Statistical Analysis of Religion, Child Marriage, and Girls’ Missed Education in India: Effects of International Human Rights Law

Abstract

In religious countries, divine doctrines often face patriarchal interpretation, coexisting with gender-biased religious texts. Together, they tax women heavily from universal gender discrimination to severe violations of human rights such as child marriage, especially hindering women’s education. This situation further aggravates current gender power imbalance. Internationally, International Human Rights Law (IHRL) has helped to decrease the rate of child marriage of Indian girls of age before 18 by 51% and increased secondary school enrollment rate by 52% from 2006 to 2021, the efforts remain ineffective enough to eliminate crimes like child marriage, which 15% of India girls face even by 2031. Focusing on India, this paper uses statistics to analyze the systemic discrimination Indian women face in continuing education and the obstacles IHRL faces in practice, and offers insights for understanding similar issues in other religious contexts globally.