Protecting Children from Child Marriage
Protecting Children from Child Marriage
Defining Child Marriage
Child marriage involves the marriage
of anyone below the age of 18. It is the marriage of a child to an adult or
another child, and may be legally condoned by national laws.
These marriages are often unregistered and unofficial but they can also be given legal sanction because of legislative loopholes that in fact camouflage the sexual exploitation of children. They are arranged in various ways and involve both boys and girls. It is more usual for girls to be married to boys and men who are older than them while boys are more commonly married to girls of a similar age.
Such marriages may be arranged between two very young children but mostly girls may be married to much older men who are more able to pay the dowries expected or demanded by a family. As such, girls are often the vulnerable party in child marriages. Many children may know their marriage partner and have been raised with him or her. Others may be married to strangers.
The practice of girls marrying at a young age is most common in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. However, in the Middle East, North Africa and other parts of Asia, marriage at, or shortly after, puberty is common among some groups. There are also parts of West and Eastern Africa and South Asia where marriages much earlier than puberty are not unusual. The marriage of girls between the ages of 16 and 18 is common in parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe. It is hard to know the number of early marriages as so many are unregistered and unofficial.
FACTS AND FIGURES
-In developing countries, around 65
million women aged 20-24 were married/in union before the age of 18. Thirty
million of them live in South Asia
-Child Marriage occurs more
frequently in rural settings than in urban ones.
-Girls living in the poorest 20 per
cent of households are more likely to get married at an early age than those
living in the wealthiest 20 per cent.
-Women with primary education are
significantly less likely to be married/in union as children than those who
received no education.
-Child Marriage is associated with
high levels of fertility
What are the reasons for Child Marriage?
Some reasons for Child Marriage include:
•
Illiteracy and
lack of education.
•
Gender
discrimination and unequal status of women.
•
Traditions and
customs.
•
Economic
necessity and reasons, eg. higher dowry needs to be given to daughters when
they are married at a later age.
•
Strategy for
families to maintain or ensure social, economic or political ties.
•
Strategy for
families to avoid pregnancy outside marriage
•
Strategy for
families to provide male guardianship for their daughters and protect them from
sexual assault
•
Strategy for
families to ensure obedience and subservience within their husband’s household
• Lacunae and shortcomings in the existing laws.
• Lacunae and shortcomings in the existing laws.
•
Lack of
protective environment for a young girl.
•
Lack of
administrative will and action.
What is the impact of Child Marriage on children?
Child Marriage is a violation of human rights. It
forces children to assume responsibilities and handle situations for which they
are often physically and psychologically unprepared. It can have serious
harmful consequences for children, including:
Abuse - including physical, emotional and sexual. This is common in
Child Marriages. In addition, children who refuse to marry or who choose a
marriage partner against the wishes of their parents are often punished or even
killed by their families.
Health
problems. These include premature pregnancies that cause higher rates of
maternal and infant mortality. Most girls enter marriage with little or no
information about their reproductive health, including contraception, safe motherhood,
and sexually transmitted diseases. Because they cannot abstain from sex or
insist on condom use, child brides are often exposed to such serious health
risks as premature pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and,
increasingly, HIV and AIDS.
Denial of girl’s education: Once married, girls tend not to go to school and so
they lose out on the benefits of education: better health, lower fertility, and
increased economic productivity. They also lose out on any form of sexuality
education, which is rarely taught before secondary school.
Separation from families and friends.
Lack of freedom to interact with peers and
participate in community activities.
Involvement in bonded labor such as domestic
slavery.
In places where child marriage is practiced, girls rarely have any say in when and whom they marry. Once married, these young girls have little power and limited autonomy. Girls are frequently much younger than their spouses, and the younger a girl's age at marriage, the greater the age difference between her and her husband.
Situation in India
FACTS AND FIGURES
•
According to Census reports 2001,
nearly 3 lakh girls below the age of 15 years have already given birth to at
least one child
•
Girls aged 10 to 14 years are five
times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women between the ages
of 20 and 24.
•
Early pregnancies are also linked to
higher abortion rates.
•
Infants born to adolescent mothers
have greater likelihood of being born with low birth-weight.
• Infants born to young mothers are more likely to die in the first year of their life.
• Infants born to young mothers are more likely to die in the first year of their life.
The practice of child marriage is
rampant in many parts of the country and the incidence of it is highest in the
States of Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
According to the 1991 Census, the percentage of married females in the total
number of females in the age group 10 to 14 was 13.2 in Rajasthan, the highest
in the country. In second place was Madhya Pradesh at 8.5 percent, followed by
Uttar Pradesh at 7.1. For the country, the percentage of married women under
the age of 18 stood at 53.3 percent.
The situation did not change substantially in the following decade. The 2001 Census reports that there are nearly 300,000 girls under 15 who have given birth to at least one child. According to the Rapid Household Survey conducted across the country, 58.9 percent of women in Bihar were married before the age of 18, with 55.5 percent in Rajasthan, 54.9 percent in West Bengal, 53.8 percent in UP and 53.2 percent in Madhya Pradesh and 39.3 percent in Karnataka. Jammu and Kashmir has the lowest percentage of under-age marriage, which is 3.4, followed by Himachal Pradesh (3.5) and Goa (4.1). Despite high female literacy in Kerala, close to one-tenth of women are married before attaining the legal age of 188 years.
