About 1 in 3 girls and women experience gender-based violence in their lifetime. For the longest time, young girls have been exposed to early marriages and gender-based violence. Despite the awareness that has been raised over the years, millions of girls under 18 are still roped into early and forced marriages, exposing them to domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and lifelong disadvantages. Early and child marriages are deeply rooted in poverty, cultural traditions, and gender inequality. which robs girls of their childhood, access to education.
What Is Child Marriage
A child marriage is defined as a union where at least one person is under 18 years old. While the concept seems simple, the real-life situations are often complex. The terms ‘child’ and ‘marriage’ can have different meanings in different places. Although boys can also be affected, adolescent girls face the highest risk, especially in parts of Africa, South Asia, and other developing regions.
Several factors make the female child vulnerable to being forced into early marriage this includes: Family poverty, the misguided notion that marriage gives them a safety net, worries about their family’s reputation, the weight of age-long social customs, and also religious or traditional laws. Weak laws in a country and a lack of clear record-keeping on births and marriages also play a key part.
This practice is an obvious human rights violation. It takes the innocence of childhood from these young girls, leads them to early pregnancy and early motherhood at their teenage years, and also rips them out of any connection to society. Young brides are mostly expected to be slaving away on household duties all day, with no say in the decisions made about their lives, this presents a severe limitation to their future.
Early Marriage As A Form Of Gender-Based Violence
Early marriage is a form of violence in itself, it takes away a girl’s freedom to make choices about her own life, her education, her health, and her own safety. As soon as she’s married, she’s usually pulled out of school, and with that, her chance at a decent education, getting skills, and building a career is trampled on. She has a higher risk of getting abused, and she faces serious health risks from becoming pregnant at such a young age. This isn’t just an unfortunate circumstance, it’s a direct result of a society that does not value girls as much as it values boys.
For families who are barely surviving and have no social safety net, marrying off their young daughter often seem like the only way out, a way to cut down on the number of mouths to feed. It’s a desperate measure that gets reinforced by long-held cultural and religious beliefs. Even when there are laws against this act, like the Nigeria’s Childs Rights Act, which was passed in 2003 and sets 18 as the minimum age for a person to get married; there are zero enforcement for the adoption of this law. As of 2024, many of Nigeria’s states haven’t fully adopt this law, so countless girls are left with zero legal protection.
Stopping early marriage will require more than just putting laws in place. It will require a genuine shift in perspective and a real commitment to investing in girls. We need to boldly make it clear to everyone that this is a human rights abuse and a form of violence against women, and then solid law enforcement should be put in place. Protecting girls means making sure these laws are enforced and that people who break them face the consequences. Also, we need to tackle the root causes of this problem, i.e., poverty, inequality, and a complete lack of opportunities for girls.
Health consequences of early child marriage
The health consequences of child marriage on girls are devastating. Children forced into early marriages are at a drastically higher risk of picking up STIs such as HIV. They are also at risk of cervical cancer, malaria, and, worst case, death in childbirth. One serious complication from childbirth that is common among victims of child marriage and GBV is obstetric fistula, which can leave a girl with chronic incontinence, a miserable side effect that can have a huge impact on her life.
The risks of childbirth are a whole lot higher for child brides. Girls who get married between the ages of 10 and 14 are at five to seven times higher risk of dying in childbirth compared to women in their twenties. Even for girls aged 15 to 19, the risk is still double. These deaths are largely because of conditions such as eclampsia, severe bleeding, HIV, malaria, and obstructed labour, which happens when the baby is too big for the mother’s pelvis.
It doesn’t end there; child marriage also takes a toll on the next generation. Babies born to teenage mothers are at a much higher risk of being premature, underweight, or even dying in the first few months of life. And the numbers are scary, in countries where this presents as a huge problem, infant mortality rates are 73% higher for babies born to mothers under the age of 20.
Educational And Socio-Economic Impacts Of Child Marriage
Child marriage tramples young girls’ education and future earning potential. Girls who get married young are much more likely to drop out of school and much less likely to finish their secondary schooling. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, if a girl gets married at 17, she’s about 5% less likely to finish secondary school, and the younger she gets married the lesser her chances.
This loss of education has serious economic implications that add up over a lifetime. Research in 15 countries shows that women who got married as kids earn, on average, 9% less over their lifetimes. When you add that up across whole national workforces, it results in a major economic hit, estimated to be around 26 billion dollars in those countries back in 2015.
Also, mothers who were child brides, their children, especially daughters, are less likely to finish school. This perpetuates a cycle of poverty and inequality, with child marriage causing even more economic damage across generations.
Strategies For Intervention And Prevention Of Early Marriage And Gender Based Violence
Fighting against child marriage and gender-based violence calls for a genuinely collaborative effort between different sectors. It involves planning, actions, preparing for humanitarian crises, and making sure these plans address the risk of early marriage. It also involves training staff and making sure that governments and donors are funding programs that actually protect girls’ rights.
Prevention is key, and it has to be more than financial donations, it should also involve teaching these girls life skills, giving their families support so they don’t have to rely on marrying off their young daughters in times of hardship, and getting them access to proper education.
Programs that genuinely empower girls should invested in like giving them the knowledge about their basic rights, keeping them in school, and equipping them to get onto the job market are crucial. It’s equally important to involve the whole community. That means working with men and boys in as allies in the fight for change, making sure that religious and local leaders are onside, and supporting women-led organizations.
Coordination of several agencies, with focus on health, education and child protection to work together. Every crisis situation needs to have child marriage as a key consideration. Practical steps include setting up cash transfer or other income programs to help family poverty- and continually building up public services like healthcare and education.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, putting an end to early marriage and gender-based violence is not just a legal imperative but a moral and economic necessity. Protecting girls means enforcing the laws, and advocating for proper education, and tackling the root causes of poverty and inequality. Effective strategies should empower girls, engage the whole community, including the men and also create strong systems that work across different sectors. The damage that early marriage does, from maternal death to lifelong poverty, really underlines how urgent this issue is. But it is only by doing this properly, and sustainably, that we can stop this damaging practice and make sure every girl can make her own choices about her life.
