Victim once, now a scholar

Chennai: A juvenile pushed into child-marriage loses about Rs.23 lakh through the rest of his/her life, according to a study undertaken by a class-six student, who was himself a victim of child marriage.

Kavin, 12, of Bargur hills in Erode, has been selected to make his presentation at the National Child Science Congress at Bhopal later this month.

In his survey involving more than 90 families in his neighbourhood, the boy found that 80 per cent of the youth were married before they turned 18.

These young men and women could not pursue their studies and secure good jobs because they were pushed into marriage at very early age.

Had they completed proper education and got employment, they would have earned about Rs 23 lakhs each in lifetime, the boy has worked out.

Arguing that child marriage affects the nation’s GDP, Kavin said, “The average lifespan of a person is said to be 67 years. If the person works actively for 49 years earning a minimum of Rs 150 a day with four days of leave in a month, he would have earned Rs 23 lakh in lifetime. He would have contributed to the nation’s economy. The underage partners are school dropouts and do not get fair wages. This results in loss of human resources.” He added that in many cases, the first child born to these couples died within a few months.

Kavin’s team members T. Vijay (12), T. Nandhini (10) and M. Meena (10) and his teacher Prabhu assisted him for the last two months in this study.

“My mother was just 13 years old when I was born. She died within a few months of my birth and my father deserted me. I worked in a car mechanic shop. National Child Labo­ur Project (NCLP) teachers rescued and enrolled me in school. When I was asked to submit a proposal on energy loss, I decided to present a paper on waste of human energy,” he told DC, giving details of his project.

Erode district NCLP officer K.P. Shanmugam said among 2,000 arti­cl­es rec­eived from students in matriculation and other private schools in the state, Kavin’s study on waste of human energy, made it to the national meet.