India Launches 100-Day Push as NGO Coalition Targets 100,000 Child-Marriage-Free Villages

Overview

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development marked one year of Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat by kicking off an intensive, three-phase campaign scheduled to conclude on March 8, 2026.
• Just Rights for Children, a network of more than 250 NGOs, announced a one-year effort to declare 100,000 villages child-marriage free.
• Telangana was flagged for concentrated action with 26 high-risk districts selected using NFHS-5 data that show 23.5% of women married before 18 and eight districts exceeding 30%.
• Assam stakeholders outlined a drive covering 30 high-prevalence districts, with the state recording 31.8% child marriage in NFHS-5 and departments instructed to back the rollout.
• JRC reports prevention of 10,518 child marriages in Telangana and 10,114 in Assam over the past year, topping 100,000 nationwide for the year and 435,205 from April 2023 to November 2025.