‘Child brides rise in Asia amid pandemic’
ACTIVISTS: GIRLS FORCIBLY MARRIED OFF AS PARENTS STRUGGLE TO EARN A LIVING
TENS of thousands of girls across Asia are being forced into marriage by desperate families plunged into poverty because of the coronavirus pandemic, as campaigners warn years of progress tackling the practice is being undone.
Mass job losses caused by the pandemic in countries such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam have left parents struggling to feed their families, experts said.
“All of the gains we’ve made in the past decade are really going to suffer,” said Shipra Jha, head of Asia engagement, at NGO Girls Not Brides.
“Child marriage is firmly rooted in gender inequality and patriarchal structures. What’s happened is that it’s become compounded in the Covid era,” she added.
Worldwide, an estimated 12 million girls are wed every year before the age of 18, according to the UN.
But the organisation has now warned that unless urgent action is taken to tackle the economic and social impact of the virus – an additional 13 million child marriages will take place in the next decade.
In Asia, charities report the snowball of forced unions has already begun, estimating tens of thousands are already affected – though hard data is yet to be collated.
“There has been an increase in child marriages during this lockdown period. There is rampant unemployment and job loss. Families are barely able to make ends meet, so they think that it’s best to get their young daughters married off,” said Rolee Singh who runs India’s “1 Step 2 Stop Child Marriage” campaign.
Teenager Muskaan, 15, said she is being forced to marry the 21-year-old boy next door by her mother and father, who are street cleaners in Varanasi,
India, and have six other children to feed. “My parents are poor, what else could they have done? I fought as much as I could but eventually had to give in,” the teenager said in tears.
Save the Children has warned that violence against girls and the risk of forced unions, particularly among minors, “could become more of a threat than the virus itself”.
And while education has been hailed as the central tenet in the battle against child marriage, activists warned that with lockdowns forcing hundreds of millions out of school, girls in the poorest parts of the world will be worst affected.
Earlier this month, 275 former global leaders, education experts, and economists urged governments and organisations such as the World Bank to ensure the fallout from the coronavirus does not create a “Covid generation... robbed of their education and a fair chance in life.”
“Many of these children are adolescent girls for whom being in school is the best defence against forced marriage and the best hope for a life of expanded opportunity,” said an open letter signed by dignitaries, including Ban Ki-Moon, previously UN Secretary General, UNICEF’s Carol Bellamy, and former prime ministers such as Pakistan’s Shaukat Aziz, and the UK’s Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
In India, activists said there’s been a surge in forced unions because families see the practice as a solution to financial woes caused by Covid-19, without realising the repercussions for young women.
“We have also seen children get married because the other party offers money or some kind of assistance in return. These families don’t understand the concept of trafficking – it’s a worrisome trend,” said activist Singh.
Jha, who is based in Delhi, agreed that the economic pressure is part of the problem but insisted child marriage is complex, particularly in Asia where there are fears that lockdown school closures mean idle teenagers will turn to each other family reputations.
“The biggest fear that families have is that (teen girls) may become close to a boy, start exploring their sexuality, or become pregnant. Honour is closely linked to this situation...That’s a huge thing,” she added.
She said the problem has been aggravated as governments shift resources from key development areas such as education, family planning and reproductive health to battle the virus.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi said the country will raise its marriage age – up from 18 to 21, but Girls, Not Brides says such moves are tough to enforce and do not address the root causes.
UNICEF says ending child marriage will help break intergenerational cycles of poverty. It said: “Empowered and educated girls are better able to nourish and care for their children, leading to healthier, smaller families. When girls are allowed to be girls, everybody wins.” (AFP)
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