Intersection of Law, Religion, Customs, and the Problem of Child Marriage in Global South: A Comparative Study of India, Nigeria and Uganda

Despite the existing legal prohibitions, the practice of child marriage remains not just prevalent but has also become a grave concern in the aftermath of pandemic across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The article takes a comparative approach to describe the key drivers of child marriage in the three country contexts—India, Uganda, and Nigeria. The legal sanctions on child marriage often conflict with the accepted customary and/or religious norms which proliferate when confronted against socio-economic difficulties and cultural realities. The article would reveal a consequent disconnect between the laws and its interphase with the socio-cultural beliefs and hence the need to take into account such elements, when implementing the laws in relevant legal framework. Among the Global South countries, the three countries have substantial similarity in terms of not only the legal framework but also socio-cultural and economic positionality regarding child marriage. While poverty and cultural linkages in Uganda reveals daughters being traded for livestock, each year 1.5 million Indian girls are sold/married off under eighteen and at an estimated 22 million child brides, Nigeria stands at highest rate of child marriages in Africa. Ironically, these countries have comprehensive legal frameworks for child’s rights protection, still they remain futile. The paper will deliberate on whether there is a need to look beyond legislative interventions? Further, this paper advances a socio-legal approach within the implementation aspect of rule of law in the three countries studied.