EARLY AGE MARRIAGES

The issue of early marriage affects mainly girls. It can also affect boys
to a lesser extent; however, the following developments will focus on
early marriages in relation to girls. Generally speaking, an early
marriage of a girl is a marriage that occurs at a period when the girl
has not attained yet the minimum age for marriage.
The law sets up the minimum age for marriage and it varies from
country to country. Parties to take legislative action to specify a
minimum age for marriage. The above mentioned Convention also
stresses that “no marriage shall be legally entered into without the full
and free consent of both parties”. In this regard, the consent cannot
be considered free and full when one of the parties involved is not
sufficiently mature to make an informed decision about a life partner.
In addition to this Convention international binding or non-binding law
provisions are related to this issue, such as:
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
• Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery (1956).
The link between this text and early marriages is that any marriage
that is forced upon a girl is considered as a practice similar to slavery.
• Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for
Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1965).
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights including the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(1966).
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (1979).

Early marriage can arise due to a number of reasons such as

these:

Poverty:
Early marriage is sometimes considered as a means of economic
survival. If a girl is married early the family has one less mouth to
feed. The marriage can also be an opportunity for the family to get
some financial benefit. There is also the hope that, owing to the
marriage, the girl herself will be better off. To raise the economic and social
status
Severe social stress:
In countries experiencing armed conflicts, social unrest or any other
serious emergency circumstances, there may be a rise in early
marriages. In this context there is usually an increase of violations
with respect to children’s rights in general, such as enforced
cohabitation, neglect, abandonment, abduction and child slavery.

Cultural survival:
In times when a society is under threats of losing its culture, marrying
a girl to someone within the same culture is perceived as a way of
conserving the culture by ensuring that the children will be born and
brought up in a safe cultural environment.
•Religious hurdles and barriers
•Gender bias promotes early marriage of girls
•Lack of education
•Myths and misconceptions about early marriage
•Pressures from older members of the family and community
•Some communities regard their girl children as a burden and think of getting rid of them
by marrying them off early in a patriarchal society

Prevention of pre-marital sex:

In cultures where girl’s virginity is strongly valued, early marriage is
considered as a means of protecting girls from pre-marital sex and
disgrace. It is believed that girls who get married at early age are
more likely to be virgin by the time of the marriage. In this context,
the desire to protect girls and protect the honor of the family is
wrongly used as a justification of the practice of early marriage. The
notion that early pregnancy leads to larger families and hence providing for heirs to the
throne

As a result of the above, Illiterate Pakistani families and communities

are making arrangements for marriage of girls who are under 18 years
of age or sometimes under 15 years of age. It is plain that the
concerned girls are not physically, emotionally and mentally ready to
perform the obligations of marriage. They are required to get married
to significantly older men while they are not in a position to provide a
valid consent. The imposition of such marriages upon girls means that
girls’ childhood is cut short and their fundamental rights are
compromised. Because of their immaturity, young married girls are
more vulnerable to exploitation. They are required to carry out heavy
amounts of domestic work, demonstrate fertility and raise children
while they are still children themselves. Moreover, these marriages
are usually unregistered and unofficial (informal unions). Most of them
cannot be found in any data collection system. This circumstance
makes more difficult any research work on the prevalence of early
marriages.

Early marriage can cause severe problems like the following:

• High maternal mortality:

Mental and emotional stress in girl brides is high because they are not old enough to cope
with maternal, marital or in law issues. Young married girls giving birth are
more likely to die in childbirth than adult women. Maturity levels become an
issue as the little girl is now expected to play the role of a mother.

• Health problems:
1. The incomplete growth of the young girls affects their children's
growth. Here the children usually suffer from anemia and abnormal
rate of growth.

2. The young girls will be exposed during pregnancy to anemia, high

blood pressure and other complications.

3. Some of the young girls suffer from excess urine and damage of the
urethra as a result of intercourse with the husband which the girl is
not ready for at an early age.

4. While some suffer from delayed pelvic development, hence the pelvis is not
ready to be burdened with a baby. This was found among 60 % of the
young married girls.

•Psychological problems:
1. Psychological and emotional stress like forced sexual relations, denial of
freedom and personal development, as household chores now become a
priority.
2. Girl children undergo severe health problems like pregnancy and childbirth.
 3. Girl brides are also involved in early childhood care.
4. Threat to contracting sexually transmitted diseases increases when girl children
are exposed to such an environment.
5. As girl children are still vulnerable and submissive, they can be subject to the
atrocities of domestic violence and abandonment.

• Risk of domestic violence:

As stated above, young girls are often married to significantly older
men. The age difference reinforces the power of the husband and
exposes the girl at greater risk of abuse.

• Lower education and work skills:

Girls getting married at early age tend to drop out of school and to
miss any opportunity to develop other work skills. Denial of personal
development and education.

• Divorce or abandonment:
Some desperate girls who have been forced into marriage run away
from their spouses in trying to escape from their unfortunate situation.
Their spouses abandon others. They are left with the responsibility of
raising children without the financial support of the husband making
them likely to leave in extreme poverty.

Recommendations:
Unless measures are taken to address early marriage, it will continue
to be a major obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights as far as girls
are concerned. The following measures may be helpful if
implemented:.

• More educational opportunities for girls especially in the rural areas

• Inculcation into curricula, contents concerned with raising the awareness of girls
about their human rights and empowerment.
• There should be legislation to organize marriage and to state the right age for
marriage for girls. More programmers to fight against poverty and illiteracy
 • The national media and newspapers need to play a greater role in raising people's
awareness about the problems of early marriage
• In countries where the practice of early marriage is increasingly alarming, Early
Marriage Prevention Officers should be appointed by governments and assigned to
the implementation of official policies in this field.
• Governments should require the registrations of all types of marriages whether
contracted according to the official law of the State or according to religious law
or customary law.
• It should be a penal obligation for everyone attending an early marriage to report it
to the concerned authorities.
• Communities and families, especially in rural areas, should be properly informed
that early marriages or any child informal unions, performed in breach of the law,
have no effect with respect to the law.
• Awareness should be raised among populations about the negative aspects of
earlyage marriage. The issue should be brought into public debate.

Though the respective Governments and society is doing much to abolish early or child
marriage through campaigns, laws, policies and individual support of people, it is still a far
reaching dream for young girls who are still repeatedly forced into such liaisons.