Environmental Aspects: geography, access, and pollution and how they relate to child marriage.
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India contains 2.4% of the entire world's land. It also supports 16% of the world's population. This combination puts a lot of pressure on the environment and natural resources in this area (Environmental Sustainability Issues in India, n.d.) It is a severely overpopulated and poverty stricken country. Many Indians live in their tribes off of the land. This over-consumption of natural resources is threatening their very existence. (Environmental Sustainability Issues in India, n.d.).
India's high pollutants are having costly effects. It just recently surpassed China for having the most fine particulate matter that citizens are exposed to. New Delhi, India has 128 micrograms per cubic meter of this matter. The World Health Organization aims to have only 10 micrograms per cubic meter annually. This results in a half a million premature deaths a year and an additional 12,000 deaths from ozone exposure. This also is only going to lower the already low average life expectancy for Indians, which is 64 years old (Harvey, Chelsey, 2016).
About 60% of India's population are in the agriculture business. This puts a huge strain on India's environment, specifically the forests. 44.2% of the people here live below the poverty line and this forces them to overgraze and cut down trees for fuel since they have little money to spend. One of the scariest parts about this fact is that India holds 8% of the world's species. If we lose this area, we lose this biodiversity. The speed that we are deforesting here is not allowing the species or forest to regenerate as it normally would (Tropical Deforestation and Forest Degradation: A Case Study from India, n.d.).
This video shows the history and reasons for why there deforestation is happening in India.
All of this ties into child marriage because these issues stem from poverty. There is either a lack of money to help with the environment and education. These girls are being born into these situations and the families cannot afford to keep them. They aren't educated enough and do not make a enough money to save their daughter's lives.