Child Wives in India

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 10, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 40.

Child Wives in India

In one division of India, the Madras Presidency, according to the census of 1891, there were 23,238 girls under four years of age, and 142,606 between the ages of five and nine, married. There were 988 baby widows under four years of age, and 4,147 girl widows between five and nine years of age. Should the bridegroom die between the first and second ceremonies of the Indian marriage, the poor little child becomes a widow, doomed to life wretchedness and ignominy. Many little girls are married to old men tottering on the verge of the grave. In the Madras Presidency alone there are 60,000 Brahman widows, widowed in childhood, and doomed for life to the coarse white cloak and shaven head of the woman who is under the curse of the gods.

In India there are said to be 174,000 widows between five and nine years of age. They were not responsible for their betrothal or their marriage in any way. They had no wish or thought in the choice of husbands for themselves. As it has been said, no law, human or divine, can justify such a thing as the treatment of these children of India. And yet, after they are widows they are denied the right of marriage. The father of the widow may marry when he chooses, but the poor girl never.

What are you doing to help them?