Child Marriage

Low education level, lack of community-based livelihood programs and widespread poverty are the primary motives of child marriage in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, according to a new International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) report, which examines perceptions about the practice from a variety of groups and recommends strategies to delay child marriage in South Asia.

The study, “Asia Child Marriage Initiative: Summary of Research in Bangladesh, India and Nepal,” explores child marriage through a qualitative study of stakeholders in the region. ICRW carried out the study for Plan International Regional to help Plan better understand the efficacy of its Asia Child Marriage Initiative, which aims to prevent early marriages in the region. The research was conducted in 2012 and led by Ravi Verma, director of ICRW’s Asia Regional Office in New Delhi.

This latest study builds upon ICRW’s nearly 20-year commitment to documenting the causes and consequences of child marriage and devising solutions to prevent it. Meanwhile, ICRW experts recently provided policy recommendations for addressing early marriage in nine Southern Asia countries and, in an ongoing program in Ethiopia with the humanitarian organization CARE, ICRW is striving to better understand what works to empower girls who are already married. 

Child marriage is one of the most prevalent violations of human rights in South Asia where 46 percent of children are married before the age of 18. It disproportionately affects girls, who are much more likely to be married off than boys. Although governments in the region are working to strengthen and enforce child marriage laws, the practice is deeply rooted in social values and norms and is often a result of poverty and lack of opportunities available to women. 

The research findings, gathered from a series of interview and focus group discussions with girls and boys, parents, community leaders and government officials, provide valuable insight into the practice of child marriage in the three countries, how community programs and government should address the issue, and ways to deter and ultimately end the practice.

ICRW researchers found that the cause of child marriage in all three countries is deeply ingrained in tradition and considered inevitable by children and adults alike. In most cases, parents’ fear of putting their daughters at risk of sexual violence or engaging in pre-marital sexual activity prompted them to marry them off young.

Furthermore, most respondents hold the age-old belief that a female’s primary role in life is to care for a husband and children. Poverty and lack of education was also found to be a key driver in each country. For example, girls from lower income families were often married young because of costs associated with education, a preference to educate boys over girls if forced to choose, and the poor quality of schools. A relatively less understood reason for child marriage that emerged was parents’ fear that their daughters would “self-initiate” marriage without their consent, damaging the family’s honor.

The study provides an extensive list of key findings and recommendations to improve current government initiatives and community programs, develop future policy and create mass media messaging in the region. If implemented, researchers say the study’s recommendations can ultimately help change perceptions and delay early marriages in South Asia and other regions where the practice is a major health, development and human rights issue.

The following is a brief summary of key findings and recommendations:

• Education and poverty are closely linked to age of a girl at marriage
• Engage men in efforts to prevent child marriage
• Develop mass media messages that promote respect of the decision for boys and girls to remain unmarried rather than stigmatize unmarried girls
• Universalize financial support for girls’ secondary education
• Strengthen the identification and prosecution of parties involved in perpetuating child marriage, and enhance penalties so that the law becomes a deterrent
• Policymakers should support programs to economically empower girls and women in locations of high prevalence of child marriage and in marginalized communities

Read “Asia Child Marriage Initiative: Summary of Research in Bangladesh, India and Nepal” to view additional recommendations, learn more about how researchers conducted the study and see an assessment of Plan International’s strategies in the region.

Earlier this month – just before International Women’s Day – the U.S. Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This in itself was a triumph. However, there was another victory won that warrants special attention: the legislation includes new, groundbreaking protections for young women and girls affected by child marriage.

This is a critical step in upholding the rights of adolescent girls around the world, and in shielding them from the harmful practice of  child marriage, which often has devastating consequences for girls, their families and their communities.

Under the leadership of Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), who have consistently pushed for American leadership on this issue, provisions requiring the U.S. Secretary of State to author a national strategy to end child marriage were inserted to the VAWA reauthorization. ICRW and its partners in the Girls Not Brides USA coalition have advocated for the creation of such a strategy for years, and welcome the news that this important strategy will become a foreign policy reality for the United States.

