Bangladesh, for example, is a country that has over four million child brides, despite the fact that the legal minimum age to marry there is The practice is deeply rooted and largely accepted in society. Child marriage has a devastating impact on young girls. They are robbed of their childhood, face a much higher risk of abuse and health complications and are often prevented from attending school.
The causes of child marriage are complex and varied, motivated by different factors across communities and regions — sometimes, even within the same country. Child marriage is often driven by engrained traditions and poverty. For struggling families, their best chance of survival may require marrying their daughters off, just because they can't afford to keep them.
Overwhelmingly, child brides come from the world's most impoverished nations. Rather, they are financial burdens to their families and consequently, less valuable than boys. For parents with several children or living in extreme poverty, child marriage is simply a way to help alleviate the desperate economic conditions they find themselves in.
A younger girl would presumably have more time to dedicate to her new family and bear more children, so she might fetch a higher bride price — the amount paid by the groom in some communities to the parents of a bride. Sometimes, girls are married to help offset debts, settle conflicts or as a substitute for money. There are so many ways in which child marriage creates economic incentives for young girls to be married off early — whether for financial security or gain.
Sadly, the practice also tends to trap these girls into a lifetime of economic disadvantage. Robbed of the chance to grow, learn and fully realise her potential, child brides are disempowered. Many are left to live a life of deprivation and disadvantage. Without an education, they are less able to lift themselves and their families out of the cycle of poverty.
Where a couple is living in union, as if they were married but without proper legal recognition, child brides face an even greater risk of economic exploitation. The informality could leave her vulnerable to abuse without the full advantages of social recognition, citizenship and inheritance. Child marriage can also be influenced by norms and beliefs. In some societies, marriage is nothing more than a phase of womanhood.
Once menstruation starts, a girl is seen as a grown woman, so the logical next steps for her in life are marriage and motherhood. Younger girls may also be perceived as more amenable, more easily shaped into an obedient wife.
Parents may arrange a union for their daughter while she is young to ensure she remains a virgin and to maximise her child-bearing years. For other families, forced child marriage is a survival strategy. In fragile contexts, like environments with ongoing war or crisis, early marriage is also seen as a legitimate way of protecting girls in an otherwise hostile environment.
Where people have been forced from their homes, the protection of a husband is preferable to the risk of physical or sexual assault from strangers in refugee camps or informal tent settlements. Girls who have no education are three times more likely to marry before 18 than girls who attended secondary school or higher. When girls have access to education, they develop the knowledge and confidence to make important life decisions for themselves — including if, when and who to marry.
Many are forced to drop out in order to focus on domestic responsibilities or to raise children of their own. Parents and community leaders may see education as unnecessary for their primary roles in life as a wife and mother. Early and forced child marriage have devastating consequences on the health and development of a girl. Read the handbook about being a survivor of forced marriage.
It has details of organisations that can give you help and advice. Check what you need to do. To help us improve GOV. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. Cookies on GOV. UK We use some essential cookies to make this website work. Forced marriage is also recognized by the International Labor Organization as a form of modern slavery.
For women and girls, forced marriage often means forced motherhood. The difference between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage is supposed to be the difference between consent and coercion.
In an arranged marriage, both the bride and the groom consent to have their marriage arranged with varying degrees of choice about when and whom to wed ; in a forced marriage, one or both of them is coerced into the marriage and does not give full, free consent. They might be rushed to give an answer, before they can fully think through their options. The minimum legal framework around marriage in each country.
Girls Not Brides member organisations, National Partnerships and coalitions working to end child marriage in each country. What it helps you do Strengthen your advocacy and fundraising proposals with data on child marriage in your country and around the world.
0コメント