Once menstruation starts, a girl is seen as a grown woman, so the logical next steps for her in life are marriage and motherhood. In some societies, marriage is nothing more than a phase of womanhood. TraditionĬhild marriage can also be influenced by norms and beliefs.
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The informality could leave her vulnerable to abuse without the full advantages of social recognition, citizenship and inheritance. Where a couple is living in union, as if they were married but without proper legal recognition, child brides face an even greater risk of economic exploitation. Without an education, they are less able to lift themselves and their families out of the cycle of poverty. Many are left to live a life of deprivation and disadvantage. Robbed of the chance to grow, learn and fully realise her potential, child brides are disempowered. Poverty is one of the key causes of child marriage, but it’s also an ongoing consequence. Sadly, the practice also tends to trap these girls into a lifetime of economic disadvantage. There are so many ways in which child marriage creates economic incentives for young girls to be married off early – whether for financial security or gain.
Worse still, families may have no choice but to arrange a younger daughter’s marriage along with her sister’s, if a cheaper “package deal” can be had. Sometimes, girls are married to help offset debts, settle conflicts or as a substitute for money. A younger girl would presumably have more time to dedicate to her new family and bear more children, so she might fetch a higher bride price – the amount paid by the groom in some communities to the parents of a bride. In communities where a dowry needs to be paid by the girl’s family, an earlier marriage at a younger age may mean a lower expense. It’s one less mouth to feed and one less education to fund. Rather, they are financial burdens to their families and consequently, less valuable than boys.įor parents with several children or living in extreme poverty, child marriage is simply a way to help alleviate the desperate economic conditions they find themselves in. Within these contexts, girls (and women) aren’t seen as potential wage earners. Overwhelmingly, child brides come from the world's most impoverished nations. Child marriage is often driven by engrained traditions and poverty.įor struggling families, their best chance of survival may require marrying their daughters off, just because they can't afford to keep them. The causes of child marriage are complex and varied, motivated by different factors across communities and regions – sometimes, even within the same country. What causes child marriage to happen and what are the dangers of child marriage? Source: UNICEF global databases, 2020, based on Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and other nationallyģ. *Percentage of women 20-24 years old who were first married or in union before they were 18 years old. Open up opportunities for girls today.Ĭhild marriage in Central African RepublicĬhild marriage in Democratic Republic of the Congo Sponsor a girl Stop a child from being forced to marry.
And they’re twice as likely to go to school. A child born to an educated mother is 50 percent more likely to survive past age five. Whatever the cause, early marriage compromises a child’s development and severely limits their opportunities in life.Įarly marriage also impacts future generations. There are many factors at play when a child ends up in an early or forced marriage – from financial or food insecurity to cultural or social norms. Girls are vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS, and early pregnancy. Every day around the world, women and girls are forced to marry against their will.Įarly marriage seriously harms the development and wellbeing of girls, through limited education and employment opportunities, social isolation, domestic violence and rape. In the time it took you to read this paragraph, another five girls were married.Īt its core, forced child marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights. Each year, another 12 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides. That's around 21 percent of all young women globally.Īnd the statistics don’t exactly paint a positive picture of the future. When it comes to child marriage facts, one of the most damning is the estimate that 650 million women and girls alive today were married as children.
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