ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses and evaluate International Center for Research on Women (ICRW's) research and assess its implications. A qualitative study of the causes and consequences of child marriages in India by ICRW and plan international shows that parents consider it their responsibility to marry off their daughters, and to protect their chastity until they are married. Increasingly, with deeper understanding of how masculine norms are learned, manifested, and experienced by both men and women, it is evident that engagement with men and boys is an important and inevitable strategy for preventing child marriage and mitigating its negative impacts. Unequal gender norms impacting child marriage in India are characterized by strong son-preference and the perceived need to control women's sexuality. The Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) experience provides evidence of a useful and feasible methodology for discussions around gender equality within schools.
