How does child marriage affect boys? (2023)

Who is most affected by child marriage?

Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one sixth that among girls. Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their lives and health.

Child marriage ends childhood. It negatively influences children's rights to education, health and protection. These consequences impact not just the girl directly, but also her family and community. A girl who is married as a child is more likely to be out of school and not earn money and contribute to the community.

Child marriage is formal or informal union before age 18. It is a violation of children's human rights and a form of gender-based violence that robs children of childhood. Child marriage also disrupts their education and drives vulnerability to violence, discrimination and abuse.

7 June 2019 – An estimated 115 million boys and men around the world were married as children, UNICEF said today in its first ever in-depth analysis of child grooms. Of these, 1 in 5 children, or 23 million, were married before the age of 15.

Girls and women forced into marriage are at high risk of sexual and gender-based violence. Young mothers are more at risk of health complications. Childbirth is the leading cause of death among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in developing countries. Child brides are also at a greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

Child marriage is a complex issue. It is rooted in gender inequality and the belief that girls and women are inferior to boys and men. It is made worse by poverty, lack of education, harmful social norms and practices, and insecurity.

For as long as child marriage continues to exist, so will poverty and instability, violence against women and girls, high global maternal mortality rates, and an ever-widening educational gap between the poorest and wealthiest nations.

Taking a child for early marriage when she is still young may lead to lack of health, lack of care, unwanted pregnancies and she might be overburdened with domestic work. When a girl is taken for early marriage, she may not know how to keep her children, herself and not even the home clean and healthy.

Worldwide, more than 650 million women alive today were married as children. Every year, at least 12 million girls are married before they reach the age of 18. This is 28 girls every minute. One in every five girls is married, or in union, before reaching age 18.

How is child marriage a social problem?

Child marriage violates children's rights and places them at high risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse. India has the largest number of brides in the world – one-third of the global total. Bangladesh has the highest rate of child marriage in Asia (the fourth highest rate in the world).

Around the world, there is overwhelming evidence that child marriage has devastating consequences for girls. Married girls are unlikely to stay in school, and more likely to live in poverty. Married girls are more likely than women who marry at a later age to be the victims of domestic violence.

Child marriage among boys

The union may bring early fatherhood and result in additional economic pressure in the form of providing for the household; it may also constrain the boy's access to education and opportunities for career advancement. Globally, 115 million boys and men were married before age 18.

Marriageable age is the age at which a person is allowed by law to marry. According to the Child Marriage Act, a girl in India can't marry before the age of 18, and a boy before 21.

Dr. Fisher believes that marriages that take place when the couple is in their late 20s to mid 30s are most successful. "By the time we are getting to the late 20s we have a clear sense of who we are and what we want out of life," he explains.

There is widespread consensus that child marriage violates the rights of girls, limits their school attainment, learning, and future earnings, and has negative impacts on their health and that of their children. Child marriage clearly contributes to poverty.

Child marriage is a violation of human rights. It compromises the development of girls and boys. Moreover, it often results in early pregnancy, poor health, little education and social isolation. All these factors make it impossible to break the vicious circle of poverty - particularly for girls.

Early marriage seriously harms the development and wellbeing of girls, through limited education and employment opportunities, social isolation, domestic violence and rape. Girls are vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS, and early pregnancy.

In Ancient Greece, early marriage and teenage motherhood for girls existed. Boys were expected to marry in their teens, as well. In the Roman Empire, girls were married from age of 12 and boys from age 14. In the Middle Ages, under English civil laws derived from Roman laws, marriages before the age of 16 existed.

Is child marriage a crime?

[2]^, In India, the practice of child marriage was first legally prohibited in 1929 through the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929. As per the 1929 Act, marriage of girls below the age of 14 years and boys below the age of 18 years was prohibited.

Child marriage and mental health

Women in the United States who married before the age of 18 were more likely to report experiencing a wide range of mood, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders in adulthood when compared to those who married at later ages [21].

Your body changes after marriage, with a rise in blood pressure, higher cholesterol levels, and increased body mass indexes all contribute to the risk of heart disease. Cardiovascular health seems to be directly linked to stress levels, and women who are unhappily married seem to be especially affected.

Communication Issues

The most common complaint among married couples is lack of communication. Many couples put up with problems rather than try to fix them. In the beginning they agreed he would earn money and she would take care of the house and kids.

