Don't Make Me Marry
Forced Child Marriage
Introduction
- Children all over the world in various countries like India, Nepal, and South Asia were known to be pregnant at the age as young as 11 years old.
- Forced child marriage was supposed to give girls a better life; however it took away from their freedom.
How This Happened
- The Nepal government was designed to get rid of the problem of child marriage, but it was very difficult due to weak enforcement and low levels of awareness.
- This problem was sometimes known as breaking the law since in Nepal both boys and girls can marry at 18 with parent permission and at 20 without permission need but child marriage became very common under the age of 18 (Child Marriage in Nepal).
- A way that child marriage affects the girl’s life is that it’s a violation of the girls’ human rights which doesn’t give girls any freedom at all.
- Another effect which is “child brides also have is higher rates of HIV/AIDS and other ST/s than their unwed counterparts, contributing on ill health and premature death” (I Don’t).
- Another effect is that girls who are married before 18 will often have children long before they are physically ready which leads us to the most important which is that “child marriage makes girls seem powerless” (Stith).
About The Children
- All these girls were entered into secret and illegal arranged marriages with much older men. An example is two sisters age 13 and 15 that were transferred like requisitioned goods from one family to another since a group of males arranged their futures for them.
- The littlest daughters tend to be added on discreetly, their names kept off the invitations, the unannounced second or third bride at their own weddings (Gorney).
- The education for young girls is much decreased. “It’s because of the lack of job opportunities so education would be pointless” (Raji).
- Education did start to affect some of the youngest girls but once they reach around the age of 16 or 17 that’s when you stop seeing the effect (Raji).
Frequency
- Once girls reached their puberty stage, they were supposed to go to initiation camps. In these initiation camps, the girls were literally taught how to sexually please a man.
- “There would be a special day, which they called “Very Special Day” where a man who is hired by a community to come to the initiation camps and sleep with the little girls” (Banda).
- A father who was poor didn’t know if marrying off his daughter would be helpful. “He would presume that one half of his mind was worried about his daughter. He thought the prospect that if she were to marry someone, she may be better looked after” (Wilson).
- One race that was pretty popular for child marriage was Romanian with the Gyspy Culture.
How To Help
- There is a organization called Girls Not Brides. This organization was trying to advocate for legal changes in laws to prevent marriage by children under the age of 18 (Pande).
- The Girls Not Brides organization received $1.25 million for all their hard work, to help their organization grow, and to become even more powerful than they already are.
- If there is no reduction in child marriage, an addition 1.2 billion girls will be married by the year 2050” (About Child Marriage- Girls Not Brides).
Conclusion
- If we all work together we can stop this horrible problem. If you want to help today you can donate for this cause at amazing organizations like Girls Not Brides for example.
- Take the time to help just one child’s life. Just like the old saying treat others the way you want to be treated.
About Me
My name is Kayla and this flyer was created as part of a school project to inform people about Forced Child Marriage. Scan this QR code to access my online flyer and links.