Shaymaa Nagud
Sociology 364
12/08/11
Child Brides in India In many societies, marriage is a celebrated institution commemorating the union between two consenting adults and the beginning of their lives together. However, this experience and celebration is different for the millions of girls around the world who are forced to wed while still children, some not even yet teenagers. Child marriage is a marriage that occurs between two people where one or two of the partners is under 18. While boys are also married under the age of 18, girls far outnumber boys in child marriages. It is usually forced and occurs often to girls who are ages 12 to16 years old[2]. The husband is also often several years older than his wife, sometimes even
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This reaction is what one would expect at a funeral not at a birth.
Cultural and socioeconomic factors that reinforce child marriage differ from region to region. Where one lives within a country may strongly influence whether or not she will marry early. In India the highest rates of child marriage is concentrated in five states: Madhya Pradesh at 73%, Andhra Pradesh at 71%, Rajasthan at 68%, Bihar at 67 % and Uttar Pradesh at 64%. The median age of marriage in India is 16.4 years according to the National Family Health Survey. [8]It also found that 65% of girls are married by the time they are 18. There are many reasons why child marriage occurs but they can be put into two general categories. The first one is based on social norms, customs and religion. Virginity in India is very important. If one is raped, it is hard for her to be married. “As Vatsayyana said a couple millennia ago that a virgin bride is important, even if people don’t talk about it openly”.[1] Therefore, the younger the bride the more likely it is that she’ll be a virgin and so marrying off the daughter as young as possible, the faster the end of the parent’s responsibility to keep her a virgin. The second category as to why girls are married off so young, is poverty. Education can be a solution to child marriage, however it is too expensive and so families do not see it as necessary if they will marry their daughter into another family. In India, it is tradition for a woman to leave her
Soon after a girl hits puberty, she is considered ready for marriage. Marriages were almost always arranged by the families of the bride and
Lastly, San girls marry young as a result of pressure from their parents. Their parents want and need a man to collect meat for them, and hope that he will do so into their old age. The parents also want to get closer to the grooms
In the article, Child Marriages in Sub-Saharan Africa, states the reasons and crazy expectations of child marriages. In Sub-Saharan Africa 39% of girls are married before the age of 18. Child marriages has spread throughout all of Africa. In West and Central Africa 42% of girls are married before age 18 and in Eastern and Southern Africa it is 36% of the girls (Child Marriages in: Sub-Saharan Africa). These number vary throughout the year yet they never drop to zero. It is a mass dilemma to outsiders yet in the depth of Africa, it a tradition that is hard to break. Daughters may be married off due to poverty or fear of safety. It is a custom in which the daughter does not have much control and marriage can be used as a leverage in a heated
The information from this source, which seems most important, therefore, early and forced marriage happens. A quote from the article is "In countries where the legal age for marriage differs by gender, the age for women is always lower." Also another quote from this article, the evidence of forced marriage is offering ", 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that marriage should" be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses ". Where one of the parties is married under 18, consent can not always be assumed to be "free and full '."
Rena Silverman, in his article Millions of Young Girls Forced into Marriage wrote that “Driven largely by ……….family members”. The physical and emotional consequences can be very fatal. Since some decade, people give their daughter in forced marriage, when they are generally poor. This being the Dot is a tradition in a marriage will make the fiancée 's family meet its needs. Forced marriage is to be married for the cattle, food or money, also, for the transmission of belongings. After the husband death, the son of the legal wife will inherit of all his property; which will become her own. For this reason parents give their daughter in marriage to have money to stay alive. Yana T. Child marriage problem: causes and consequences said “Parents who cannot provide …………. to ensure she is supported”.
