The marriage of minors becomes a crucial question in a discourse on women’s rights within marriage since girls far outnumber boys in respect of child marriages. This is due to the fact that both customary practices and legal dictates sanction that brides should be younger than the bridegrooms.The Government of India has put in place several national legislations, policies and programmes to prevent the practice of child marriages.India has articulated its commitment to eliminating child marriage through numerous policies, laws and programmes; yet, more than one in four young women aged 2024 was married in childhood (below age 18), and lack of voice in marriage-related decision-making abounds. The persistence of child marriage remains a potential deterrent to India’s likelihood of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 by 2030.A key challenge underlying the gap between policy and programme commitments and the realities of child marriage in India is our limited understanding of effective programme strategies that delay marriage and offer girls a greater role in marriage-related decision-making. This paperexaminesthe national initiatives to prevent child, early and forced marriage through numerous legislations, policies and programmes