It may be from lack of passion, sex problems, shutting down your spouse emotionally, or lack of commitment to the relationship. When there are intimacy issues, a partner may feel unloved and unwanted, which may lead to resentment in the long run.

Essentially, it can be said there four major types of marriage that can be conducted in Nigeria. These include the statutory marriage; customary marriage; church marriage; and Islamic marriage.

Men who marry at a young age may not be settled in life. Moreover, shouldering family responsibility means financial expense, backup and security. Similarly, problems may arise in terms of financial security when they lack the knowledge or education or if there are limited opportunities.

In both proportions and numbers, most child marriages take place in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In South Asia, nearly half of young women and in sub-Saharan Africa more than one third of young women are married by their 18th birthday.

Child marriage among girls is most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and the 10 countries with the highest rates are found in these two regions. Niger has the highest overall prevalence of child marriage in the world. However, Bangladesh has the highest rate of marriage involving girls under age 15.

Poverty and lack of education increase child marriage

The primary reasons for such high rates of child marriage were found to be lack of access to education, economic opportunity, and health services, particularly for girls, alongside severe poverty and weak legal and enforcement mechanisms.

How does child marriage affect the country?

Child marriage is estimated to cost economies at least 1.7 percent of their GDP. It increases total fertility of women by 17 percent, which hurts developing countries battling high population growth.

It is popularly known as the Sarda Act, after its sponsor Harbilas Sharda. It came into effect six months later on 1 April 1930 and applied to all of British India. It was a result of social reform movement in India.

Government mulling revising legal age of marriage for girls, hints PM Modi. As of now, while the legal age of marriage in India is 18 years for girls, it is 21 for boys. Anaemia and malnutrition are common affliction...

While the vast majority of child marriages involve girls, boys can also be married off. However, UNFPA has found that in all 82 low- and middle-income countries for which there are data, the prevalence of child marriage is significantly lower for males than females.

The longest marriage ever was enjoyed by Herbert Fisher (USA, b. 1905) and Zelmyra Fisher (USA, b. 1907). The couple had been married for 86 years 290 days as of 27 February 2011, when Mr Fisher passed away.

Minimum age for a boy to marry is 21 years and for girl it is 18 years. If you marry before attaining the age of 21 years your marriage will be null and void.

These days most boys and girls tend to marry their own friends, mostly of the same age. Studies infer that if they marry the same age girl or boy, egos and dislikes clash; though of same age, their mental maturity and attitudes vary.

The Law Commission paper recommended that the minimum age of marriage for both genders be set at 18. “The difference in age for husband and wife has no basis in law as spouses entering into a marriage are by all means equals and their partnership must also be of that between equals,” the Commission noted.

Who is harmed by early marriage?

Cumulatively, these effects of early marriage undermine girls' and young women's health, psychosocial wellbeing and overall quality of life [14,15,16]. Early marriage is not only a serious public health issue. It also exacerbates domestic violence [17] and undermines women's status and decision-making powers [18, 19].

Parents are the #1 influence in their children's lives. Parents don't always believe this – in a Parents Empowered survey, parents placed themselves last in the line-up of influences on their children – after friends, teachers and media.

Child Marriage is defined as a marriage of a girl or boy before the age of 18 and refers to both formal marriages and informal unions in which children under the age of 18 live with a partner as if married. Child marriage affects both girls and boys, but it affects girls disproportionately, especially in South Asia.

Sudan has the largest gender gap: Girls can marry at 10 and boys can marry at 15 or puberty without parental or judicial permission. Several countries also have different age requirements depending on religious affiliation.

If you're the youngest sibling in your family you know a few things to be true: Your older sibling will always know when you steal something from their room, and your oldest sibling is far, far more organized than you.

Formal cultural consensus analysis of responses met criteria for strong agreement that the period for greatest impact of parenting on a child's development occurs at adolescence, at a median age of 12 years.

You probably noticed your preschooler's unique personality peeking out those first few months of life --reaching eagerly for a rattle or perhaps pushing away a teddy bear. But between the ages of 3 and 5, your child's personality is really going to emerge.

What are the consequences of child marriage? Early pregnancy is one of the most dangerous causes and consequences of this harmful practice. Girls married early are more likely to experience violence, abuse and forced sexual relations due to unequal power relations.