The unrelenting damage for a young girl who is married prematurely is the harrowing loss of vital education. According to Executive Director of ‘Girls Not Brides’ Babatunde Osotimehin,“Child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects… A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled.” India faces immense poverty, where a huge vast of the population is struck with a lack of resources available and overwhelming economic gaps within the Indian social structure. Disturbing statistics show that within India, 47 percent of all Indian children are married before they are 18, despite laws enforcing the legal age for women to be 18 and men 21. Due …show more content…
Becoming a victim of child marriage at the age of 13, Loveness was married to 21-year-old Akesh, despite wishes to remain with her family. Becoming pregnant at the age of 14, Loveness was heartbroken when she discovered she would not be able to attend school. “What I think of my future is that without education I wont have any future at all. My life will always be filled with struggle.” Forbidding her freedom, she is now living with her new responsibilities of home duties and raising her new baby. The previous luxury to learn new skills that could increase her income and raise her family out of poverty has now been shattered. Similar to Loveness’ journey, becoming wedded prematurely intrinsically terminates the child’s innocence and childhood abruptly, as they are forced into an adult lifestyle detached from their family and home. The emotional and physical ramifications of this are devastating; young girls who have been emotionally blackmailed into forced marriage face significant adversities in mental health development. Furthermore, young girls who wish to break free of marriage are left to seek a future without a support network, insufficient funds and no life skills or education to advance within the community. Those who wish to seek an annulment or voice discontent within their marriage have experienced beatings, killings and multitudes of shame, commonly from their family, husband and society. Annulling the marriage would provide the child with a new existence, however, due to her lack of education, illiteracy and extreme poverty, the widowed or divorced wife is highly open to exploitation and is virtually left isolated from
Parameswari, B. (2015). Domestic Violence and Child Abuse. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 20(2), 56-59. Retrieved from http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol20-issue2/Version-3/I020235659.pdf
Perhaps the first thing one must consider is why there are increasing numbers of poor women having children out of wedlock. One explanation of this concept that Edin and Kefalas use is that the poor women view raising their own child as a sense of accomplishment. For instance, they explain “in the social world inhabited by poor women, a baby born into such conditions represents an opportunity to prove one 's worth.” (11.3). Essentially, the women of a low social class view their children as an opportunity for success. It represents a sense of hope and fulfillment that the mother feels when she has a child. Also, interestingly enough, women of a poor class viewed “marriage as a luxury” (11.2). There are also reasons that involve a sense of fear in control. For instance, Edin and Kefalas explain that “poor women do not want to marry until they are set… a young mother often fears marriage will mean a loss of control” (13.3). Essentially, a poor women who has a child
Some of these marriages are extremely dysfunctional while others seem to be practical. These marriages are considered different from forced marriages and are an acceptable type of marriage in Afghan society. Some arranged marriages lead to poor or horrific outcomes for the brides in order to separate from her spouse. Occasionally these marriages shift into being forced marriages. In the article “Afghan girls bound by family betrothals” the author states “In Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, an 18-year-old girl shot and killed herself because her family would not break off her three-year-engagement to a drug addict.” This exhibits how certain family’s decisions for their children are atrocious. In addition it shows how an arranged marriage turned into a forced marriage. At times young women may run away from as a threat tactic to their family reported by the article “Afghan girls bound by family betrothals.” A 17-year-old girl who ran away from her home for a few days resulted in her parents letting her marry the man that she loved rather than who they set her up with. This shows how some parents would be tolerant enough to let his own daughter marry the person she
The bravery Nujood demonstrated opened the doors for many other child brides. The issue of underage marriage had never gained as much exposure as it had after Nujood was publicly recognized as the youngest divorcee in the world. Yemen Times, along with other journalist wanted to share Nujood’s story. As uncomfortable as it was for Nujood to replay her occurrences for the journalist, she did it for a greater purpose. To help others in a situation like
An example she presented in the article was a case of 16 years old girl that was married to her uncle at the age of 9, and pregnant at 12 in which she developed obstetric fistula after the death of her baby, she was recovering her 4th fistula surgery. This not even close to covering the horrors of childhood marriage in which many young girls are suffering around the global. She concludes that Fistula is 100% preventable, but because many of the young girls undergoing this, is in areas where there is no access to health care and resource, they are badly suffering this and even resulting in death. An important message she addresses is that child bride is preventable as this fistula is if it is taken into consideration in our
“Arranging a Marriage in India” by Serena Nanda is a well written, informative article aimed at sharing the view of the Indian culture on arranged marriages and also showing how much effort is put into the process of arranging a marriage. Our own culture has evolved into accepting the fact that we are all independent individuals who could not imagine having someone else make such a significant decision for us. Serena Nanda does an excellent job of using her sources within the society as evidence of the acceptance of the arranged marriage aspect of their culture.
