Welcome to our very first Creative Thinkpiece! Each week we are going to explore different aspects of global life, which we might not think about from a day to day basis. This week we will be discussing Child Marriage in South Asia. Enjoy!
Child marriage is an age old social evil found in deeply engraved in South Asian history. From its past people have been practicing Child marriage in the South Asian countries. Children are put into a marriage alliance and are burdened with the responsibilities of a household at a very young age. In today’s modern society many governments have declared Child marriage as illegal, but supporters of this ritual refuse to back down and Child marriage continues to strive in our society.
South Asia reportedly has had the highest cases of Child marriage. 45% of most women aged 20-24, from this region have been married before the age of 18 and nearly 39,000 underage girls get married everyday. It is common practice in South Asia for parents and local heads to choose the groom for a girl without her consent. In addition to this, many girls are married off at an extremely young age, which makes them vulnerable to a sequence of human right violations. Domestic violence, sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancies and rape cases all associate with child marriage. Early marriage of children leads the suppression of women and girls and facilitates the growth of gender discrimination and further worsens the condition of women in South Asia.
Child marriage is a result of an interaction between economic and Ancient social practices. As stated earlier, child marriage can be traced back to the ancient civilizations set up in Southern Asia. Girls and women were considered to be a load on their families and it was, moreover, still considered a social norm to put daughters in a marriage alliance while they are still young in many communities.
Though the government and official authorities have taken multiple actions throughout the past few years to end this age-old practice have proven to not be strong enough to eradicate it.
Even though the number of marriages below the age of 18 has seen a decline, older adolescents are still highly at risk of being subjected to early and underage marriage.
Child marriage is a highly complex issue; current conditions will facilitate to further social gap between men and women and in the case where, sudden and strict measures are taken to eradicate this issue will result in hurting the social sentiments of the people and in a social riot.
In conclusion, the issue of child marriage needs a solution which satisfies the sentiments of people following this practice and also safeguards the rights of girls and women being victimized by this practice.
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