Child Brides - Consequences contd 3...

The effects of child marriage a far reaching with multiple ripple effects that affect not just the girls but the community and a nation. The consequences of marrying young girls at tender ages also include:

• Illiteracy: Child brides are often pulled out of school and denied further education. Their children are also more likely to be illiterate.
  
• Poverty: Child brides - already poor - are isolated and denied education and employment opportunities, making it difficult for them break out of the cycle of poverty.
  
• Abuse and Violence: Child brides are more likely to experience domestic abuse, and violence than their peers who marry later.
  
• Mental Health: Violence and abuse can lead to post-traumatic stress and depression.
  
• Isolation and Abandonment: Child brides are often isolated from their peers and abandoned if they develop health problems like fistula.

Ethiopian child bride

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is designed to guarantee certain individual rights--which are abused by early marriage. Rights undermined or lost by children forced to marry early are:

1.    The right to an education.

2.   The right to be protected from physical and mental violence, injury or abuse, including sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation.

3.   The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.

4.   The right to rest and leisure, and to participate freely in cultural life.

5.    The right to not be separated from parents against the child's will.

6.   The right to protection against all forms of exploitation affecting any aspect of the child’s welfare.

7.   The right to future employment.

Child Brides - Consequences contd 2...

Child marriage has violent health effects on the young girls: 


Health Problems: Premature childbirth can lead to a variety of health problems for mothers, including fistula, a debilitating condition that causes chronic incontinence. Girls with fistula are often abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by society. There are approximately 2 million girls living with fistula, and 100,000 new cases every year.


HIV/AIDS: Married girls may be more likely to contract sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS, than unmarried girls. Young girls are more physically susceptible to STD's, have less access to reproductive education and health services and are often powerless to demand the use of contraception.

Girl bride

Young brides are:

More likely to become young mothers. Girls under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die of childbirth than a woman in her 20s.


More likely to drop out of school and have limited economic opportunities, which keeps them and their families locked in the cycle of poverty.


Twice as likely to suffer domestic violence and are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.

Child Brides: Stolen Lives and Consequences

Little Bride

In December of 2010, the Senate voted unanimously to pass the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act. In February of 2011, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) reintroduced the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S.414).  When discussing this piece of legislation Senator Durbin stated, “Tens of millions of women and girls around the world have lost their dignity, independence and lives due to child marriage. Child marriage denies these women and girls of an education, economic independence and is the root cause of many of the world’s most pressing development issues – HIV/ AIDS, child mortality, and abject poverty.” The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2011 seeks to “…reduce maternal and child mortality, reduce maternal illness, halt the transmission of HIV/AIDS [and] prevent gender-based violence.


The devastating effects of child marriage are too high a price for continued silence on the issue.


Effects of child marriages: Child brides are more likely than unmarried girls to die younger, suffer from health problems, live in poverty and remain illiterate.


 - Premature Pregnancy: Child brides almost always bear children before they are physically - or emotionally - ready.


- Maternal Mortality: Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die during child birth or pregnancy than older women. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.


- Infant Mortality: Mortality rates for babies born to mothers under age 20 are almost 75% higher than for children born to older mothers. The children that survive are more likely to be premature, have a low birth weight, and are more at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS.



Effects of child marriage contd...

Child Marriage

Child marriage usually refers to two separate social occurrences, which are practiced in some societies. The first and more widespread practice is that of marrying a young child (generally defined as below the age of fifteen) to an adult. Due to women's shorter reproductive life period (relative to men's), the practice of child marriage tends to be of young girls to fully-grown men.

The second practice is a form of arranged marriage, in which the parents of two children from different families arrange a future marriage. In this practice, the individuals who become betrothed often do not meet one another until the wedding ceremony, which occurs when they are both considered to be of a marriageable age.

Although child marriages were not seen as improper in historical context as individuals were considered to be matured at an earlier age than in the modern West an increase in the advocacy of human rights, whether as women's rights or as children's rights, has caused the traditions of child marriage to decrease greatly.

In child betrothals, a child's parents arrange a match with the parents of a child from another family (social standing, wealth and expected education all play a part), thus unilaterally determining the child's future at a young age. It is thought by adherents that physical attraction is not a suitable foundation upon which to build a marriage and a family. A separate consideration is the age at which the wedding, as opposed to the engagement, takes place.

Families are able to cement political and/or financial ties by having their children marry. The betrothal is considered a binding contract upon the families and the children. The breaking of a betrothal can have serious consequences both for the families and for the betrothed individuals themselves.

Source: Wiki

Girl-Child Marriage Worldwide and Consequences

Child-bride

More than 100 million girls under the age of 18 years will be married during the next decade in many developing countries around the world. Although the practice has decreased globally over the last 30 years, it still remains common in rural communities and among the poorest of the poor.

In South Asia, nearly 10 million (48%) young girls are married before the age of 18. While in Africa the figure stands at 42% and in Latin America and the Caribbean 29%.




Percentage of girls marrying before the age of 18 - Source ICRW 2007

Country/Continent	Percentage (%)
Niger - Africa	76.62
Chad - Africa	71.53
Bangladesh – Southern Asia	68.74
Mali - Africa	65.45
Guinea - Africa	64.56
Central African Republic - Africa	57.07
Nepal – Southern Asia	56.18
Mozambique - Africa	55.99
Uganda - Africa	54.11
Burkina Faso - Africa	51.91
India – Southern Asia	50.01
Ethiopia - Africa	49.11
Liberia - Africa	48.41
Yemen – Middle East	48.42
Cameroon - Africa	47.22
Eritrea - Africa	47.02
Malawi - Africa	46.92
Nicaragua – Latin America	43.32
Nigeria - Africa	43.32
Zambia - Africa	42.10

"I will be a hummingbird" - Wangari Maathai

Dr. Maathai shares this symbolic story that she heard while in Japan.


The moral of the story:- There is something I can do, no matter how small it is collectively it will make a difference.


I am called to be a hummingbird in my community - doing the best I can because that is all I am called to do.

Wangari Maathai & Sustainable, Holistic Development

The Green Belt Movement was founded in 1977 by Dr. Wangari Maathai.  It began as a grassroots tree planting program to address the challenges of deforestation, soil erosion and lack of water is now a vehicle for empowering women. The act of planting a tree is helping women throughout Africa become stewards of the natural environment. 


By protecting the environment, these women are also becoming powerful champions for sustainable management of scarce resources such as water, equitable economic development, good political governance, and ultimately… peace.


GBM has now grown to be one of the most prominent women’s civil society organizations, based in Kenya, advocating for human rights and supporting good governance and peaceful democratic change through the protection of the environment. Its mission is to empower communities worldwide to protect the environment and to promote good governance and cultures of peace. 


As a result of this movement, more than 40 million trees have been planted across Africa. The result: soil erosion has been reduced in critical watersheds, thousands of acres of biodiversity-rich indigenous forest have been restored and protected, and hundreds of thousands of women and their families are standing up for their rights and those of their communities and so are living healthier, more productive lives. 

Dr. Wangari Maathai - Founder of the Green Belt Movement

The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple act of planting a tree, we give hope to ourselves and to future generations.–Wangari Maathai