Kolkata: West Bengal has recorded the highest rate of child marriages in India, despite running schemes for over a decade to curb the practice. The latest Sample Registration System (SRS) statistical report, released in September 2025, revealed that 6.3 percent of females in the state were married before the age of 18. This is three times the national average of 2.1 percent.
The data shows that in rural West Bengal, 5.8 percent of girls were married under 18, while in urban areas the figure was even higher at 7.6 percent. Jharkhand ranked second with 4.6 percent, while Kerala recorded the lowest proportion at 0.1 percent.
The report also highlighted that nearly 45 percent of females in West Bengal married between 18 and 20 years of age, the highest in the country. Although there has been a slight decline from the May 2025 report, which put underage marriages at 6.5 percent, experts say the numbers remain alarmingly high.
The state government launched the Kanyashree Scheme in 2013 to improve the status of girls through conditional cash transfers. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently stated that more than 93 lakh girls have benefitted and expressed confidence that the figure will cross one crore. For 2025-26, the government allocated Rs 593.51 crore for Kanyashree and Rs 11.8 lakh crore for gender-specific schemes, reflecting a 38 percent increase from the previous year.
Despite these measures, West Bengal continues to account for a significant share of child marriages, raising questions about the effectiveness of interventions and the persistence of social practices in both rural and urban areas.
