Child marriage is defined by the UN and other international organisations as any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child. Marriages of this type mostly involve underage girls.
About 750 million women under 18 get married, with 30% of them being less than 15 years old, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
The marriages not only deprive children of educational opportunities but early pregnancy and childbearing come with a higher risk of death. Marrying too young can also contribute to poverty and domestic violence.
Unicef in March estimated that 10 million additional child marriages may occur before 2030, with school closures forecast to increase child marriages by 25% and mercenary marriages involving grooms from poor families with many children could increase 3%.
The fund has projected that 100 million underage children would get married by 2030.
International humanitarian group Save the Children estimates that there were about 500,000 child marriages worldwide amid the pandemic in 2020.
The group says about 2.5 million additional children have to marry by 2025 due to the pandemic and its subsequent economic slowdowns and impoverishment.
By region, South Asia, including India, reported the most child marriages. The unions are also common in West and Central Africa, South America and the Caribbean region where Covid-19 vaccinations have been slow.
Countries around the world are introducing laws to prevent these types of marriages, but local traditions are hard to change.
India has proposed legislation to raise the minimum marriage age for women from 18 to 21 years old.
“We are doing this so that they can have time to study and progress,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill was introduced in parliament on Dec 22, according to Voice of America.
“The country is taking this decision for its daughters.”
Government data shows 785 child marriages in 2020 – a 50% increase from the previous year and the highest in the last five years.
This is being attributed mainly to the large number of people who lost jobs amid the pandemic, making life increasingly difficult for poor families.
In 2019, Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – raised the minimum marriage age for women from 16 to 19 without the approval of religious courts.
But more than 33,000 child marriages were approved in the first half of 2020 alone, surpassing the 22,000 for all of 2019.
Political unrest may also cause child marriages to increase. In August, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, prompting fears of a rise in underage marriages, as the Islamic group opposes women’s right to work.
CNN reported in November that human trafficking is also a problem in Afghanistan. In one case, a 9-year-old girl in the northwestern province of Badghis was sold to a 55-year-old man for about US$2,200.
It has become increasingly difficult for ordinary Afghans to buy daily necessities as humanitarian aid efforts have been disrupted. Many experts believe this could increase the number of child marriages.
“If girls are deprived of opportunities to go to school, it will have the same negative consequences as the pandemic,” said Mikiko Otani, Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Otani stresses that the Taliban, which limits women’s rights, is depriving socially and economically vulnerable women and their children of choices, leaving many girls no choice but to marry early in order to survive.
The committee is urging countries to unconditionally set the minimum age of marriage to 18. Unicef and other organisations are also conducting awareness campaigns for religious leaders.
“It is important for us to make it easier for girls to stand on their own feet after finishing school,” Otani said.