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.
Screenshot of the false post captured on April 23, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
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 marriage ceremony between the man and the girl.
“Shame on you, this is a child, how dare you desire her? And I do not bless this disgraceful marriage for you,” reads one comment, while another said: “Ugh.. so disgusting, makes me wanna puke.”
But the girl in the video is not the bride in the ceremony.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes shows the original video was published on Instagram and YouTube by a user named “Rukhsar Fatma” on April 19. Both accounts have since been deleted.
The Hindi-language text overlaid on the YouTube video reads: “A niece is not only her parents’ daughter but also the daughter of her uncle.”
Screenshot comparison between the false X post (L) and the YouTube video
AFP reached out to the Instagram user, who confirmed that the man in the video is her brother and the girl is her daughter.
“It was at the wedding and my daughter was upset and crying, so her mamu (my brother) was trying to make her laugh,” she replied on Instagram on April 23 before deleting her account. “Mamu” is a Hindi term for maternal uncle.
She also confirmed that another video featuring the man and another woman dressed in wedding attire was the real bride. The couple can be seen playing a common wedding game in India where newlyweds compete to find a ring or other objects in a container filled with milk, water, rose petals or other coloured liquid.
Screenshot of the Instagram post captured on April 24, 2026 showing the man and his bride
Another video shared by the user shows her brother with his wife, and his Instagram profile “zee_s_h_an” is tagged in it. He used a similar picture as his profile photo before changing it and setting his account to private (archived link).
AFP reached out to the user for comment but has not received a reply.
Screenshot comparison of the Instagram video (L) and the man’s Instagram profile
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about child marriage.
