Millions of girls under the age of eighteen are married off every year. Sometimes it concerns girls who are not yet ten years old. India is the country with the most child brides, about 40% of the total. But it is a phenomenon that is very widespread.
What is child marriage?
A child marriage concerns the marriage of a child under the age of eighteen, according to Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Girls are the main victims of these child marriages, although the phenomenon also affects boys to a lesser extent. Nowadays, child marriage is often seen as a violation of human rights, but this does not mean that it no longer occurs frequently. Poverty, tradition and religion often go hand in hand to maintain the phenomenon. With children as victims, their rights to health, education and development are violated.
Forced Marriage
A forced marriage occurs when one or both partners are forced into marriage against their will. This coercion can be both physical and psychological in nature. Because a minor cannot yet understand the consequences of his/her actions, it can be said that every child bride is forced. She will not be able to see what long-term consequences her marriage will have for her (and for her possible children).
The phenomenon is most common in Asia and Africa, with India leading the way with 40% of the number of child brides. UNICEF estimates that in Africa about 42% of girls marry before the age of eighteen. Many girls are sixteen or seventeen, but in some areas these are children younger than ten years old.
Reasons for Child Marriage
Poverty:
The main reason for early marriage of many girls is sheer poverty. In some cases, poverty can be so great that marriage means one less mouth to fill. In some areas a girl also provides a bride price, which can be attractive for a family. It is important to keep in mind that families usually want the best for their child, they want a stable future for their child. That is also the reason that sometimes much older men are selected.
Honor: In regions where virginity and honor play an important role, these can be important impulses to marry off a girl. A teenager can be a danger to the honor of a family, by marrying her off young one can ensure that she enters the marriage as a virgin and the honor is preserved.
Consequences of Child Marriage
The consequences of marrying off girls at a young age are enormous. In all areas, physically, economically, psychologically and socially.
Physical consequences: When a girl is married off at a young age, there is a good chance that she will immediately become sexually active, whether her body is ready for it or not. The chance of pregnancy is high and early pregnancy can take a high toll on a child’s body. Girls who have a child between the ages of 10 and 14 are five times as likely to die at birth as women between the ages of 20 and 24. For girls between the ages of 15 and 19, the risk is twice as high. Premature sex and premature pregnancies can have all kinds of physical consequences, such as heavy bleeding and infections. In addition, these types of brides often have much less access to good health care, due to poverty, a husband or in-laws who do not let them out of their sight. The risk of HIV/AIDS is also greater for these types of girls. Sometimes early marriage is used to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS, but often a spouse has had previous sexual contact and contracted the disease that way.
Social consequences: Most child brides have low education, poorer health and little personal freedom. These girls are raised to be mothers and wives. They are often illiterate and there is a good chance that the same thing will happen to their daughters. There is often a culture of silence about matters such as sexuality and reproduction and because the girl has no education, she will not learn anything about this, except what she experiences from her own experience. It silences her when it comes to family planning, her health and sexual relationships in general. It is a vicious circle of poverty and ignorance.
Psychological consequences: Marriage and motherhood bring great responsibilities , something for which girls are not yet ready. Young brides are much more likely to experience violence within their relationships. There is also a high chance that they will experience divorce or be abandoned. Because their husbands are often much older, the chance of becoming a widow at a young age is also not inconceivable. This also causes additional problems because divorced or widowed women have less status than married women.
Solutions
The phenomenon of child brides does not stand alone, but is embedded in a whole of culture and poverty. Social, economic and cultural matters have an influence, including the gender gap. That is why child marriage cannot be tackled in isolation. Causes and consequences are interrelated and the vicious circle must be broken. The most important factor is education, the more education a girl has, the less likely she is to become a victim of child marriage. Especially when education contributes to reducing the gap between both genders.