Child Bride TV Series Touches Indian Viewers

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-05-26 11:00:00 UTC
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While here in the U.S. we're gearing up for another season of Wipeout (the show based on people falling off big balls into muddy water), television viewers in India are being edu-tained with something a bit more substantive: a series about child brides.  And while I love a good laugh at people sliding around comically on a game show, I also know which country is getting smarter from their TV sets.

In rural parts of India today, young girls who have not yet hit puberty are still married off through matches arranged by their parents, often to much older men.  Once married, these girls are repeatedly raped and forced to wait on their husbands day and night.  In some cases, child brides meet the legal definition of trafficking victims, and in almost all cases they are severly exploited.  UNICEF, however, warns that child brides may additionally have to fear for their lives. 

UNICEF calculates girls between 15 and 19 are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications as women between 20 and 24 -- a fact that may contribute to India's high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are also five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s.

In parts of India, child brides are still considered a crucial, if often undesirable part of the culture.  The series called Balika Vadhu is currently broadcasting on a progressive cable channel, which primarily reaches wealthier urban viewers who have already shunned child marriage.  However, the program's supporters claim it will begin a much needed dialogue about child brides as an abusive and exploitative violation of girls' rights.  It's a conversation the government has been trying to start for years.

Now I've never been to India, but if it's anything like the U.S., there's a good change the television will finally get that conversation going.  After all, I know I'll be talking about who fell off the big balls all summer long.  Unless, of course, I get to go to India.

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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