JoLLy 2

Many girls in India get married when they are still kids. Children marriages are banned in this country, but they still happen. Government survey in 2006 reported that 45 % of Indian girls were married being younger than 18 years old. Local police raids child marriage ceremonies when it gets a chance because young girls who are forced to marry boys or old men are often at risk of violence and sexual abuse. Inside this post you can find photos of child brides taken by Reuters’ photographers.

Newly-wed Krishna, 11, lifts her veil during her wedding ceremony with 13-year-old Kishan Gopal in a village near Kota in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, May 16, 2010.

Mamta, 9, rides pillion with her groom Ram Singh, 14, after their wedding in Biaora, in India’s central Madhya Pradesh state April 22, 2009.

Amlee, a five-year old bride unties string knots of her husband, Ashok, 15, during their marriage ritual in Indian desert village Srirampur of the northwestern state of Rajasthan on May 14, 1994.

Fourteen-year-old child bride Lalita Saini (R) attends an interview with Reuters at Alsisar village, about 200 km (124 miles) north from Jaipur, India, April 25, 2007.

Seven-year-old groom Mohammad Waseem (R) sits with his four-year-old bride Nisha (L) and his father Mohammad Ismil in a police station in Karachi October 31, 2008.

Hemant (R), 16, sits with his 13-year-old newly wed wife Saraswati in a mass marriage outside his village near Kota in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, May 17, 2010.

Nine-year-old Nujood al-Ahdal, whose marriage was terminated by a court last week, attends a news conference with her lawyer Shatha Nasser in Sanaa, Yemen, April 21, 2008.