Child marriage in the States is a serious problem. The current law for child marriage states that you must be at least eighteen years old to marry. However, state laws make exceptions if minors have parental consent. Due to the lack of awareness in this topic thirty-three states and two counties in the U.S. reported that between 2000-2015 there were a total of 170,363 minors that were married. Of which, six were twelve-year-olds, fifty-one were thirteen-year-olds, nine hundred eighty-five was fourteen years old. Not only is this number increasing but it is also alarming. The main reasons for child marriage are poverty, gender inequality, tradition/culture, education, and insecurity. Most of the child marriages happen in rural or backward areas of the country. The main reason for this is poverty for sure. Parents who have a daughter but don't earn as much choose this method to give them a better life. For the boys, the marriage does not take place but poverty triggers child labor. Another main reason behind this activity is gender inequality. Even today there are lots of countries that consider
Girls all over the world are forced into marriages due to financial necessity, tradition and to ensure their future. Most of these girls married are at a young age: “One third of the world’s girls are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before the age of 15”( “Child Marriage Facts and Figures”). The young ages of those being married reveal how crucial it is to resolve this problem. When child marriage occurs the parents of the bride usually chose the groom for their daughters; and these grooms can be three times older than the young brides. Some children are brought into the world of marriage at the of 8 or sometimes less depending on their cultural views. The following can be used to help reduce the impact of early
Approaches you cannot help but lack the ability to speak, brush your hair, or even put on your dress; instead, a day devoted to happiness and joy is overshadowed by an overwhelming feeling of disgust and reluctance. This was the feeling a young Durga, (15) felt on the day her father forced her to wed a forty year old, uneducated man known to have a drinking problem, within the little Indian village of, Rajasthan (AIZENMAN, 2017). Wedding ceremonies such as this are not uncommon within the country of India. In modern times, arranged marriages are still preferred by over 85% of India’s youth. In a recent study conducted by IPSOS in 2013, over 74% of young Indians, that is between the ages of 10-35, allow their parents to choose their spouse ("Know All About Arranged Marriage In India!", 2017). Arrange marriage has not always been the norm within Indian culture, long before this practice was accepted within Indian culture, Swayamva- a ceremony where suitable matchers from all over the country is invited to swoon over an expected bride; however, this practice cised in 500 b.c. when “Vedic Hindu” gave birth to Hinduism ("Know All About Arranged Marriage In India!", 2017). With the rise of the Manusmriti- a code of conduct for a life of stratified Dharma, (duty, virtue, morality, religion), women were stripped of their basic independence ("Know All About Arranged Marriage In India!", 2017). Women who were
Child marriage is the marriage, usually forced but may not be, between one party of under 18 and another over the age of 18. There are many reasons for child marriage which can range anywhere from social or religious pressure to safety, either economic or physical, for the girl and her family. As well as how many families find girls to be economic strains as the families need to provide a dowry for the girl. Young women tend to not be allowed to work as they are considered worthless and a burden, especially considering that sons carry the family name and are seen as a sign of fertility in most societies. This is an
Ancient Egypt was a very complex civilization. Ancient Egypt was a complex civilization because it had all seven indicators.
Child brides are a little voiced problem that occur around the world. Fourteen million girls become child brides every year, a number that is increasing due to the growing populations of countries where child marriage is common (Fisher). I chose to focus on child brides specifically in Africa and the Middle East due to the high instances of child marriages in those parts of the world. In my research I also found that child brides are very common in South Asia and South America as well. In Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Nepal over half of girls are married before they turn eighteen (Fisher).This is largely due to traditional tribal practices, cultural norms, and an overall lack of education.
In addition, child marriage started to become more common as well. Often Muslim rulers and officials kidnapped Hindu girls. Due to the kidnapping of the Hindu girls, their parent had to practice child marriage. According to the history of India, “It was emphasized that the proper age for the marriage of girls was seven and that marriage after the age of eleven or twelve was sinful.
Child marriage was one of the worst evil practices. It was practiced more by the effluent upper castes than the marginalized lower castes. Visscher in his work noted that, the Brahmins gave their daughters in marriage at the age of eight or nine years, for if they pass their tenth year unmarried, they lose caste and are not allowed to marry [6]. Nairs, Christians and other sections of Travancore also followed this. Samuel Mateer points that child marriages arises from the distrust of female virtue. Small children, below the age of ten are married off and their husbands were probably aged ones. It also led to the increase in the number of child wives which may be resulted in becoming widows in younger period of life. It was one of the most prominent factors which acted as a barrier for the education of girls in Travancore.
Every year 15 million girls are married before the age of 18.(Source 3)One third of girls in the developing world are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 before the age of 15. However, no one religious affiliation is associated with child marriage; there are many different ones in many countries all across the world (ICRW- source 1)
Birth, marriage and death are the standard trio of key events in most people’s lives. But only one, marriage is a matter of choice (Innocenti Digest, 2001). The rights to have a choice were recognized as a principle of law, yet many girls and some boys enter marriage life without any chance of their rights to choose. Childhood and adolescence are usually the greatest years of one’s life. However, the period is cut short when marriage and adult responsibilities come too early as ones practiced early marriage. Early marriage refers to any form of marriage that takes place before a child has reached eighteen. According to Adlakha, Arjun, Mohamed Ayad and Sushil Kumar (1991) early marriage extends a woman’s reproductive span, thereby