The Turning Point Transformative Actions for Ending Child Marriage in India

Summary & Objectives

This compendium documents how the UNFPA–UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage supported India’s efforts to prevent and eradicate child marriage through state-led, multi-sectoral action. It brings together case studies from 13 states, highlighting how programmes adapted during COVID-19 while strengthening partnerships, scaling interventions, and tackling key drivers such as poverty, limited education, and constrained participation opportunities for adolescents. Its objective is to showcase achievements and extract practical lessons on what enabled convergence, sustainability, and faster progress at scale.

Findings

Across states, progress was strongest where child marriage was addressed as a whole-of-system issue rather than only through legal enforcement. The compendium shows a shift toward adolescent empowerment, coordinated government action, and greater engagement of young people, including men and boys, to catalyse positive gender norms and challenge harmful masculinities.

Several case studies illustrate that evidence use and coordination mechanisms helped unlock action. For example, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, NFHS-5 analysis was used for strategic advocacy, identifying high-burden districts and prompting departments to integrate child marriage prevention into education, child protection, and social protection responses. Reported outcomes included intensified programming in high-burden districts, fee exemptions to enable girls’ enrolment in open schooling, and integration of adolescent protection issues into large women’s self-help.

The compendium also highlights the role of norm change and community platforms. In Assam’s tea estates, programming to engage boys and men through “positive masculinity” combined group education, community mobilisation, and SBC campaigns. Endline findings reported improvements in adolescents’ attitudes toward violence, perceptions that child marriage and GBV were decreasing, and stronger use of reporting and grievance mechanisms

Recommendations

Programmes should prioritise convergence across departments and local governance structures, with clear coordination platforms and shared accountability, because fragmented action weakens implementation. Governments and partners should continue shifting from a narrow enforcement lens to a balanced model that strengthens adolescent empowerment, service delivery, and protective systems.

States should institutionalise routine use of robust data to identify high-burden areas and track change, while investing in social and behaviour change approaches that address gender norms and engage men and boys. Social protection and education pathways that keep girls in school or bring them back should be scaled, especially in disruption contexts like COVID-19 where economic stress increases risk.