What is child marriage, its possible consequences. The reasons for the early alliances. Ways to combat child marriage.
Child marriage is the legalization of relationships between people, one of which or both partners have not reached the age of 18 years. Statistics say that the top ten countries where you will not be surprised by an early union include Niger, CAR, Chad, Mozambique, Bangladesh, South Sudan, Mali, India, Afghanistan and Somalia. Separately, it is worth noting the Roma communities in which children are married at a very young age.
The main reasons for the conclusion of child marriage
Before delving into the very essence of the problem, it is necessary to understand why parents decide to take such a step. Such would-be physiologists can keep the opinion-fairy tale that “the girl is ripe”. The maximum that can attract an unformed personality in an early marriage is the desire to get quickly into the world of adults.
Reasons for entering into child marriage:
- The appearance of extra money … Residents of countries with a low standard of living are often unable to provide a worthy dowry to their daughter at the right time. So that their blood does not sit too long in the girls, it is quickly handed over to the groom, considering their parental duty fulfilled. If the young man is satisfied with the bride's dowry, then the wedding is immediately organized.
- Trade in live goods … As scary as it may sound, some parents are degraded from poverty and disaster, not only physically, but also morally. For them, a pretty daughter, who has not reached puberty, is already becoming an excuse for concluding a financial deal and an object of desire to attach it more profitably. In some countries, the groom pays a substantial ransom for such babies, which then helps the family to survive.
- Fear of family shame … Every year the daughter grows up, the parents tighten control over the flourishing bride-to-be. She is especially watched in Muslim countries so that she does not run away with her lover and bring indelible shame on the whole family. Her sisters are unlikely to be able to marry later, since they are proclaimed to be close relatives of the harlot.
- Protection from the arbitrariness of the invaders … It is not a 100% guarantee of safety, but some parents resort to it from the hopelessness of the situation. These are early marriages in “hot spots” where young girls are at risk of being raped by conquerors. Such incidents were not uncommon in the era of the Muslim conquest of India.
- The desire to have time to prolong the race … The conversation will again go about wars, when the male population of a country is destroyed in large numbers. For this reason, parents are in a hurry to marry children who sometimes still have milk on their lips,
- Political alliance … If we take historical child marriages between representatives of royal families as examples, then a large number of them can be voiced. Louis XIV was barely 15 years old when he took a girl from political interests, who was 3 years younger than him.
Interesting! In Nepal, where the largest percentage of child marriages is recorded, it is considered indecent to continue to support a daughter who is 18 years old. In order not to blush in front of the neighbors, who would consider the girl who had sat up in brides to be flawed, they tried to attach her early.
