PRESENTATION

ON CHILD
MARRIAGE
PRESENTED BY :
CLASS : X’B
 CHILD MARRIAGE
Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child and an adult or another child under a certain age,
typically age eighteen. The vast majority of child marriages are between a girl and a man, and are rooted in gender inequality.
Although the age of majority (legal adulthood) and marriageable age are usually designated at age 18, both vary across countries and
therefore the marriageable age may be older or younger in a given country . Even where the age is set at 18 years, cultural traditions
may override legislation and many jurisdictions permit earlier marriage with parental consent or in special circumstances, such as
teenage pregnancy.
Child marriage violates the rights of children and has widespread and long-term consequences for child brides and child grooms. For
girls, in addition to mental health issues and a lack of access to education and career opportunities, this includes adverse health effects
as a result of early pregnancy (including teenage pregnancy) and childbirth. There is little research on boys in child marriages, but
effects on boys include being ill-prepared for certain responsibilities such as providing for the family, early fatherhood, and a lack of
access to education and career opportunities. Child marriage is related to child betrothal, and it includes civil cohabitation and court-
approved early marriages after teenage pregnancy. Causes of child marriages include poverty, bride price, dowry, cultural traditions,
religious and social pressures, regional customs, fear of the child remaining unmarried into adulthood, illiteracy, and perceived
inability of women to work for money. Research indicates that comprehensive sex education can help to prevent child marriage
 HISTORY
Before the industrial revolution , in many parts of the world, including India, China and Eastern Europe, women tended to marry
immediately after reaching puberty, in their mid-teens. Societies where most of the population lived in small agricultural communities
were characterized by these marriage practices well into the 19th century. Men tended to marry later in societies where a married
couple was expected to establish a household of their own. That usually meant that men remained unmarried until they accumulated
sufficient wealth to support a new home, and were married in their mature age to adolescent girls, who contributed a dowry to the
family finances.
In ancient and medieval societies, it was common for girls to be betrothed at or even before the age of puberty. According to M.A.
Friedman, "arranging and contracting the marriage of a young girl were the undisputed prerogatives of her father in ancient Israel."
Most girls were married before the age of 15, often at the start of their puberty. In the Middle Ages the age at marriage seems to have
been around puberty throughout the Jewish world.
Ruth Lamdan writes: "The numerous references to child marriage in the 16th-century Responsa literature and other sources, shows
that child marriage was so common, it was virtually the norm. In this context, it is important to remember that in halakha, the term
"minor" refers to a girl under twelve years and a day. A girl aged twelve and a half was already considered an adult in all respects.
In Ancient Greece, early marriage and motherhood for girls existed. Even boys were expected to marry in their teens. Early marriages
and teenage motherhood were typical. In Ancient Rome, females could marry above the age of 12 and males could marry above the
age of 14. In the Middle Ages, under English civil laws that were derived from Roman laws, marriages before the age of 16 existed. In
Imperial China, child marriage was the norm.
 Presentation of Marie Antoinette to Louis
Christian child marriage in the Middle Ages
In 1533, 17-year-old Princess Emilia of Auguste at Versailles, before their marriage.
Saxony was wed to George the Pious, She married at age 15, on 16 May 1770.
Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, then
aged 48 years. Early marriages have been
common in historical times, including in
Europe.
 EFFECTS ON EACH GENDER
Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls, from their health (mental and physical), education and social development perspectives.
These consequences last well beyond adolescence. One of the most common causes of death for girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries
was pregnancy and childbirth. In Niger, which is estimated as having the highest rate of child marriage in the world, about 3 in 4 girls marry
before their 18th birthday.
Boys are sometimes married as children; UNICEF states that "girls [are] disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the
prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one sixth that among girls." Research on the effects of child marriage on underage boys is
scant, which researchers state is likely because child marriage involving boys is less common and girls being at risk for adverse health
effects as a result of early pregnancy and childbirth. The effects of child marriage on boys include being ill-prepared for certain
responsibilities such as providing for the family, early fatherhood, and a lack of access to education and career opportunities. As of
September 2014, 156 million living men were married as underage boys.
In its first in-depth analysis of child grooms, UNICEF revealed that an estimated 115 million boys and men around the world were married
as children. Of these, 1 in 5 children, or 23 million, were married before the age of 15. According to the data, the Central African Republic
has the highest prevalence of child marriage among males (28 per cent), followed by Nicaragua (19 per cent) and Madagascar (13 per cent).
