Editorial»
Age matters
AUG 02 -
Child marriage has considerable implications for the physical, social and psychological development of child brides: it threatens young girls’ health as well as the health of their children, devastates girls’ chances of receiving an education and limits their personal autonomy and agency. The practice, which is in direct violation of countless human rights, has been banned in many countries across the globe. In Nepal, the minimum legal age for women to marry is 18, yet a significant gap remains between what is on paper and what is happening in reality. While the practice is a problem worldwide, it is most prevalent in South Asia, where 49 percent of girls are married before the age of 18. In Nepal, this figure jumps as high as 54 percent in rural areas.
Early marriage in Nepal is fuelled by poverty and custom, where the financial incentive to marry off daughters early often results in children being wed before they are even able to read. Besides commoditising daughters, this argument also has its logical faults. Girls married prematurely are more likely to have less education than unmarried girls, which in the long-run jeopardises their income-generating prospects. Little education, skills and employment opportunities leave child brides vulnerable to poverty: both a cause and a consequence of child marriage. Also fuelling the practise is the fear that, after reaching a certain age, women will not be able to find suitable husbands and will end up facing social discrimination. Although many parents may marry off their young daughters to ensure that they will be cared for, in actuality, parents are stripping their daughters of basic human rights and unknowingly perpetuating the cycle of gender inequality. This suggests the need for greater awareness among local communities in order to break the current thinking.
Though laws preventing child marriage may be
difficult to enforce, they are put into place, for one thing, to protect adolescents from sexual health problems and complications related to early pregnancy. Coming along with
child marriage are the inevitable consequences of early pregnancy and early motherhood, two things attributed to
maternal mortality and poor child health. If the government wants to continue to make strides towards Millennium Development Goals in these two categories, the issue of child marriage must be further addressed.
It seems after a landmark court decision last month that awareness may be on the rise. In a case lodged against her husband, father and father-in-law, Rubina Khatun of Kalaiya district has been granted the right to divorce her husband whom she was forced to marry at the age of 14. For the first time, a former child bride has regained her agency and used it to let her voice be heard. And her family’s support after the ruling suggests that if people are made aware of the injustice of the practice, traditional outlooks can be changed.
Creating awareness and enforcing laws that go against centuries-old traditions is difficult, there is no doubt
about that. But bolstered by this recent court ruling, it is the perfect time for the government to do more to enforce the current law and spread awareness to give a voice to young girls forced into early marriage.
Posted on: 2010-08-03 08:34
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