If present trends continue, 142 million girls will marry over the next decade. That’s 38,000 girls married every day for the next 10 years. The costs of child marriage are high, not only for the girls themselves, but also for communities and societies as a whole. Because their bodies are not fully developed, child brides are at a very high risk of facing complications in pregnancy and childbirth – childbirth is the leading cause of death for girls ages 15-19. Young brides are more likely to experience gender-based violence, to drop out of school and to contract sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

These staggering statistics underscore the urgency of US action to end this debilitating practice. The provisions in the VAWA reauthorization are both a welcome and a necessary step forward in the quest to ensure that this is done.

Savita Singh, a slight 18-year-old schoolgirl who confesses she is poor at math but aspires to attend college to study Hindi and history, admits she has another, secret dream.

"I want to work for the Haryana police force," Savita told me, explaining that she is passionate about prosecuting families who she says abuse and sometimes even set fire to their daughters-in-law in the region. "But I know that my dream won't be fulfilled. I'm not tall enough."

Savita shared her secret with me in a cramped, dark room two days before the barbaric gang rape and subsequent death of a young woman in Delhi that caught the world's attention and sparked outrage across India in December. We sat on low charpoy beds, the wooden and rope structures that are ubiquitous in Haryana state, along with Savita's sisters, Kirin, who is 20, and Rekha, 15. High, concrete walls behind the girls were adorned with posters of Hindu gods and faraway places. Rekha and Kirin also told me about their ambitions to become teachers, to continue their studies, to wait to marry until they are ready.

While child marriage is still prevalent throughout India, the fact that the Singh sisters harbor such dreams at all may signal a subtle, generational shift in this conservative, agricultural state bordering the capital. Many women still practice a form of purdah here, hiding their faces behind a full diaphanous veil when in public or when in the company of non-blood related men. And until recent years it was extremely common for girls to marry in their early to mid-teens. Although illegal, they still do, but to a lesser degree.

One of those girls was Munni, Savita's 37-year-old mother who thinks she married when she was 15. Both Munni and her husband Amar, a soft-spoken farmer with high cheekbones, a kind face and a sixth-grade education, were determined to see all three of their daughters finish high school even if they can't afford to send them to college. Munni in particular was adamant that Savita and her sisters focus on their studies instead of working the fields.

"I never went to school because my parents had fields and I had buffalo to tend to and they said to me, 'what's the point of you going to school if you're only going to work with dung anyway? What's the point of pretending you'll be a Madam?'" she told me over hot cups of spiced chai in a modest courtyard just outside the girls' bedroom. "I feel very good that my daughters have the chance to study. Two things happen. One, a girl can learn how to speak properly – I don't know how to speak, my language is course as you can hear. And two, if a girl is educated she'll know how to manage the household accounts."

This was not the first time I heard such statements during my short visit to Haryana, where I met with a number of girls from poor families like Savita. She is among the first class of girls who took part in a Haryana government scheme established in 1994 called Apni Beti Apna Dhan (ABAD) – 'Our Daughter Our Wealth' in English. The government is now in the process of paying out bonds that were deposited in each participant's name when she was born. Today they are worth somewhere in the range of $350-$500; girls will receive them only if they were still unmarried at the time of their18th birthday last year.

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is currently undertaking an evaluation of the scheme to determine its impact on this first cohort of girls. Initial findings will be published in late 2013. While the ICRW evaluation is still underway and its findings are still far from conclusive, its seems the scheme may have, at least in part, contributed to delaying marriage for some participants – even if it didn't mean a fundamental change in attitudes about a girl's value.

The Singhs told me – as did others in Haryana with whom I met – that they decided to wait to find a husband for their oldest daughter, 20-year-old Kirin, until Savita receives the cash transfer (her father was just about to submit her paperwork when we met). Marrying girls in a joint wedding is relatively common in Haryana among low-income families as it helps cut costs. The Singhs youngest daughter, Rekha, is also scheduled to receive an ABAD cash transfer after she turns 18 in a few years' time.

