The Ministry of Women and Child Development issued a review on 6 November 2026 of Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat, the national campaign it launched on 27 November 2024 to make India child-marriage-free by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goal target 5.3. The campaign's two-year National Observance falls on 27 November 2026.

Source: MintAffairs, reporting the PIB review

20.1%Women aged 20–24 married before 18 — NFHS-6 (2023–24)
23.3%Same measure — NFHS-5 (2019–21)
71,882Child Marriage Prohibition Officers listed on the campaign portal
59,686Of them designated at Gram Panchayat level
4,536Child-marriage incidents recorded on the portal

Details of 71,882 Child Marriage Prohibition Officers are now reflected on the campaign portal, stopchildmarriage.wcd.gov.in, including 59,686 designated at Gram Panchayat level, and the portal has recorded 4,536 child-marriage incidents, according to the ministry's update. The campaign's pledges have reached 42.01 lakh, the review said.

Source: PolicyEdge, reporting the ministry update

The legal foundation is the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which bars the marriage of girls under 18 and boys under 21. The ministry note said 28 States and Union Territories now record prevalence better than the national average.

Read the survey fall with care

NFHS-6 fieldwork ran from 2023 to 2024, largely before Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat began in November 2024, and the women surveyed were reporting marriages that in many cases took place years earlier — so the fall from 23.3% to 20.1% cannot be credited to the two-year-old campaign itself. What the November 6 review does establish is the machinery now in place: officers listed down to panchayat level, a public reporting portal, and a dated national observance on November 27 at which the government is expected to report progress.