Can legal action alone put an end to child marriage?

NEW DELHI: On Dec. 22, 2021, the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill 2021, which sought to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21, was sent to a parliamentary standing committee for further discussion.

The bill was built on the assumption that raising the age of marriage would eradicate the practice of child marriage. However, this rationale didn't have any evidence to support it because even when the legal age was set at 18, child marriages continued to take place without any fear of the law. This begged the question: could legislation alone possibly curb child marriage?