Amar and Munni seemed especially enlightened regarding the importance of their daughters' education. However, after speaking with them in the fading afternoon sunlight next to a couple of lazing buffalo, it soon became clear that an education was mainly so important because it means increasing the chances of finding their daughters good husbands who hold down good jobs.

In the meantime, Savita and Rekha will continue their secondary school studies, while Kirin works as a teacher's assistant in her village. Savita knows marriage is on the horizon, but she recognizes the value of living out her childhood and staying in school – even if her future in-laws, whoever they may be, won't allow her to become a policewoman, or be able to finance a college education.

"I wouldn't have liked getting married at a younger age. I would have had to leave school and take on the responsibilities of another household," she told me.

When I asked Savita if she would have been able to care for a baby when she was still herself a child, she was quick to shake her head.

"This is my time to 'eat and drink' – my time to have fun, my time to be in my parents' house. This is the time when I can do it. This is my time."

Perhaps another shift will occur when the next generation comes of age. Perhaps Savita's own daughter will have the chance to go to college or become a policewoman. Just as long as she's tall enough.

This story originally appeared on Too Young to Wed, a multimedia partnership between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and premier photo agency VII.

This is the third story in a four-part series offering a rare glimpse into the lives of child brides in Ethiopia and how ICRW is making a difference for them.

AMHARA REGION, Ethiopia – It's the first day of Timkat, a three-day Ethiopian Orthodox Christian celebration of Jesus' baptism, and Zabshwork is buzzing about between her two businesses, selling shoes, soap and salt in one; beer, bread and tea in the other.

Her store and bar sit on a bend of the main road that cuts through her high mountain village, where the air is minty with eucalyptus. Zabshwork pours Tella, the local beer, into fat, slightly rusted tin cans for two customers. She serves tea in tiny clear glasses to others. Then she whizzes into a room behind the bar to knead teff dough for injera, Ethiopia's traditional bread, before popping outside to serve lunch to her husband and a couple of his friends.

She moves with purpose and poise. "Holidays are good business days," Zabshwork, who appears much older than her 20 years, says through an interpreter. "That's when I get the most customers."

In the last year, Zabshwork has honed her business acumen and found inspiration – personally and entrepreneurially – through her involvement in an International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and CARE-Ethiopia program for young married girls like her.

Called TESFA, which means "hope," the program takes place in the Amhara region, which has the highest rate of child marriage in Ethiopia. It is also one of the few efforts globally that focuses on married adolescent girls. It targets 5,000 child brides – most are between 14 and 19 – with information about sexual and reproductive health, how to save and invest money and lessons on everything from how to care for a newborn to how to communicate in a relationship. ICRW is testing whether combining health and economic empowerment programming has a greater impact on girls' lives than providing such information separately.

Critically, TESFA also aims to empower child brides to advocate for themselves – within the confines of a life they did not choose. By doing so, these girls are likely to have a better chance of not only growing into healthy, productive adults, but also mothers who one day may stand against their own daughters being forced to marry.

In Zabshwork's village, ICRW and CARE-Ethiopia are striving to equip married girls with the skills, confidence and direction that can perhaps give them a chance out of poverty. Despite laws against early marriage, there are hundreds of thousands of child brides in Amhara who are married in often secret ceremonies to men eight years or older.

"In very poor and rural settings like Amhara, there are not viable alternatives to marriage for girls, such as a thriving labor market where young women can hope to earn a living," says Ann Warner, an ICRW senior gender and youth specialist. "So, parents often choose marriage as the safest bet for their daughter's future."

Most child brides drop out of school, and without an education, Warner says girls are less prepared to care for themselves and their children and less equipped to earn, save and invest money. "Ultimately, they become stuck in an inter-generational cycle of poverty."

