WUNRN
BANGLADESH
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Early
marriage means early pregnancy for most women in |
DHAKA, 31 July 2009 (IRIN) - Too many
teenage girls are getting married in
According
to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) State of the World’s Children 2009 report,
more than 64
percent of girls marry before they are 18.
But
with early marriage comes early pregnancy. One-third of teenage girls aged 15
to 19 are mothers or pregnant in
Teenage
mothers are twice as likely as older mothers to die from pregnancy- and
childbirth-related complications, with mothers younger than 14 facing the
greatest risks.
In
fact, research shows that the risk of maternal mortality could be five times
higher for mothers aged 10 to 14 than for those aged 20 to 24, while babies
born to mothers younger than 14 were 50 percent more likely to die than babies
born to mothers older than 20.
Teenage
mothers are more likely to suffer from obstructed delivery and other severe
childbirth- and pregnancy-related complications, say health experts.
This
results in higher morbidity and mortality for them and their children,
according to the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS)
2007, released in March 2009.
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Maternal mortality is five
times higher for mothers aged 10 to 14 than mothers aged 20 to 24 |
A third of women are either pregnant
or mothers by age 20, and this proportion is not declining, the report
observed.
The
BDHS 2007 shows that the median age at marriage for women is 16.4 years,
against 16.0 in the previous DHS (2004), but still 18 months below the legal
minimum age, indicating that laws or policies alone do not guarantee implementation.
The legal age is 21 for boys and 18 for girls.
Parents
encourage early marriage out of fear that the dowry price will increase as
their daughter ages. Young girls are often regarded as an economic burden to
their families; marrying them off at a very early age is seen as reducing that
burden.
It is
also a way to ensure that their daughters are “protected” from sexual abuse or
illicit sexual contact, and making them financially more secure.
But
with early marriage, many girls drop out of school. Studies show that girls who
marry as adolescents attain lower schooling levels, have lower social status in
their husband’s families, report less reproductive control, and suffer higher
rates of maternal mortality and domestic violence.
Moreover,
early marriage extends a woman’s reproductive span, thereby contributing to
larger family sizes, especially in the absence of contraception.
According
to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and
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Girls that marry at an early
age generally drop out. Only 45 percent of adolescent girls are enrolled in
secondary school and even fewer attend regularly |
Raising awareness
To
counteract this, several NGOs are working to raise awareness of the risks of
early marriage.
In
February, a conference of social workers and women in Dhaka underlined that 70
percent of girls in
“The
burden breaks the health of young mothers. Many die at delivery, or at least suffer
untold health problems. The major casualty is the education of teenage girls.
It denies them the awareness they need for taking the decision that affects
their life most - marriage,” according to one of the papers presented.
“The
young brides, lacking education, become the malnourished mothers of
undernourished children and little else,” Rahela Rahmatullah, an anti-child
marriage activist, told IRIN.
Working
in 45 of the country’s 481 sub-districts, Rahmatullah’s volunteers seek out
cases of child marriage in local communities and discuss the problems facing
the underage mother with the young mother and her family.
“We
persuade and train her to tell her story to adolescent girls and their
families. We organise courtyard meetings where the trained mother describes the
problems she faces as an adolescent wife or mother and advises others not to
accept any marriage proposal before they are at least 20,” she said.
But in
most cases, the issue is not so simple.
“In
most rural families girls are never consulted on their marriage. The parents
and the family seniors choose the groom, fix the date and manage the wedding
ceremony. Seeking a girl’s consent on marriage is still considered a taboo in
most families,” Rahmatullah said.
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