India accounts for about one-third of the world's child marriages, according to data from the UN's children agency UNICEF, but a video circulating online does not show a girl marrying a man in the South Asian country. The girl's mother has told AFP that the man in the clip is the child's uncle. She has also uploaded a video to her social media account showing him playing a common Indian wedding game with the actual bride.
"Culture or crime? It is disgusting. The little girl's face says it all. They're stealing her childhood, her innocence. What a cowardly pervert, why didn't he marry a real woman, why did he choose a little girl," reads a simplified Chinese X post shared on April 23, 2026.
The attached 30-second clip begins with a man dressed in a pink traditional Indian wedding attire kissing the girl on her cheeks. The man then speaks with the girl, who visibly cheers up.
UN's children agency UNICEF defines a child bride as a girl who enters into marriage or union before she is 18 years old. India alone accounts for one-third of the world's child marriages, according to 2023 data (archived link).
But the body has also noted India's "remarkable progress" towards ending the practice, as the prevalence of girls and women who married before adulthood dropped from 49 percent in 2001 to 23 percent in 2021 (archived link).
Similar claims were shared on TikTok, Threads and Sina, as well as in various languages.
Comments on the post show that users believe the clip depicts a...
India accounts for about one-third of the world's child marriages, according to data from the UN's children agency UNICEF, but a video circulating online does not show a girl marrying a man in the ...