29/04/2024
EARLY MARRIAGE (CHILD MARRIAGE
Child marriage have received international more attention that ever in recent years. The three problems are rooted in gender inequality, poverty, lack of sexuality and reproductive health education, and lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents. Efforts to reduce or decrease the practice of child marriage.
Child Marriage
Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under
the age of 18 and an adult or another child.
Despite a steady decline in this harmful practice over the past decade, child marriage
remains widespread, with approximately one in five girls married in childhood across
the globe. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for
global action to end child marriage by 2030.
Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls
disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage
among boys is just one sixth that among girls.
Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their well-being. Girls who
marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to
remain in school. They have worse economic and health outcomes than their unmarried
peers, which are eventually passed down to their own children, straining a country’s
capacity to provide quality health and education services.
Child brides often become pregnant during adolescence, when the risk of complications
during pregnancy and childbirth increases. The practice can also isolate girls from
family and friends, taking a heavy toll on their mental health.
The average age at the first marriage of women who have been married under the age of 18 years is 16 years, or 5 years earlier than the average age at marriage of Indonesian women in general (Smeru 2013). The 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) conducted by the Ministry of Health revealed that among women aged between 10-54 years, 2.6% was first married at the age of less than 15 years and 23.9% were married at the age of 15-19 years. This means that approximately 26% of underage girls have been married before the functions of their reproductive organs have developed optimally.
The impacts of child marriage
based on findings of the study include among others reproductive health issues, such as girls married at a young age
1. Being vulnerable to experiencing high-risk pregnancies. Another impact felt by females who marry at a young age is related to mental health.
2. Young women often experience stress when they leaves their family and are responsible for their own family.
3. Young women who marry usually drop out of school and do not gain the knowledge and skills that can sustain life in the future.
4. They also cannot participate in decision-making in the family because of the unequal bargaining position and they are at risk of becoming victims of domestic violence.
Addressing child marriage requires recognition of the factors that enable it. While the
roots of the practice vary across countries and cultures, poverty, lack of educational
opportunities and limited access to health care perpetuate it. Some families marry off
their daughters to reduce their economic burden or earn income. Others may do so
because they believe it will secure their daughters’ futures or protect them.
Norms and stereotypes around gender roles, as well as the socio-economic risk of
pregnancy outside of marriage, also uphold the practice.
Causes Of Child Marriage
Around 650 million women and girls alive today were married as
children, and on current projections 150 million more girls will be
married by 2030.
There has been significant progress on bringing to an end the harmful practice of child
marriage. Ten years ago, 23% of women aged 20 – 24 were married before they were
18. That figure has dropped to 19% today. But if this progress is not accelerated, the
world will not meet the Sustainable Development Goal 5 of gender equality by 2030.
Child marriage is a truly global and complex issue, impacting girls and communities
across cultures.
There are, however, common threads that that drive child marriage
and can influence its prevalence in a community.
Causes
1. Gender Inequality
Girls should be free to choose when and who they marry. However, in some communities, entrenched gender inequality and enforced gender roles can perpetuate the practice of child marriage. However, in some communities, entrenched gender inequality and enforced gender
roles can perpetuate the practice of child marriage.
In the West African countries, 54% of girls are married before their 18
birthday. The World Bank estimates that achieving universal female secondary education could
virtually eliminate child marriage and reduce the prevalence of early childbearing by up
to 75 per cent.
2. Poverty
Families that are facing poverty and extreme stress can see early
marriage of daughters as a means to reduce their economic burden,
gain financial security for the family, and in desperate situations it is
sometimes seen as a matter of survival.
In some contexts, marriage and becoming a mother is considered girls' only option in
life, which further exacerbates the practice.
3. Social Norms And Practices
Deep-rooted customs, social norms and practices often prioritise early
marriage.
These multi-generational and gendered norms can be seen as a means of ensuring
family honour, securing economic stability, or controlling female sexuality.
These multi-generational and gendered norms can be seen as a means of ensuring
family honour, securing economic stability, or controlling female sexuality.
In the rural Vietnamese community where 15-year-old Nga lives, girls usually drop out
of school early.
Social norms and gender stereotypes mean that girls are not encouraged to stay in
school, with the belief that marriage and child rearing are the only options available to
them and should be their only aim in life.
These multi-generational and gendered norms can be seen as a means of ensuring
family honour, securing economic stability, or controlling female sexuality.
In the rural Vietnamese community where 15-year-old Nga lives, girls usually drop out
of school early.
Social norms and gender stereotypes mean that girls are not encouraged to stay in
school, with the belief that marriage and child rearing are the only options available to
them and should be their only aim in life.
There is also a belief in Nga’s community that girls who stay in school and complete
their education will find it harder to get married.
Adolescent girls and young women are the worst affected by the crisis in the region,
with the conflict making them susceptible to abductions, and physical and sexual
assault.
The Religious Aspect
Both early and unchosen (forced) marriage were (and remain) common in
traditional societies. Today, however, ending both is an important global goal.
Marriage of children who are under 18 years old is a violation of human rights as set out in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and later international conventions.
Likewise, the idea that marriage can be undertaken without full consent
violates similar norms. There are abundant reasons for this shift in
understandings about marriage, but prominent among them are an
appreciation that full consent to marriage is a universal right, the remarkable
benefits of educating girls (so that they stay in school rather than entering
marriage as a child), and the dangers to a woman’s health of early
childbearing. Forced marriage today is considered to be a form of modern
slavery and early marriage a clear violation of the rights of the child, especially
girls.
Despite the compelling arguments and official international consensus on the
evils of child marriage, marriage of children is still common in many societies,
following inherited cultural norms and traditions but also driven by economic
rationales. In situations of conflict or deep poverty (in camps for refugees and
internally displaced people, for example), girls especially are married at very
young ages as a form of protection against violence. Even where laws prohibit
marriage of children or without full consent, the practice continues. Child
marriage occurs in all societies but it is most common across different African countries (4 in 10 young women there have been married before age 18) and
in South Asia (3 in 10). Worldwide, 21 percent of young women were married
before the age of 18, as well as 4 percent of young men.
Religious beliefs and traditions are an important factor in child marriage.
Religious leaders and communities commonly play central roles in betrothal
and marriage rituals. Understandings of religious obligations guide many
families as they consider marriage of their children. Concepts of family honor
are tragically bound up in attitudes towards race, caste, and religion. Because
of these links and because religious leaders are often trusted above other
groups of leaders, religious actors have influence that can change norms and
practices.
Religious and cultural attitudes towards marriage are deeply intertwined with
attitudes towards gender roles, particularly those of women. The focus of
different religious traditions on the family comes with expectations of
subordination of women within the family. That means that a girl’s wishes and
views on her marriage are often ignored. Attitudes that assume women’s
lesser capacities bolster approaches that consider girls as either a burden (to
be shed as soon as possible) or an asset (to protect from dishonor or to
capitalize through a bride price). These attitudes have far more to do with
culture than religious beliefs and teachings, but there are elements within most
religious traditions that assume different and often inferior roles for women.
The challenge is to translate understandings of the true equality of all God’s
children into practice where women, especially, are concerned.
Religious institutions and leaders should see ending child marriage and
assuring that marriages are entered into freely as a priority goal. More
important they should see the goal as one where they have direct, often
leading responsibility. Action can take many forms, from global advocacy to
loving counsel of families. But as a start all should refuse to bless or officiate
any marriage of children
