WUNRN
Ending Child Marriage
With This Generation
Tamara
Kreinin
An adolescent girl living in poverty could be the most powerful
person in the world. If she is reached early enough, she can accelerate
economies, arrest major global health issues and break cycles of poverty.
When a girl gets a chance to stay in school, remain healthy,
gain skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn
an income that she’ll invest back into her family and community. When she
can grow into a woman and become an educated mother, an economic actor, an
ambitious entrepreneur, or a prepared employee, she breaks the cycle of
poverty. She and everyone around her benefits.
Child marriage is one of the barriers preventing the 600 million adolescent
girls in developing countries from unleashing their full potential. One in
seven is forced into marriage before the age of 15, and if these trends
continue, 100 million girls will marry over the next decade – that is about
25,000 children married every day for the next 10 years.
Child marriage triggers a cycle of poverty, disadvantage and despair. At a
basic level, it puts girls at a great risk. Fifty percent of girls in
developing countries become mothers before age 18 – many before their bodies
have matured – which puts them at higher risk for infant and maternal
mortality. In fact, the leading cause of death among girls ages 15-19 worldwide
is medical complications due to pregnancy. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14
are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20
to 24; sadly, the vast majority of these deaths take place within marriage.
Child brides are also at higher risk of contracting HIV as their husbands are
at times older men with more sexual experience. They are also more vulnerable
to sexual and domestic violence at the hands of their husbands – and are more
likely to think that it is okay when they are victims of abuse. The 2011 State
of
While
the statistics are daunting, there are solutions and a tremendous opportunity
before us. Developing nations around the world are making efforts to
combat child marriage by changing laws and enforcing existing ones. In recent
years, we have begun to see progress on laws related to child marriage in
countries like
For example, in 2008, the Indian government introduced a program
in seven states that will give payments to parents when a girl reaches the age
of 18 and is not married. In
Now we need to continue to create international pressure to spur change at a
faster rate. We need to implement the solutions we know exist to combat the
practice of child marriage. In particular, in countries or sub-national regions
with a high prevalence of child marriage, the U.S. administration should
enhance their strategy to effectively address the issue; integrate child
marriage into existing U.S. foreign assistance programs that are currently
undermined by this practice, including maternal health, violence, HIV
prevention, education and economic development; collect data on the prevalence
of child marriage and best practices to monitor and report on progress made;
and continue to report on child marriage as part of the State Department’s
Annual Human Rights Report.
The UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign has added its voice to the
chorus of advocates deriding the harmful practice of child marriage. More
than100,000 of their teen supporters are rallying together, and asking the
Obama Administration to strategically address the issue of child marriage so
that girls in places like
These girls should be applauded for standing up for their
sisters in developing countries and joining the coalition of organizations,
including International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), CARE and
Investing in adolescent girls and placing them at the center of
international and national action is the right thing to do. It is also
the smart thing to do. The truth is, adolescent girls will either
accelerate growth or perpetuate poverty. It all depends on how we choose to
invest resources to make current efforts more effective by also addressing the
health and rights needs of girls.
Tamara Kreinin is executive director,
women and population at the United Nations Foundation.
[ii] Child Marriage Facts and Figures. ICRW (http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures).
[iv] Table 11: Adolescents, 2011 State of the World’s Children
Report. Pg 130.