Child marriage
Rates of child marriage
Description
Child marriage refers to both formal marriages and informal unions where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age. An informal union is one in which a couple live together for some time, intending to have a lasting relationship, but do not have a formal civil or religious ceremony. Child marriage is a reality for both boys and girls; however, child marriage affects girls in far greater numbers than boys, and with more intensity.
Rationale
Understanding and addressing the links between women’s rights, children’s rights and the human right to adequate food and nutrition is fundamental for the eradication of hunger and malnutrition. Central to the realization of women’s rights is the understanding of the role of harmful acts and practices committed against women and girls, when they are deprived of the totality of their rights and their freedom to choose how to live their lives, which in most instances act as a barrier to the realization of women’s human right to adequate food and nutrition.[i] Child, early and forced marriages are harmful practices and a violation of human rights with significant intergenerational implications for the right to adequate food and nutrition of the girl, the woman, her children and her community.
The implications for the health and nutritional status, and thus for the realization of the right to adequate food and nutrition, of the girl who is subjected to child, early and forced marriage are dire. Child, early and forced marriage results in the deprivation of the human rights (e.g. their right to education, reproductive rights, etc.) of the girls and young women who are victims to these violations, and is linked to early and adolescent pregnancy, possibly associated with nutritional deprivation and stunting, risk of death, distancing from family, workload, and imposed obligations of child care and breastfeeding. Early or adolescent pregnancy places a severe burden on the nutritional well-being, growth, and development of the still growing girl, even if provided with an adequate diet because these have to compete with the nutritional demands of bearing a child. This scenario results in young women and girls who become pregnant at an early age, many of them already stunted, to become chronically undernourished, further stunted and anemic.[ii] Moreover, the risk of maternal malnutrition and mortality in these young women is increased by three to four times in comparison to the risk for an adult woman.[iii] In fact, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are among the most important causes of death for girls aged 15-19 in low- and middle-income countries.[iv] Pregnant adolescents are also more likely than adults to have unsafe abortions, which contribute not only to lasting health problems, but also maternal deaths.[v]
For the child who is born as a result of a child, early and forced marriage and thus, many times, as a result of an early pregnancy, the realization of his or her right to adequate food and nutrition, and thus of other human rights, is severely impaired for his or her lifetime.[vi] The infant mortality and malnutrition rates associated with adolescent pregnancies are higher than those of adult pregnancies.[vii] Furthermore, adolescent mothers have a higher risk of having low birth weight babies.[viii] Low birth weight babies have a much higher risk of dying before reaching age 5, of developing more severe malnutrition, specially stunting[ix], and of developing chronic degenerative diseases in adult age[x]. Low birth weight, wasting, stunting, and child malnutrition, has the further consequence of impaired cognitive development and malnutrition, including under-nutrition and obesity, in adulthood.[xi]
Despite all of the evidence linking malnutrition to a low socio-economic status of women[xii], limited nutrition interventions that neglect structural causes continue to be a priority. Policies and interventions aimed at addressing malnutrition need to place the emphasis on guaranteeing the needed social and legal protection against discrimination of women and girls, in particular against child, early and forced marriage. Policies need to capture the significant role that women’s good nutritional status, prior to/and independently of becoming a mother, has for the potential future offspring. Instead of solely taking on a medical sector approach and within that a clear prioritization for the curative approach that places the emphasis on disease, death, provision of health services, a more holistic approach should be prioritized – one that is more conducive to the promotion of health and prevention of malnutrition and that fosters policies that place the focus on the underlying structural causes, and on the role of the realization of women’s and girls’ human rights throughout the lifespan.
Method of measurement[xiii]
In 2003, UNICEF and partners agreed to focus on five indicators related to child marriage:
- Percentage of women 20 to 49 first married or in union by age 15 and 18, by age group
- Percentage of girls 15 to 19 years of age currently married or in union
- Spousal age difference
- Percentage of women currently in a polygynous union, by age groups
- Percentage of ever-married women who were directly involved in the choice of their first husband or partner.
Many countries also collect data on the marital status and age at first marriage for boys and men, thereby allowing a comparison of gender differentials related to child marriage.
Data collection and sources
The main sources of such data are national censuses and national household surveys, predominantly the Multiple Cluster Surveys (MICS)[xiv] and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)[xv].
Disaggregation
While gender-disaggregated data would be optimal, data on the number of boys affected by child marriage are limited and difficult to find. Therefore, this indicator is normally expressed as measuring the percentage of women who were first married or in union before ages 15 and 18.