The estimates bring the total number of child brides and child grooms to 765 million. Girls remain disproportionately affected, with 1 in 5
young women aged 20 to 24 years old married before their 18th birthday, compared to 1 in 30 young men
 CAUSES
According to UNFPA, factors that promote and reinforce child marriage include poverty and economic survival strategies; gender
inequality; sealing land or property deals or settling disputes; control over sexuality and protecting family honour ; tradition and
culture; and insecurity, particularly during war, famine or epidemics. Other factors include family ties in which marriage is a means
of consolidating powerful relations between families.
 Dowry and Bride prices
 Bride kidnapping
 Persecution , forced migration and slavery
 Fear , poverty social pressure and sense of protection
 Religion culture and civil law
 Marriageable in religious sources
 Politics and financial relationship
A traditional, formal presentation of
Depiction of bride kidnapping English stage actress Ellen Terry was
the bride price at a Thai engagement
married at age 16 to George Frederic
ceremony
Watts who was 46 years old, a marriage
her parents thought would be
advantageous; later she said she was
uncomfortable being a child bride. Terry
died at the age of 81, in 1928.

Drawings by young Syrian refugee

girls in a community centre in southern
Lebanon promote the prevention of
child marriage.
 CONSEQUENCIES
Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls that last well beyond adolescence. Women married in their teens or earlier struggle
with the health effects of pregnancy at a young age and often with little spacing between children. Early marriages followed by teen
pregnancy also significantly increase birth complications and social isolation. In poor countries, early pregnancy limits or can even
eliminate a woman's education options, affecting her economic independence. Girls in child marriages are more likely to suffer
from domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and marital rape

Womens Right
The United Nations, through a series of conventions has declared child marriage a violation of human rights. The Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination of Women (‘CEDAW’), the Committee on the Rights of the Child (‘CRC’), and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights form the international standard against child marriage. Child marriages impact violates a range of women's
interconnected rights such as equality on grounds of sex and age, to receive the highest attainable standard of health, to be free from
slavery, access to education, freedom of movement, freedom from violence, reproductive rights, and the right to consensual marriage. The
consequence of these violations impact woman, her children and the broader society
Health
Child marriage threatens the health and life of girls. Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the main cause of death among adolescent
girls below age 19 in developing countries. Girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as women in their 20s, and girls under the
age of 15 are five to seven times more likely to die during childbirth. These consequences are due largely to girls' physical immaturity wherefore
the pelvis and birth canal are not fully developed. Teen pregnancy, particularly below age 15, increases risk of developing obstetric fistula, since
their smaller pelvises make them prone to obstructed labor. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 have an 88% risk of developing fistula.
Fistula leaves its victims with urine or fecal incontinence that causes lifelong complications with infection and pain. Unless surgically repaired,
obstetric fistulas can cause years of permanent disability, shame to mothers, and can result in being shunned by the community. Married girls
also have a higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer, and malaria than non-married peers or girls who marry in their 20s.
Child marriage also threatens the lives of offspring. Mothers under the age of 18 years have 35 to 55% increased risk of delivering pre-term or
having a low birth weight baby than a mother who is 19 years old. In addition, infant mortality rates are 60% higher when the mother is under 18
years old. Infants born to child mothers tend to have weaker immune systems and face a heightened risk of malnutrition.
Prevalence of child marriage may also be associated with higher rates of population growth, more cases of children left orphaned, and the
accelerated spread of disease
Illiteracy and poverty
Child marriage often ends a girl's education, particularly in impoverished countries where child marriages are common. In addition,
uneducated girls are more at risk for child marriage. Girls who have only a primary education are twice as likely to marry before
age 18 than those with a secondary or higher education, and girls with no education are three times more likely to marry before age
18 than those with a secondary education. Early marriage impedes a young girl's ability to continue with her education as most drop
out of school following marriage to focus their attention on domestic duties and having or raising children. Girls may be taken out
of school years before they are married due to family or community beliefs that allocating resources for girls' education is
unnecessary given that her primary roles will be that of wife and mother. Without education, girls and adult women have fewer
opportunities to earn an income and financially provide for themselves and their children. This makes girls more vulnerable to
persistent poverty if their spouses die, abandon them, or divorce them. Given that girls in child marriages are often significantly
younger than their husbands, they become widowed earlier in life and may face associated economic and social challenges for a
greater portion of their life than women who marry later
Domestic violence
Married teenage girls with low levels of education suffer greater risk of social isolation and domestic violence than more educated women
who marry as adults. Following marriage, girls frequently relocate to their husband's home and take on the domestic role of being a wife,
which often involves relocating to another village or area. This transition may result in a young girl dropping out of school, moving away
from her family and friends, and a loss of the social support that she once had. A husband's family may also have higher expectations for the
girl's submissiveness to her husband and his family because of her youth. This sense of isolation from a support system can have severe
mental health implications including depression.