National Family Health Survey (II) data suggests that the median age for the marriage of girls in India is 16.4 years. The survey also found that 65% of the girls are married by the time they are 18 years old.
In India, child marriage is a centuries old tradition, where children as young as two to three years were often married or given away in marriage. However, in traditional societies, marriages were not consummated till children were much older and were perceived to be able to understand the responsibilities intrinsic to marriage. Over time, giving children in marriage has turned into major social evil entailing issues of child rights, sexual abuse, etc.
Child marriages have come to be used as a means to traffic young girls and women into the sex trade and labour both within the country and outside. Children are married, trafficked and sent to work in places like Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Kolkata.
Imbalance in the sex ratio in some states is emerging as a reason for trafficking of young girls for the purposes of marriage. In states with very low sex ratio, there is a tremendous shortage of marriageable girls, resulting in the need to buy young brides from other states. In some cases, these girls may be forced to serve as a wife to two or three brothers in the same family.
International and National Framework on Child Marriage
International Framework
Different societies have different perceptions of
childhood, but most governments have committed through the UN CRC to ensure the overall protection
of children and young people under 18 and to promote their full development.
Child Marriage harms them and is consequently in opposition with the provision
of the UN CRC.
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948) Article 16.
Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for
Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1962)
Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1965)
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) Article 16.
Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1965)
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) Article 16.
National Framework
In India, efforts to address child marriage date back
to 1929 when social reformers decided to combat it through a law then called
the Sharda Act. Post-independence, the Government of India enacted the Child
Marriage Restraint Act to stop such marriages from taking place. Marriages
before the valid age of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys are termed as
child marriage under this law.
The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 defines a child as a male below 21 years of age and a
female below 18 years of age (Section 2(a)).
Under this Act several persons can be punished for allowing, contracting, performing or being involved in a child marriage. They are as follows:
• A male who contracts child marriage if he is over 18
years and below 21 years of age shall be punished with simple imprisonment
which may extend up to 15 days or with fine which may extend up to Rs. 1000 or
both (Section 3).
• A male who contracts child marriage if he is over 21
years of age shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend up to 3
months and with fine (Section 4).
• A person who performs or conducts the child
marriage, unless he can prove he had no reason to believe it was a child
marriage, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend up to 3 months
and with fine (Section 5).
• The parent or guardian of the child who permits,
negligently fails, or does any act to, promote such child marriage can be
punished (Section 6).
Taking into account the shortcomings in the existing
Child Marriage Restraint Act and its implementation, the Government proposed an
improved legislation:
The Prevention of Child Marriage Act, 2006
The major
provisions of the new Act include:
- Every child marriage shall be
voidable at the option of the contracting party who was a child at the time of
the marriage;
- The Court while granting a decree of nullity shall make an order directing the parties, parents and guardians to return the money, valuables, ornaments and other gifts received;
- The Court may also make an
interim or final order directing the male contracting party to the child
marriage or parents or guardian to pay maintenance to the female contracting
party to the marriage and for her residence until her remarriage;
- The Court shall make an appropriate
order for the custody and the maintenance of the children of child marriages;
- Notwithstanding that a child marriage has been annulled, every child of such marriage shall be deemed to be a legitimate child for all purposes;
- Notwithstanding that a child marriage has been annulled, every child of such marriage shall be deemed to be a legitimate child for all purposes;
- Child marriages to be void in
certain circumstances like minor being sold for the purpose of marriage, minor
after being married is sold or trafficked or used for immoral purposes, etc.;
- Enhancement in punishments for
male adults marrying a child and persons performing, abetting, promoting,
attending etc. a child marriage with imprisonment up to two years and fine up
to one lakh rupees;
- States to appoint Child Marriage Prohibition Officers whose duties include prevention of solemnization of child marriages, collection of evidence for effective prosecution, creating awareness and sensitization of the community etc.
- States to appoint Child Marriage Prohibition Officers whose duties include prevention of solemnization of child marriages, collection of evidence for effective prosecution, creating awareness and sensitization of the community etc.
The National Plan of Action for Children (NPA), 2005 aims at eliminating child marriages by 2010.
Links:
CRIN: http://www.crin.org/email/crinmail_detail.asp?crinmailID=2280
UNICEF Statistics: http://www.childinfo.org/areas/childmarriage/
Global Action for Children: http://www.globalactionforchildren.org/news/child_marriage_a_
silent tragedy/
Publications:
- International Women s’ Health Coalition. Fact Sheet - Child Marriage
- Subgroup Report on Child Protection for the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012). Ministry of Women and Child Development, p.23-26. Available on line: http://wcd.nic.in/wgchilprotection.pdf
- Child Marriage- Information Sheet. UNICEF.
www.unicef.org/protection/files/Child_Marriage.pdf
vailable online:
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