Periodicity
The reported data normally refer to a specific year. Annual or bi-annual publications such as the State of the World’s Children (SOWC) of UNICEF normally present the latest available national data, which is not necessarily for the year of the publication and likely not to be the same for all countries. Thus, in reporting historical monitoring data making use of annual or bi-annual publications, care should be taken to note the actual year that the data were obtained.
Analytical Approaches
The context and indicators related to child marriage and cohabitation can be approached through the examination of age groups. One approach is to consider all women in a society. Another would be to observe the situation of girls aged 15 to 19 to determine the number of girls currently married or in union and the characteristics associated with that age group. However, gauging how many of those girls will be married or in union by their 18th birthday is more complex because many have not yet reached the age of 18. Looking at the group of women 20 to 24 years old is simpler and allows for the inclusion of all girls who were married or in union by age 18 within the closest time period for which complete data are available.
Comments and Limitations
International secondary databases basically rely on country-generated data. This limits the use of these data in monitoring: (a) as national surveys are often infrequent, these data sources may report missing data for consecutive years, (b) data across all countries are reported by time intervals[xvi], and (c) sample sizes vary considerably among countries, and often within countries over time. As much as possible, use should be made of primary data sources from the 23 first-stage countries, which are also more likely to present disaggregated data[xvii]. Furthermore, this indicator does not measure progress or setbacks since it does not reflect structural socio-economic conditions contributing to child marriage. Other indicators[xviii] are better suited to measure progress towards improving the structural causes of child marriage.
[i] For a concrete example of the links between violations of the right to adequate food and structural violence, see FIAN International, Alternative written report submitted on behalf of rural women in Gnita, Togo and Togo-based NGOs, FLORAISON, GRADSE and RAPDA-Togo, with the support of FIAN International, to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, during its 53rd Session, October 2012, accessed January 26, 2013, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/FIAN_JointNGOs_ForT....
[ii] See United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child under nutrition in India: a Gender issue, 2009, accessed February 3, 2013, http://www.unicef.org/india/nutrition_5901.htm.
[iii] See United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), State of the World Children – 2011, accessed February 3, 2013, http://www.unicef.org/media/files/SOWC_2011_Main_Report_EN_02092011.pdf, 22.
[iv] See World Health Organization (WHO). Women’s health fact sheet, accessed January 13, 2013, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs334/en/.
[v] See World Health Organization (WHO). Women’s health fact sheet, accessed January 13, 2013, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs334/en/.
[vi] For a specific country example of the impact of child, early and forced marriage on women’s human rights throughout the life span, including the right to health and education, see Plan Nepal, Save the Children, and World Vision International, Child Marriage in Nepal – Research Report, 2012, accessed December 15, 2013, https://217.86.242.33/exchange/cordova/Posteingang/WG:%20OHCHR%20Call%20for%20Submission%20on%20child,%20early%20and%20forced%20marriage%20-%20Deadline%2015%20Dec%202013.EML/Child%20Marriage%20in%20Nepal-%20Report.pdf/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/Child%20Marriage%20in%20Nepal-%20Report.pdf?attach=1.
[vii] See United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), State of the World Children – 2011, accessed February 3, 2013, http://www.unicef.org/media/files/SOWC_2011_Main_Report_EN_02092011.pdf, 22.
[viii] See World Health Organization (WHO). Adolescent pregnancy fact sheet, accessed January 13, 2013, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/en/.
[ix] Stunting, or low height for age, is usually caused by continued insufficient nutrient intake and frequent infections, higher prevalence below age 2. Wasting, or low weight for height, is a strong predictor of infant or child mortality, and is usually associated with acute lack of adequate nutrient intake and disease. For more information, see United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Progress for Children: A World Fit for Children Statistical Review, accessed February 5, 2013, http://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2007n6/index_41505.htm.
[x] See United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), State of the World Children – 2011, accessed December 12, 2013, http://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2006n4/index_lowbirthweight.html.
[xi] See United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), Sixth report on the world nutrition situation, accessed December 12, 2013, http://www.unscn.org/files/Publications/RWNS6/html/.
[xii] For example, see The Guardian, Land rights for women can help ease India’s child malnutrition crisis, accessed December 12, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/jan/20/land-rights-india-women-ease-malnutrition.
[xiii] http://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/
[xvi] See, for example, SOWC 2016.
[xvii] See, for example, changes in stunting rates by wealth quintiles 2000-2008 in Sierra Leone, as reported in Global Nutrition Report 2014 Nutrition Country Profile of Sierra Leone (www.globalnutritionreport.org), using DHS data.
[xviii] http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/APEP-Preliminary-List-of-Recommended-Indicators-8-29-14.pdf