State records 538 cases in 2025; Rajgarh highest, tribal districts show zero cases
Bhopal: In a disturbing trend, Madhya Pradesh has recorded a spurt in child marriages in the last six years.
This was indicated in a written reply to a question by Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh by the state government in the state Assembly here on Tuesday.
According to the official figure, the state has recorded 538 incidents of child marriages in 2025 so far, a rise of around 70 percent over such cases reported in 2020.
In 2020, as many as 366 cases of child marriages were reported in Madhya Pradesh: this climbed to 436 in 2021, 519 in 2022, 528 in 2023, 529 in 2024 and 538 in 2025 so far.
Rajgarh district in the state has recorded the highest number of 44 cases of child marriage in 2025.
Interestingly, two tribal districts of Umaria and Annupur in the state have recorded no case of child marriage in 2025.
Umaria district has recorded three cases of child marriage in 2020, one in 2021, two each in 2022 and 2023, and five in 2024.
Similarly, Annupur district recorded two incidents of child marriage each in 2020 and 2021, nine in 2022, three in 2023, and two in 2024.
The practice of child marriage is still prevalent in rural Madhya Pradesh despite measures by the state government to curb the social evil.
‘But what surprised us is the rise of cases of child marriages in the state. This is a disturbing trend”, social activist Ajey Dubey said.
