No let-up in child marriages even during pandemic

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been an increase in child marriage around the world threatening years of progress in reducing the practice, according to recent reports by several developmental organizations.

Ten million additional child marriages may take place within the decade, according to an analysis released by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on March 8.

UNICEF warns that school closure, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy, and parental deaths due to the pandemic are putting the most vulnerable girls at increased risk of child marriage.

Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage within the next decade, despite significant reductions in several countries in recent years.

In the last ten years globally, the proportion of young women who were married as children had decreased by 15 percent, from nearly 1 in 4 to 1 in 5, the equivalent of some 25 million marriages averted, a gain that is now under threat.

“Covid-19 has made an already difficult situation for millions of girls even worse. Shuttered schools, isolation from friends and support networks, and rising poverty have added fuel to a fire the world was already struggling to put out but we can and we must extinguish child marriage,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

Girls who marry in childhood face immediate and lifelong consequences. They are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school. Child marriage increases the risk of early and unplanned pregnancy, in turn increasing the risk of maternal complications and mortality. The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends and exclude them from participating in their communities, taking a heavy toll on their mental health and well-being, said UNICEF.

UNICEF also said that Covid-19 is profoundly affecting the lives of girls. Pandemic-related travel restrictions and physical distancing make it difficult for girls to access the health care, social services and community support that protect them from child marriage, unwanted pregnancy and gender-based violence.

As schools remain closed, girls are more likely to drop out of education and not return. Job losses and increased economic insecurity may also force families to marry their daughters to ease financial burdens,
according to UNICEF.

Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those occurring in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria.

To off-set the impacts of Covid-19 and end the practice by 2030 – the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – progress must be significantly accelerated.

“One year into the pandemic, immediate action is needed to mitigate the toll on girls and their families,” said Henrietta Fore.

“By reopening schools, implementing effective laws and policies, ensuring access to health and social services – including sexual and reproductive health services – and providing comprehensive social protection measures for families, we can significantly reduce a girl’s risk of having her childhood stolen through child marriage,” she added.

In Bangladesh, the number of child marriages also increased by some 60 percent during the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) in 2021.

Analysing child marriage related news from eight national dailies, namely Prothom Alo, Jugantar, Samakal, Ittefaq, Kaler Kantha, The Daily Star, New Age and Dhaka Tribune, MJF found that 101 children became victims of child during the start of the pandemic.

An estimated 5,00,000 more girls are at the risk of being forced into child marriage globally and as many as one million more are expected to become pregnant in 2020 as a result of the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study done by the Save the Children in last year.

The increase comes on top of the previously estimated rates of child marriage, which already anticipated 12 million girls being forced into marriage last year.

In October last year, UNICEF said that Bangladesh has the highest prevalence of child marriage in South Asia and ranks among 10 countries in the world with the highest levels.

A new UNICEF report called for accelerated action to end child marriage in Bangladesh by 2030.

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