According to the PBS video, Child brides: Stolen Lives, 68% of the girls under 18 years old from the northern Rajasthan state in India would become child brides, some even aged between 7 and 12. One 7-year-old child bride said that she knew nothing and had no rights to decide that marriage; marrying to that strange man was considered as an approach to resolve family financial difficulties. This girl would become a full-fledged wife one or two years after the wedding, since which her major tasks were having forced-sex, bearing children and raising a family. In turn, this marriage limited her access to education as well as other economic opportunities.
The life of this girl is one tip of the iceberg of the consequences caused by child and early marriages. For individual girls, on one hand, child marriage is a violation of basic human rights. It puts the girls below 18-year-old in a vulnerable and disempowered position, preventing them from fundamental human rights to education, health, freedom and safety. On the other hand, child marriage exposes girls to infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, high incidence of maternal mortality and morbidity, low life expectancy, inter-generational cycle of violence and all forms of discrimination.
To be specific, first, being neither physically nor psychologically prepared for becoming wives, they will suffer from considerable physical pain and disabilities during continuous forced sexual intercourses. For instance, in the
In certain communities in South Asia, the low status of girls has to be compensated for by the payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes, including mental and physical torture, starvation, rape, and even the burning alive of women by their husbands and/or in-laws in cases where dowry payments are not met.
Almost 60% of girls are married by 16. Women activists say up to 80 percent of marriages in poor rural areas are either forced or arranged.
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
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
All over the globe, violence and discrimination against women and girls violates their human rights and severely compromised their perception of equality. Culture, false beliefs and ancient traditions, such as early marriage, the nuclear family, gender-based discrimination, which lead to violence against women and femicide, destroyed young girls ' mental and physical wellbeing and self-esteem by supporting the ideas that gender-based discrimination and inequality is acceptable in our societies.
These children’s go outside and end up in a bad influence. One of the impact of this on girls is sexual assaulted and teenage age pregnancy. In this society, there’s a high number of teenage pregnancies. These teenagers have sexual intercourse, but they don’t recognize the consequences of it. It is said parents are so busy with their lives that they don’t have time for their kids. Some parents are alcoholic, which is why they can’t take care of their kids. As a result, children’s go outside to find the love which they didn’t have from home. For every teenager the love of a parent is important. If he or she finds love from home, if they are taught what can happen to girls outside, they would be more protective for themselves. I believe that parent’s should do proper care of children’s and girls should be more protective of themselves to prevent them from pregnancy. Firstly, a child being pregnant doesn’t look good. When one is a child herself, she’s the mother of another child. How’s the girl supposed to take care of the child when she’s growing up, plus knows nothing about it. A teenage mother does not like anyone to make fun of her or to talk behind her back. Pregnancy suits a married woman because a person has been matured at this time and a child knows who’s her father and mother. In addition, child pregnancy takes away childhood dreams. A person can’t study well when she has to take care of a little
The concept of human rights is a multifaceted one, thereby making it a frequent topic of debate on a global scale. Furthermore, defining human rights is a complex and volatile issue that brings up many crucial discussions such as, what it means to have ‘rights’, who deserves these suggested rights and to what extent can a person exercise these rights. These types of discussions can be controversial despite most of us, especially in a liberal democracy, where we tend to view human rights in a similar manner. When examining human rights even further, there are clear ties to equality, another issue that affects nearly everyone through means of privilege or prejudice. A crucial aspect of achieving equality between the sexes is giving women the right to control what happens to their own reproductive organs without the approval of men. Lynn M. Morgan, medical anthropologist scholar and author of “Reproductive Rights or Reproductive Justice? Lessons from Argentina” seeks to address the discrepancy between a human rights framework versus a social justice framework to tackle the issue of reproductive rights in Argentina. She initially addresses the fact that using the human rights framework, often used in Argentina by pro-choice activists, can be problematic. As explained earlier, the concept of human rights is convoluted by its very nature. Hence, Lynn Morgan argues that this issue should be addressed using a justice framework instead, a typically US centric approach. It is clear
Kingston, many girls are forced into marriages by being told it is the right thing to do. In summary, underage arranged marriages are very dangerous and unfair to the children who are placed under those circumstances while they haven’t even reached the capacity to comprehend what they want.
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
In Afghan society, a forced marriage is when either the man or women is married against one’s will. This includes childhood brides and young women who are sold from their family in order to pay off debt. Adolescents that are forced into marriages in Afghanistan are consistently mistreated and abused in their households. In the article “Afghanistan: Women, Socially Bound
Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.
According to UNICEF 48% of women in South Asia are forced to marry before they turn 18. These teenage brides do not give their consent for their marriage their human rights are taking away from them and they are treated like an object. An arranged marriage is when the family of both children agree that they should be taking a lead role in marriage, but the couple have agreed to do so. A forced marriage is when families decide that their child should be married to someone for their own benefit for example money to help the rest of their family, the child in which is married off has giving to consent to her or his family or to the person whom they are about to spend the rest of their life
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 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.
Girls who marry earlier tend to have poorer health and higher in risk of transmitting disease and HIV/AIDS. Very recently, the situation of children in need of special protection, notably girls vulnerable to sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS, suggests that early marriage is being used as a strategy to protect girls from sexual exposure (Innocenti Digest, 2001). Most decision for young girl to marry is as their parents believe they are protecting their daughter from HIV/AIDS. Other than that, some men fear of HIV infection have encourage them to seek young virgin, therefore uninfected partners. However, marriage does not offer any protection instead increase married girls’ exposure to virus as older husband may already be infected by previous sexual relationship. According to Rao Gupta and Geeta (1998), more than half of new HIV infections occur in 15-24 year olds, but girls become infected at twice the rate of boys. Other than risk on getting HIV/AIDS, other infection may arise due to early marriage. The risk of early pregnancy and child birth are well documented: increased risk of dying, increased risk of premature labor, complications during delivery, low birth-weight, and a higher chance that the newborn will not survive (Senderowitz & Judith, 1995).