Early marriage is harmful to young girls

Kathmandu, Nepal, November 12 — Today, many countries still set a lower minimum age for marriage for females than for males. However, there are an increasing number of women who insist that young girls not be married until they reach a sufficient age to make an informed choice.

While the union of marriage is universal, in many parts of the world, men retain far greater power than women. There is recognition that women lack power in the decision-making process.

According to a survey conducted by a NGO working for children’s rights, there have been 56,070 recorded cases of child marriage in the Bara district of Nepal alone, from 2003 to 2007.

"The tradition of marrying off daughters as young as six is still common," the U.N. Population Fund said in a statement.

According to International Center for Research on Women, "There are 60 million child brides worldwide. Over the next decade, this number is expected to rise to 100 million.”

Statistics show that the majority of girls in Africa and Asia, including in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, are married before the age of 14. Hindu marriage law is one of the most extreme forms of marriage law, in terms of gender discrimination, permitting the marriage of very young girls to extraordinarily elderly men.

In Nepal, the legal age for marriage for girls is fixed at 16, and polygamy and child marriage is illegal. Nevertheless, while these laws may exist on paper, they have been shown to be faulty in reality.

Urban Nepali women marry later than their rural counterparts, the average age for marriage being ages 15 to 19. Of all Nepalese women, 20 percent are married before the age of 15, and 40 percent by the age of 18. As shown by these statistics, marriage at an early age is still a common practice in Nepal’s rural areas.

Women should have a say in the decision-making process of marriage, and they must have the right to express their interest without fear of abuse.

In summary, early marriage has harmful effects on the overall wellbeing of young girls, who are not mentally, psychologically, emotionally or physically prepared for a conjugal life. However, as it is played out in many countries, women attain social status only through marriage and by producing as many children as possible, and preferably, sons.