Child Marriage Not Abolished.
By Editor
It has been extensively believed that child marriages had been abolished in India, but we are assured that such is not the case. The Indian Witness is an authority on the subject, because it is in a position to know. In a recent utterance on the subject it says that "child marriages are an every-day occurrence. Girls of eight, nine, and ten years become wives, as everybody knows who knows anything about it; and yet, among a list of the signs of progress made in the treatment of women, in an English paper, is the abolition of child marriage, coupled with suttee. Suttee [the burning of widows] has been abolished in the main, tho it occurs occasionally, even now." The Witness further informs us, however, that the marriage of children has become "a burning question," and there is a law raising the age of marriage to twelve years. It takes time, however, for such laws to become generally effective, as in the case of the law prohibiting suttee.