Child marriages: denying girls of life-improving opportunities

Reza Hossani -UNICEF Sri Lanka Representative

Yesterday we marked the International Day of the Girl Child under the theme 'The Child Marriage'.

As I started to write this editorial I was drawn to a news item of a 17-year old mother Ramani (name changed) had been stabbed to death. According to the news article, this child mother is believed to have been stabbed to death by her husband, and was earlier molested by him.

What a tragic way to celebrate the Day of the Girl Child!

Ramani was robbed of her childhood when she was married away as a young child. Her situation was further exacerbated when she became a mother while she was still a child herself. Her life was taken away before she could even become an adult.

Ramani’s case is just one of many across the world: 58 million girls under the age of 18 have been married in the past 10 years. More shocking is that 15 million of these girls were forced to marry when they were between the age of 10 and 14 years. It is believed that one out of three marriages in developing countries involves underage girls. And in 10 countries in the world, at least one in two girls is married before the age of 18. These marriages are in violation of international laws and conventions committed to by most governments of the world.

According to a recent report by UNICEF, globally almost 400 million women aged 20-49 (over 40 percent) were married while they were children. The practice is most prevalent in South Asia, with 46 percent of women having been married before the age of 18. Supposedly the practice in the region is declining, although at a slow pace. But we must never forget that even if one life of a girl is lost to this inhumane practice, we as a society have the responsibility to take action against it.

Public awareness

Last year the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to declare October 11th as the International Day of the Girl Child.

This Day is meant to give people and organizations the opportunity to raise public awareness about the different types of discrimination and abuse suffered by many girls around the world. On this day, many community and political leaders talk to the public about the importance of girls’ right to equal education and their fundamental freedoms. Various events are expected to be held to showcase the work that people are doing to empower girls through active support and engagement with parents, families, and the wider community.

Recognizing the menace of child marriages, UNICEF marks the inaugural International Day of the Girl Child by bringing to the forefront the gross realities of this practice and its appalling impact on the lives of millions of girls around the world. This day is also a call for attention and resources from the international community to help eradicate this practice and promise girl children a better future, a future in which they are allowed to be children and only children.

Younger girls

It is a known fact that child marriages often result from the interplay of social and economic forces - whereby girls are considered a social and economic burden on families. Marrying them off is falsely considered an easier solution to shed the family’s responsibility to look after them, educate them and feed them. It is in some cases even a profitable transaction for the girl’s parents or guardians where higher ‘bride prices or dowries’ are placed upon younger girls.

Child brides pay the price not only by losing their childhood and not having the opportunity to grow to their full potential, but very often they also pay the ultimate price of giving their life away. In places where underage marriage is high, so is teenage pregnancy and maternal death.

The chances of dying increases with very young pregnant mothers. Evidence also show that infants born to young mothers are more likely to suffer low birth weight and premature death. When a mother is underage, her baby’s chances of dying in the first year of life is 60 percent greater than that of a baby born to a mother over 18 years of age.

Society and nations as a whole also lose when girls marry early. Studies have shown that when girls are educated and empowered, the overall well-being of the society improves with decreased population growth, more children attending schools, reduced health hazards, faster economic growth and lower childhood malnutrition and mortality.

In Sri Lanka, while legislation on the legal age of marriage and related awareness among communities exist, the problem persists in practice. A recent UNICEF supported study on Early Marriage in Sri Lanka reveals that child marriage is also linked to statutory rape. However, the report states that the linkage between early marriage and statutory rape is hard to trace due to the falsification of records to alter the girl’s real age at the time of registration.

A girl married as a child, whether forced or as a result of statutory rape, is hurled into a vicious cycle of denied childhood and increases vulnerability to violence and abuse. The UNICEF study indicates that early marriage and statutory rape are on the increase in Sri Lanka, particularly among poor communities in conflict-affected areas and among certain ethnic groups.

While the 1995 amendments to the marriage law increasing the age of marriage to 18 years, has actually helped reduce the incidence of underage marriages, it does reflect those covered under customary laws.

Children of Sri Lanka have enjoyed equal rights to education, health and social protection services. The question one should ask is why when it comes to statutory rape and early marriage, are some children like Ramani still deprived of their basic rights!

Let us all come together on this International Day of the Girl Child and promise to give the girl children in Sri Lanka equal rights to survival, development and protection.