CHILD MARRIAGE- A LOOSING GAME

Child marriage is defined as a formal or informal union before the age of 18. The practice affects mostly girls. While child marriage is especially prevalent in low and lower-middle income countries, it is also observed in other countries. Child brides may also be more likely to experience intimate partner violence, have restricted physical mobility, and limited decision making ability. Most fundamentally, child brides may be disempowered in ways that deprive them of their basic rights to health, education and safety. These dynamics affect not only the girls themselves, but also their children and households, as well as communities and entire societies.

This brief summarizes findings from research undertaken by Save the Children and the World Bank on the lack of legal protection against child marriage for girls and marriages that take place below the national minimum age of marriage1. The analysis suggests that many countries still do not effectively legally protect girls against child marriage, but also that legal reforms are not sufficient to end the practice as many girls marry illegally in countries where legal protections are in place. While protecting girls in the law against child marriage is an important first step, additional interventions are needed to prevent child marriage. ą Child marriage is a harmful practice that disproportionately affects girls, with negative impacts on their health, education, and opportunities in life.

a) Child marriage laws are important to provide girls with legal protection and signal commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target of ending child marriage by 2030.

b)Most countries have adopted 18 as the legal age for marriage for girls, but many countries allow younger girls to marry with parental or judicial consent.

c) Close to 100 million girls globally are not legally protected against child marriage when considering exceptions that allow marriage at a young age with parental or judicial consent.

d) Between 2015 and 2017, nine countries improved their laws on the minimum age for marriage, typically by eliminating exceptions that allow child marriage with parental or judicial consent.

e) While national laws against child marriage are important, they are not sufficient for ending the practice. Globally, even after accounting for exceptions to the legal age of marriage with parental or judicial consent, 7.5 million girls marry illegally each year (20,000 girls per day), making up 68 percent of child marriages.

f) Additional measures that address the underlying causes of child marriage and that expand access to quality education and other opportunities for girls need to be pursued more actively by governments, with support from the international community.

ILLEGAL CHILD MARRIAGES- To compute trends in illegal marriages, we rely on additional data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS) that provide information on the age at first marriage (formal or informal union) for women. The analysis is carried out for a subset of 74 countries. These 74 countries are selected because they are included in the sample of the 112 countries with the most recent data on the minimum age for marriage as described above and survey or census data have been analysed to estimate the number of girls marrying before the minimum age for marriage in the country.

Trends in illegal marriages over time must be considered with caution as an indicator of progress made by countries. When a country reduces the age for marriage, whether this is for the general age or the age with parental or judicial consent, this reduces the number of illegal marriages. Conversely, when a country increases the minimum age for marriage, at least in the short term this is likely to increase the number of illegal marriages. When observing a reduction or an increase in illegal marriages over time, it is important to assess whether this is due to a change in the law, or other factors. The same holds for comparisons between groups. Some countries may have higher rates of illegal marriages because they have adopted laws to protect girls against child marriage, which is a good thing. When measuring trends in illegal marriages, or when comparing countries or groups of countries, the idea is not to suggest that countries should reduce protection, or to discourage countries from increasing protections. The rationale for measuring illegal marriages is to show that simply adopting legal reforms is not enough to end child marriage. Enforcement of minimum marriage laws is difficult and a broader set of policies and interventions are needed to end child marriage. Statistics on illegal marriages help illustrate this point.

Child marriage has large impacts on a wide range of development outcomes for the girls who are married early, their children and families, and societies at large. Close to 100 million girls today are not protected by national law against child marriage. In countries where the minimum age for marriage is not set at 18, laws should be adopted specifying 18 as the minimum age for marriage, eliminating exceptions with parental or judicial consent for minors, and harmonizing discrepancies with customary and religious laws when such disparities exist. At the same time, while implementing legal reforms to protect girls from child marriage is important, this will not be sufficient to end the practice. Today, at least 7.5 million girls marry illegally each year, or 20,000 per day. This means that more than two thirds of child marriages are illegal under national law even after accounting for parental or judicial consent. Legal reforms setting the legal age for marriage at 18 or higher and eliminating parental or judicial exceptions must be accompanied by a wide range of additional policies and interventions. Many Governments are now adopting national strategies to end child marriages, but what is even more important is the adoption of action plans with clear interventions to delay marriage and increase investment in the poorest and most marginalized girls. The literature suggests that one of the best ways to prevent marriage for adolescent girls is to keep them in school. Studies indeed suggest that girls often prefer to continue their education rather than getting married and parents can see continued schooling at the secondary level as a viable alternative to marriage. But for girls to remain in school, efforts are needed to address discrimination and social norms that determine the opportunities and potential futures available to girls. Furthermore, schools must be safe, have adequate facilities to meet both girl’s and boy’s needs , be accessible and affordable, and provide a quality education.

Promising interventions aimed at keeping girls in school, preventing child marriage, working with different stakeholders to end harmful social norms and attitudes, and providing opportunities for adolescent girls are being tested and implemented in many countries. These interventions have the potential to generate better evidence on what works to end child marriage. Investing in such interventions, documenting their impacts, and implementing a broad range of gender transformative policies will all be key to ensuring a better future both for girls and countries as a whole to obtained for those marriages.