Ravi Verma

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.

There is growing global momentum to foster women’s participation and leadership in the political arena, and specifically within local governance structures. India has been at the top of this curve as compared to many countries around the world: Twenty years ago, decentralized governance in India – which ensured that women hold at least one-third of seats in local governing bodies known as Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) – was established with the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution. But have these quotas really enabled PRIs to successfully address concerns faced by ordinary women in India over the past two decades?  

Preventing – and ultimately eliminating – violence against young women and girls worldwide requires a layered approach that simultaneously tackles everything from the root causes of violence to how it intersects with health complications such as maternal mortality, an International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) panel said on March 7.

The diverse group came together for ICRW’s first Passports to Progress event in honor of ICRW’s new Turning Point campaign, which aims to change the course adolescent girls’ lives globally. Some 300 gathered at Washington, D.C.’s National Press Club on the eve of International Women’s Day to take part in the wide-ranging discussion.

Moderated by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, panelists were Michael Elliott, president and chief executive officer of One; Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts; Stella Mukasa, director of ICRW research and programs on gender-based violence; and Ravi Verma, who directs ICRW’s Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India. Kavita Ramdas, the Ford Foundation’s Delhi representative, shared her perspective in a pre-recorded video.

The gathering took place just days after 15-year-old Pakistani girls' education activist Malala Yousafzai - who survived a shooting by the Taliban - was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, the day after Passports to Progress, the U.S. State Department posthumously honored with its Women of Courage Award the young woman who was fatally raped last December in Delhi. The 23-year-old has become known as Nirbhaya, which means "fearless" in Hindi.

These and other recent incidents of violence that captured the global spotlight helped to frame the March 7 conversation. Verma stressed that the Delhi rape represents a common occurrence in India’s capital and emphasized the need to address not only such public reflections of violence against young women, but also those that play out quietly, such as child marriage. “This is a manifestation of violence that happens in terms of restricting [girls’] choices and denying their rights,” Verma said about the practice of early marriage.

Turlington-Burns agreed, stating that girls ages 15 to 19 are most at risk of dying from complications during childbirth. “Girls, because they’re not fully developed and they’re malnourished, are in an incredibly vulnerable position when they’re put in the position of being married and impregnated prematurely,” she said. “It’s an incredibly cruel way for them to be in the world.”

HIV also is “the leading killer” of young women of reproductive age in developing countries, Elliott said. Many face numerous obstacles, including violence, to accessing treatment and prevention services. “The nexus, the connections between HIV infections and violence against women are deep, significant and impenetrable,” he said. “Sexual violence and HIV infection reinforce each other.”

Panelists said that successfully preventing gender-based violence requires a multifaceted approach that targets the “cross-cutting” nature of violence – or rather, the way in which it intersects with other facets of women’s lives, such as their health, their livelihood and their relationships. Working with men’s organizations is critical. Evaluating whether prevention efforts are effective and replicable needs to be a priority. And, panelists said, creating national policies that protect and support women and that hold perpetrators accountable are key.

Mukasa suggested that the “next frontier” on this issue also requires beginning to treat women’s economic empowerment programs worldwide “as a strategy for protecting women against violence.” “We also recognize that women’s political influence and participation in political processes is very empowering,” Mukasa said.

However, it is essential that every type of violence-prevention program addresses the root causes of gender-based violence. Experts said the origins of violence start early, with how girls and boys are socialized at home and in school.

“How you value the other gender," Mukasa said, "begins there.”