraph. The population of India as a whole has increased 10.6 per cent, in the last ten years. That means an actual increase of no less than 34,000,000, a figure which falls short of the total population of France by but 7,000,000. India now leads in the bulk the populations of the countries of the world. SPREAD OF LITERACY. What will happen if this increase continues? Every Government of the future, be it British or Indian, is going to be confronted by that problem. Many of India’s millions are already living on a bare subsistence level. Can any improvements in agriculture and any progress in industrialisation keep pace with the needs of a population which threatens to double itself in less than seventy-five years? ' With regard to the spread of literacy, the same alarming growth in numbers has in a sense vitiated the efforts of the departments of education. The actual number of literates has increased since 1921 by 24.4 per cent., but this has resulted in an increase of only 1 per cent, in the literacy of India as a whole. It is disquieting that the increases in the States are noticeably higher than in British India, though it is pointed out that with the exceptions of Travancore, Cochin and Baroda, the States were behind British India m literacy m 1921. The number of literates per 1000 over the age of five for all India is now 156 males and of Cochin takes foremost ffiace as Regards female literacy, wuh Travancore second and Burma third. 'Hie total number of female literates creased from 2,750,000 to rather over 4,000,000, but the “wastage” in girls schools i* still’ estimated to be 90 per cent—that is to sav of 100 girls who commence going to school, 90 leave without becoming permanently literate. SPATE OF CHILD MARRIAGES. It is, indeed, in regard to the condition of women that the Census ugures are most striking. The in numbers between the. sexes noted the last two Censuses continues. There are now over 10,700,000 fewer women than men. This may no doubt be attributed in part to: Failure of the men to make ■ complete

returns of the womenfolk in the househ°Th’e terrible number of . deathsof young girls and women in childbirth; and xiGreater mortality among women than men, especially among purdah women, from such diseases as tuberculosis. • Most disconcerting of all are the figures in regard to child marriage. The passing of the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 has actually resulted in a vast increase in the number of child wives under the age of 15. Whereas there were 8,500,000 child wives in 1921, there were in 1931 no fewer than 12,250,000. This means that while the population has increased 10.6 per cent, the number of child marriages has irfEreased 44 per cent. ’ These astounding figures are mainly due to the fatal six months which were allowed to lapse between the passing of the Act in 1929 and its coming into operation in April, 1930. During that time there was a spate of child marriages arranged both by Hindus and Mohammedans. FAILURE OF THE RESTRAINT ACT. That cannot now be remedied, but <what could be remedied is the Act itself. The report discusses it in detail, and states that “the Act has in practice been virtually a dead letter.” Its main effect seems to have been that it frightened parents from divulging to the enumerators the marriage of daughters under 14. So large is the discrepancy disclosed between the numbers of married males and married females that Dr. Hutton is forced to the conclusion “that it is quite certain that some million married girls under 14 years of age have been returned as unmarried.” The Act has failed because it is so weak. Child marriages are not declared illegal, but merely punishable. Prosecutions can only be instituted after the marriage has taken place, and the Government does not prosecute. This task is left to members of the public. As a result it is scarcely surprising that the numbers of prosecutions has been negligible. Women’s associations in India are solidly in favour of the abolition of child marriage, and there is not the. least doubt that, given the power, women would see that the Act was made really effective. Women’s franchise under the new Constitution. is a subject -with which the Joint Select Committee will very soon be dealing when drawing up its report. It should be remembered that the Simon Commission recommended a fra neb fee for women far more generous them the proposals of the White Paper. Certainly there could,»be no more cogent argument for giving a wide extension of voting power to women than the facts revealed by the Census.