Youth flowers early in India. But perhaps nowhere so early as in the western state of Rajasthan, where children as young as two or three years of age are married off partners they have never seen before.
Because early marriage is illegal, the ceremonies take place in secret, often after dark. The authorities, often in connivance with local politicians and officials, turn a blind eye to what is going on. Now the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, is appealing to the Indian government to crack down on the practice.
In the weeks and months following this year's harvest, countless thousands of hapless children and teenagers were married off by their parents in Rajasthan. The youngest recorded case was that of a 25-day-old girl who was wed, according to local custom, to a boy not much older than herself. Only a handful of these illegal unions was stopped by the police.
I learned something of this bizarre practice when I gained unprecedented access to a child marriage ceremony taking place in the foothills of Rajasthan's ancient Aravali hills. There in the village of Dadikar ki Dhani, I attended a ritual that is rarely witnessed by those living outside the tight-knit farming communities of eastern Rajashtan.
The Indian journalist who was my guide had in previous years been driven out of villages by irate, stick-wielding peasants when he had produced his camera. But meticulous preparation and the compliance of local officials this time guaranteed success.
From the town of Alwar, we drove for about an hour and a half, mostly down rutted dirt roads. Approaching Dadikar ki Dhani, we could see a brightly coloured tent and, as we emerged from our vehicle, we could hear a cacophony of trumpeting, drumming and singing.
It was only mid-morning but already the celebrations were in full swing. It was announced that 14 weddings would be held in the village that day. At least half of them involved children. These were poor people, members of the so-called backward castes, and the festivities were being held during daylight hours to save on electricity and liquor bills.
This is a deeply patriarchal society. The women watched from the rooftops as the men danced and cavorted in the village square. The male elders, many of them wearing colourful red turbans, reclined on "charpoys" (simple divan beds), smoking hubble-bubble pipes.
At the far end of the village, food was prepared and delicacies were cooked in boiling cauldrons over open fires. Some 200 wedding guests were expected.
The first sight I had of the bridegrooms was when I was shown into an outhouse in which four boys waited. They had already been half-dressed in their wedding finery and were perched nervously on the edge of a charpoy, waiting. When I returned to the hut after a tour of the village, they were fully dressed: turbans on their heads, garlands of Indian currency notes around their necks and iron rods in their hands to ward off evil.
They appeared alternately excited, scared and bored. While the eldest boy, aged about 12 years of age, was doing his best to appear manly and mature, the younger ones had evidently little idea of what was going on.
One of their parents agreed to talk. Harveer, father of two of the youngest boys, Raja Ram and Ram Khiladi, said they had come from a nearby village and that his sons were aged 12 and 10 respectively. Clearly, though, they were much younger, perhaps seven and five. He said their brides were aged about 10 and eight.
It appeared that some people known to both families had acted as intermediaries in the business of uniting the children. Once word goes out that parents are looking for a spouse for their offspring, it seems there is little difficulty in finding "suitable" matches within the same caste or community.
"The marriages are taking place because of love," said Harveer. "In our society it is normal for such marriages to be held".
How much of a part love plays in the process is open to question. While arranged marriages are the norm in India, there is usually some sort of consultative process between parents and children. In the case of smaller children, they are clearly too immature for any meaningful consultation.
The first parliamentary act outlawing child marriage was passed under British rule in 1929 and set the minimum age of a bride at 14 years. In 1978, the Indian government raised it to 18 for girls and 21 for boys. The Rajasthan state government has taken what it calls a significant step towards eradicating the acute problem of child marriages. It has approved legislation which will make it mandatory for all couples to register with the authorities for their union to be recognised by law.
However, according to a recently-released report by Unicef, a survey of 5,000 women in Rajasthan showed that more than half had married before the age of 15 and, of these, 17 per cent before they were 10.
One of the reasons given for child marriages is that it makes financial sense to marry off children at the same time as older couples. This way, the ceremony itself works out cheaper. There is also the issue of dowry.
Dowries, offered by the parents of the girl to those of the boy, are smaller for younger children. This is obviously to the advantage of the girl's family but is of little benefit to the boy's side. It is also said that infant brides are favoured in poorer areas because their wrists and ankles are smaller. This means less money has to be spent on the silver bangles and anklets that are considered a necessity.
The custom of child marriage is believed to date back more than 1,000 years to an age when people in Rajasthan married their daughters off young to protect them from marauding Muslim invaders. Some say early marriage is still the best way of protecting the honour of young women in the villages.
The child brides of Dadikar ki Dhani were carried in the arms of their mothers to the "altar", a long strip of coloured cloth covered with holy objects. Six boys awaited them in the courtyard of a former village headman. Aligned on the right side of a tented area, they sat facing a row of white-clad pandits (Hindu priests).
Wearing a green dress, little Pinki was placed next to Ram Khiladi. Next in line was Raja Ram and his bride, Uganta, whose face was covered with a veil. The girls appeared to be about two or three years of age. The pandits tied red threads around their wrists to symbolise protection.
Imitation gold crowns were placed on their heads and they were given coins that had been blessed. A yellow paste made with turmeric was spread on their hands to keep them pure.
The final stage of the ceremony was the lighting of sacred fires around which the couples walked seven times. By the end, with tiredness taking its toll and smoke getting in her eyes, Pinki began to weep uncontrollably.
Such young girls are not expected to live with their husbands until they are teenagers. Typically, they move into their husbands' houses when they are 16 or 17, though sometimes this happens when they are in their early teens and sexually immature.
"These marriages affect children in many ways, particularly in such matters as health and education," says Savita Naqvi of Unicef in the Indian capital, New Delhi. "They're particularly loaded against girls. When they get married at a vulnerable age, they are often denied access to education and reproductive health becomes a nightmare."
We were obliged to leave Dadikar ki Dhani soon after the conclusion of the wedding ceremony. Some villagers were starting to get edgy and asking why outsiders had been allowed in. We saw the children being led away to pray at a shrine and then set off down the same dirt track that brought us to the village.
The campaign against child marriage by Unicef and by women's groups in Rajashtan is starting to have some impact. On the outskirts of the Rajasthani capital, Jaipur, I witnessed scores of women marching through a village, chanting slogans and singing songs to mobilise the rest of the inhabitants against early marriage. One of the women said she regretted having married off her own daughter at the age of 15 and was now trying to dissuade other mothers from doing the same.
But the practice of early marriage is unlikely to end soon. It will take many years to convince parents in rural areas that child marriage infringes basic human rights, damaging their children's prospects of leading happy, fulfilled lives.