Large age gaps between the child and her spouse makes her more vulnerable to domestic violence and marital rape. Girls who marry as
children face severe and life-threatening marital violence at higher rates. Husbands in child marriages are often more than ten years older
than their wives. This can increase the power and control a husband has over his wife and contribute to prevalence of spousal violence. Early
marriage places young girls in a vulnerable situation of being completely dependent on her husband. Domestic and sexual violence from
their husbands has lifelong, devastating mental health consequences for young girls because they are at a formative stage of psychological
development. These mental health consequences of spousal violence can include depression and suicidal thoughts. Child brides, particularly
in situations such as vani , also face social isolation, emotional abuse and discrimination in the homes of their husbands and in-laws
Development
 High rates of child marriage negatively impact countries' economic development because of early marriages' impact on girls'
education and labor market participation. Some researchers and activists note that high rates of child marriage prevent significant
progress toward each of the eight Millennium Development Goals and global efforts to reduce poverty due to its effects on
educational attainment, economic and political participation, and health.
 A UNICEF Nepal issued report noted that child marriage impacts Nepal's development due to loss of productivity, poverty, and
health effects. Using Nepal Multi-Indicator Survey data, its researchers estimate that all girls delaying marriage until age 20 and
after would increase cash flow among Nepali women in an amount equal to 3.87% of the country's GDP. Their estimates
considered decreased education and employment among girls in child marriages in addition to low rates of education and high
rates of poverty among children from child marriages
 International initiatives to prevent child
marriage
In December 2011 a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/66/170) designated October 11 as the
International Day of the Girl Child. On October 11, 2012 the first International Day of the Girl Child was held, the theme of which
was ending child marriage.
In 2013 the first United Nations Human Rights Council resolution against child, early, and forced marriages was adopted; it
recognizes child marriage as a human rights violation and pledges to eliminate the practice as part of the U.N.'s post-2015 global
development agenda.
In 2014 the UN's Commission on the Status of Women issued a document in which they agreed, among other things, to eliminate
child marriage.
The World Health Organization recommends increased educational attainment among girls, increased enforcement structures for
existing minimum marriage age laws, and informing parents in practicing communities of the risks associated as primary methods to
prevent child marriages.
Programs to prevent child marriage have taken several different approaches. Various initiatives have aimed to empower young girls,
educate parents on the associated risks, change community perceptions, support girls' education, and provide economic opportunities
for girls and their families through means other than marriage. A survey of a variety of prevention programs found that initiatives
were most effect when they combined efforts to address financial constraints, education, and limited employment of women.
Girls in families participating in an unconditional cash transfer program in Malawi aimed at incentivizing girls' education married
and had children later than their peers who had not participated in the program. The program's effects on rates of child marriage
were greater for unconditional cast transfer programs than those with conditions. Evaluators believe this demonstrated that the
economic needs of the family heavily influenced the appeal of child marriage in this community. Therefore, reducing financial
pressures on the family decreased the economic motivations to marry daughters off at a young age.
The Haryana state government in India operated a program in which poor families were given a financial incentive if they kept their
daughters in school and unmarried until age 18. Girls in families who were eligible for the program were less likely to be married
before age 18 than their peers.
A similar program was operated in 2004 by the Population Council and the regional government in Ethiopia's rural Amhara region.
Families received cash if their daughters remained in school and unmarried during the two years of the program. They also
instituted mentorship programs, livelihood training, community conversations about girls' education and child marriage, and gave
school supplies for girls. After the two-year program, girls in families eligible for the program were three times more likely to be in
school and one tenth as likely to be married compared to their peers.
In the other free program the Global Campaign for the Prevention of Child Marriage (GCPCM) has been launched in March 2019,
and the primary goal of this Campaign is raising awareness and illuminating people's minds to address child marriage in the world.
Other programs have addressed child marriage less directly through a variety of programming related to girls' empowerment,
education, sexual and reproductive health, financial literacy, life skills, communication skills, and community mobilization.
In 2018, UN Women announced that Jaha Dukureh would serve as Goodwill Ambassador in Africa to help organize to prevent child
marriage