The first week we were here, while we were still in our Indian legal system crash course, we met with our future bosses. I was to be working with the Department of Women and Child Development. In the end, because I do not speak Kannada, the state language, I was of no use to the department, but the Professor who brought me to them quickly turned to me and said "it's ok, no problem." By the end of the day I had a new internship position, at the Child Protection Unit, a division of the Department, which is in partnership with UNICEF. That's right - I am interning with UNICEF. Now I am working solely on the recently enacted Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. I say recently, but really it was enacted in 2006 (which may as well have been yesterday the way things move in India). At that time, the central government passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, which does exactly what it says – prohibits child marriages. In India, by law boys cannot marry until they are 21 and girls until they are 18, but there is still a huge population of girls that are married off before they are 18 (about 50%) and they are as young as 6 or even 3. As one can probably guess this happens mostly in the rural areas among the poor and uneducated, those that cannot afford to keep their daughters and thus marry them off in mass weddings before they can understand what is happening. As can also be expected, this leads to multiple complications as the girls (and boys) that are married off are not physically, mentally, or emotionally ready to take on the responsibilities that married life entails. Girls are often exposed to sex even before hitting puberty and the minute they do hit puberty, they are impregnated, and for the rest of their lives, they are expected to be baby-making machines. Because their bodies are often too small to carry a child and because hospital care is rare, many of these pregnancies result in miscarriages, infant mortality, and maternity mortality, and many of these girls are infected with STDs (but don't say that here because it is a phone service. Here they use STIs).
My job is to research the topic – the changes from the first act in 1929 and the reasons for these changes; the perspectives of various NGOs and Government agencies on the new law; and most importantly, help come up with a plan for training the newly formed Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in preventing, stopping, and reporting these incidents. Each state must implement the law in its own fashion, and my efforts will help shape the state of Karnataka.
I am flexible. All I wanted was an opportunity to work in the field of International Human Rights, learn a new culture, eat some new food, maybe buy some new clothes, and travel to some cool cities. Three weekends ago I traveled to the nearby royal town of Mysore and toured the few hundred year old palace, still occupied by the royal family today. Last weekend I traveled to 3 temple towns and saw Hindu temples from the 12th century. This past weekend, I went to the Taj Mahal. It was exquisite. This upcoming weekend I am going to the backwaters and beaches of Kerala. All in all, I must say that a little change in venue is, "No problem."
