Assessing Effectiveness of Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929: Toothless is not Useless

Not all forms of tradition are good. How does civil society attempt to change these conventions? In particular can legislation be effective at all in such cases? Have there been instances when societies have successfully legislated a convention into oblivion? These are the questions that this paper attempts to answer. The authors analyse the effectiveness of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929. Did the law lead to an increase in the age at marriage over and above this long term change? Did proportion of girls marrying under the age of 14 years fall faster than would have happened because of natural reasons?