The loss of childhood due to child marriage can have negative long-term effects on a person’s life and health. The Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on the Rights of the Child both call for ending this destructive practice by 2030, and Malaysia embraces these ideals. The National Strategy Plan in Handling the Causes of Child Marriage (2020–2025), which has been observed by a Steering Committee directed by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, demonstrates the commitment of the Malaysian government in dealing with the causes of child marriage.
To The Best of Your Knowledge:
Every day, 41,000 girls throughout the world experience the premature end of childhood due to child marriage, which has been defined as a marriage or partnership in which either or both individuals are under the age of 18.
~India has the largest number of child brides in the WORLD~
Why do child marriages still take place today?
Child marriage has many different and complex causes. Different forces in various groups, regions, and occasionally within the same country, encourage it. The majority of child brides come from the most economically disadvantaged nations in the globe.
Besides, poverty maintaining family honor or offering “protection” for the family, societal conventions and practices, and religious convictions can all play a role in forcing youngsters into marriage.
Girls who marry young have worse health outcomes, less economic security, greater rates of school dropouts, and are more likely to encounter violence and abuse from husbands or other family members. Additionally, they are more likely to have limited freedom of choice, physical mobility, and capacity to make decisions.
Justification for Child Marriage: Risk Factors
- Low household income and poverty.
- Inadequate educational opportunities and low enrollment.
- lack of access to SRH resources and services as well as poor parenting abilities.
- the judgment and social norms that encourage child marriage
- laws that permit marriage before the age of 18.
Why Is Child Marriage Harmful?
- Higher probability of enduring poverty connected with rising school dropout rates.
- An interruption in emotional and psychological growth.
- Highly vulnerable to domestic abuse.
- complications throughout labor during pregnancy.
- Higher mortality rates are observed among children born to adolescent moms.
How CAN Child Marriage BE ENDURED?
- Educating and Empowering both girls and boys.
- Mobilizing the larger community to defend the rights of girls.
- Providing girls and their families opportunity to earn money.
- Government petitioning and promoting legislation that are supportive.
- Adopt new legislation to stop child marriage applications from being approved if child RAPE is alleged.
- Inform the appropriate authorities if you see a child marriage.
- Inform those who are close to you about the negative effects of child marriage.
- Make a commitment to never taking part in any activity that supports child marriage.