Girls all over the world are forced into marriages due to financial necessity, tradition and to ensure their future. Most of these girls married are at a young age: “One third of the world’s girls are married before the age of 18 and 1 in 9 are married before the age of 15”( “Child Marriage Facts and Figures”). The young ages of those being married reveal how crucial it is to resolve this problem. When child marriage occurs the parents of the bride usually chose the groom for their daughters; and these grooms can be three times older than the young brides. Some children are brought into the world of marriage at the of 8 or sometimes less depending on their cultural views. The following can be used to help reduce the impact of early marriage: reinforcing laws that are passed against child marriages, and providing information on contraceptives to victims of early marriage. The most efficient way of resolving the problem of child marriage is through educating the people who practice it about its adverse effects.
Sagade, Jaya. Child Marriage in India: Socio - Legal and Human Rights Dimensions. Oxford University Press: 2005 edition. Print.
Because of child marriage many kids lose the opportunity to continue with school. When kids don’t go to school they lose out on many employment opportunities to help the household financially. When children miss out on employment opportunities it keeps the cycle of poverty going. Parents should not be marrying off their children so young just because they cant provide for them, there is other options instead of throwing out your daughter. Every child is valuable and deserves to live a childs life and have fun and just worry about being a kid instead of having a grow up while still yet a child. Each child should enjoy their child years, it only happens once and then real life hits, no child should be deprived of a childhood. Parents should step up and take responsibility for the life that they brought into the world. These countries that waddle in child marriage are some of the poorest because the cycle of poverty starts all over again as these two people joined together have to figure out to make finances work when they couldn’t even finish school to get a good job. Parents should let their children be children, their lives should be more valuable than any money they can get for marrying off their
Teenage pregnancy is an important and a widespread problem in India revolving to public health studies. Although, in India minimum age of marriage for a female is 18 and male is 22, the law is not been strictly followed by the society. It is now leading to serious social and medical troubles such as maternal and child health problems. Data of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 discovered that 16% of women, aged 15-19 years, have already started childbearing. Most of the teenage mother in India has a joint family background. They are not allowed to take any decisions according to their desires. Their life is been shaped by family me...
This practice proves to be dangerous not only to the woman herself but also to the rest of us around her. The impact this practice has on the society is dangerous not only to the women but to everyone in it. Demographers have warned that in the future in twenty years the nation will have to face a shortage of girls as brides as the sex ratio is quickly becoming unfavorable. This practice is also causing an increase in crimes and violence towards women. Women are more likely to be exploited, molested and also raped as an obvious result. Awareness on this situation should be made and people who want to determine the sex of their child should be punished severely. Laws have been passed in the Indian Penal Code to punish any person who tries to determine the sex of the child. The society needs to understand that it needs the girl child as much as it needs the boy child. There was no past without the female and there will be no future without the girl
Child marriage is a treacherous and threatening practice that can deprive young, promising, girls of future opportunities and could potentially be detrimental to their health. A child bride is defined as a girl under the age of 18 who is forced to be wed. Child marriage is a global problem that cuts across countries, cultures, religions and ethnicities. Child brides can be found in every region in the world, from the Middle East to Latin America, from South Asia to Europe. This policy should be enforced to be put to an end because it is a violation to girls’ rights as human beings. Girls who marry young have been proven to be involved in an abusive relationship with their husbands. Only a small number of countries have specifically criminalized the policy and in result the early marriages continue. Child marriages around the world should be abolished because the young women are susceptible to child mortality as well as sexual and domestic violence from their husbands because of their lack of influence they have in the marriage.
Polygamy causes children to grow up faster than needed, experiencing adult like experiences. Becoming married as young as fourteen, and marrying a man that ages much older. Escaping a polygamous community clearly depicts a difficult task, as much as this idea appears to be emphasized and craved for, women are too afraid. Attempting to escape means risking the chance of them getting caught and taken away from their own children. They are deprived of their money and therefore, if they escape successfully, then they are already homeless. Competing for the attention and respect from the husband depicts a conflict many wives’ face. The social status of wives’ go down once the husband no longer longs for affection. Children are victims of both, physical and sexual abuse from father or other family members. Family members could also include step-family members. The abuse that these children face often cause them to have anxiety in the
Young marriage has an impressive number of disadvantages and bad repercussions that can be observed in most of the early wedded couples’ lives. While most boys have a say in when and who they marry, and what they do once they are married, many girls do not get the chance to make these decisions. Husbands of young wives are often older men who expect their wives to follow traditions, stay home, and undertake household and child-care duties; or non mature irresponsible young men who consider themselves able to pull such a burden. Early marriage involves huge responsibility from male, especially financial support. Combining job and education is not an easy case to deal with. So, early marriage has a high possibility of putting an end o...
Child marriage is a popular practice in India and Middle Eastern countries. It is defined as “a formal union before the age of eighteen” (unicef). In some cases the husband can be more than twice the age of the young girl. The median age of women at the time of their marriage is starting to increase, although this primarily includes women in higher income families. Seen as taboo in western countries, the practice is common in rural towns in places like India and Yemen. As a result of the marriage many young girls get pregnant, which is a serious health risk due to their underdeveloped bodies. The practice of child marriage takes away a young woman’s right to an education and also poses serious health risks.