Hi there, I'm Rahul Tandon and welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC. In today's program,

we're looking at why the pandemic has led to more child marriages in India. You know, in this last six months,

there would at least be 40,000 child marriages that may have taken place across the country.

So with many schools still shut and family

struggling economically, what can be done to tackle this growing problem? Could more legislation

be the answer? That to my mind would be really harmful because apart from addressing the issue

of legal status of the union, it does very little else to transform the girl's future.

That's all coming up here on Business Daily from the BBC.

That's a sound that's become all too common in India.

It's one of the countries that's been hardest hit by the pandemic,

which has had a massive social and economic impact on the world's largest democracy.

Many schools have been shut for almost 18 months,

and many states are now reporting an increase in the number

of child marriages. In India, women can legally marry at 18 for men the age is 21. Saida Banu will soon

turn 16 when her father lost his job, her family tried to arrange her marriage.

I live in a small village. I live in a small village in Rajasthan. It has been a very difficult time.

We relied on my father's small income to survive. He only earned a few

dollars a day. So when he lost his job, life became very difficult. Everyone in the village told him

the best thing to do was get married. It was ease his burden. My grandparents agreed. My grandmother

said that she got married when she was 14, so what was the problem?

They found a boy for me to marry.

I cried and cried and cried.

...