Savings & loan 101

The drive to Zabshwork's village follows a winding road flanked by eucalyptus trees, which dot the Amhara landscape.

The district in which she lives is one of two where TESFA is taking place. Zabshwork belongs to an arm of program that brings married girls together to contribute pennies to a shared pot. They then make small loans to each other to start income-generating activities.

Zabshwork's savings group has 14 members and at every gathering – they meet twice monthly – each girl contributes 2.50 Ethiopian birr or about 14 cents. They loan money only after everyone agrees, and a member must co-sign with the borrower for the loan. The borrower then has to pay the money back at 3 percent interest within three months.

Some girls borrowed money from their husbands or relatives to get started and have since repaid that original loan. Across the 88 savings groups in TESFA, the most common activities girls engage in include selling eggs, raising poultry, petty trade, selling vegetables and agricultural work.

Before participating in TESFA, "No one used to lend us money because we're young and they don't think we're trustworthy," says Zabshwork, whose savings group sells chili peppers and powdered beans..

The girls say that learning how to save, invest and earn money has boosted their confidence – and they notice that others are starting to believe in them, too. Being a part of the program also has given these married girls a chance to socialize with their friends and be involved in their community. That's a big shift. Worldwide, child brides often are isolated at home, overburdened with household chores and caring for their husbands, children and in-laws.

Since participating in TESFA, many girls say they now have the courage to speak up if they want to go somewhere. They debate with their husbands. Ask questions. Make suggestions. And they say their husbands respect and trust them more – especially with money.

These young wives who were once invisible to others are slowly being seen as valuable and worthy of recognition.

Profits for life

That's true for Zabshwork, too.

As a member of a TESFA savings group, she borrowed 500 Ethiopian birr – about $27 – to increase her bar's selection of beer, liquor and soda. Since paying back the loan to the group and beefing up her inventory, Zabshwork says the bar has been making a decent profit. It's the only establishment of its kind in the general vicinity and attracts neighbors as well as travelers on the main road leading to eastern Ethiopia. And now things are looking even better: Zabshwork's village recently got electricity, which means the bar can stay open past its former 7 p.m. closing time. That also means more business.

But Zabshwork says what she's learned from TESFA goes beyond better managing her businesses. "The thing that made a difference in my life is the communication," she says. "How I talk to my husband and in-laws ...I also learned you could save money, even if you don't have a lot."

She and her husband, Kefyalew – who is around 30 – have been married for about five years. Zabshwork says she learned 10 days before her wedding that her parents had arranged for her to marry.

She thought about running away. Then she thought about telling her school principal. But with the wedding just days away, Zabshwork says she felt it was too late to try to stop it.

Early marriage causes a jolting transition from being a child to shouldering adult responsibilities. Most girls interviewed for this series described daily routines of rising early, fetching water and firewood, cooking, cleaning, and, if they are mothers, minding a child. They also described painful, unwanted first sexual encounters with their husbands; many didn't understand what was happening.

Zabshwork says she remembers struggling to juggle her household tasks when she first wed, and often forgetting what needed to be done. "When you're living with your parents, they would remind you of your house chores," she says.

These days, Zabshwork seems to have found her groove. She and Kefyalew don't plan to have children for a few more years; she's taking birth control. For now, she manages the shop and bar, and he helps with the latter. Since being involved in TESFA, she says her husband consults her and they make decisions together. "I'm very happy about that."

So is Kefyalew: "She brings good ideas to our business."

And like an entrepreneur, Zabshwork is looking ahead. Her dreamis to add a 10-room hotel to the bar and serve three meals daily. And one day, she wants to supply the type of products her shop carries – instead of going through someone else.

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW's senior writer and editor.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Next story: Changing the Course

Read the previous stories in this series:
Week one: Innovative Program Gives Hope to Child Brides
Week two: The Birds and the Bees - and a Better Future

Watch the video: Voices from Ethiopia