How Child Marriage Affects the Economy
* Spoiler alert: Child Marriage is bad and the more educated the public is, the less child marriage will occur and the economy will grow more*
There are at least 117 countries in the world that allow child marriage to occur (Sandstorm & Theodorou, 2016). Although that number is shocking by itself, there are many more that perform this ceremony against the wishes of the law. Child marriage and sex trafficking are something that people think is predominately in African or undeveloped countries. However, most do not take into consideration that it happens very frequently like in large tourist countries, or even in the United States of America.
Introduction
According to UNICEF, child marriage can be defined as “any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 to an adult or another child” (UNICEF, 2020). UNICEF continues to explain that this is an act of gender inequality where one in five girls will be married in 2020 (UNICEF, 2020). With that being known, there is an average of 41,000 girls being married off daily (BER Staff, 2018). Child marriage is something that strips the child away from the life they could live, and instead gives them a forced life and role they will need to perform for the rest of their life. UNICEF explains that by 2030 more than 120 million girls will be married before they turn 18 (UNICEF, 2020). That makes up at least 12 million girls a year being married by 18, and roughly 650 million women alive today who were forced to be married off as children (United Nations, 2020). One of these women was my American high school science teacher. These child marriages are forced because they are marriages in which “one or both parties have not personally expressed their full and free consent to the union” (United Nations, 2020). This also reflects how sometimes the individual is married off before the age of consent. Even if the child expresses contentment at first with the forced marriage, studies show that the brain is not fully developed to make comprehensive and correct decisions until around 25 years of age (NPR, 2011). An underdeveloped brain creates a very difficult space for the child brides to comprehend the danger or situation they are in. They are then forced into the role being made for them. One part of this role is early pregnancy. However, with early pregnancy, the girl or young woman can be denied certain health care which will play into early mortality rates (United Nations, 2020). The United Nations even continues to explain that some young women or girls attempt suicide or try to flee to escape these unjust marriages (United Nations, 2020).
Child marriage is most prominent in poor, rural areas because of the lack of resources and educational opportunities they have (World Vision, 2013). The United Nations showed that in underdeveloped or impoverished countries, the number of child marriage cases is at least “40 percent of girls married before the age of 18, and 12 percent married before the age of 15” (United Nations, 2020). UNICEF speculates that some of the reasons why child marriage is performed is because of poverty or lack of educational opportunities for female growth within the fields of business and other jobs. There’s also the idea that some families marry their daughters off to help the family’s economic load, or to increase their economic situation by dowry (UNICEF, 2020). Another reason is to limit the daughter from being exposed to premarital sex to keep her pure and to lower the risk of pregnancy outside of marriage (UNICEF, 2020). In some cultures such as India, if the child is raped, they would then need to be married to their rapist to stop the shame and isolation that the community would then shed onto the daughter and family (Thomas Reutters Foundation, 2017). Other reasons can simply be because of tradition and how in certain communities, once a girl is menstruating she is seen as a woman and ready to be married (Girls Not Brides, 2017). This reason can then be followed by female genital mutilation, early marriage, and early pregnancy (Girls Not Brides, 2017). It is most common in West and South Africa followed by Southeast Asia and its Subcontinent but is also prominent in the Caribbean and Latin American countries.
Child Marriage in Africa
Within Africa, Niger has one of the highest amounts of reported child marriage cases. In Niger, 76 percent of girls are married before they are 18 years old, and 28 percent are married before they are 15 years old (Girls Not Brides, 2019). This equates to 3 in every 4 young girls who are married before the age of 18, leaving 1 in 4 to be married before the age of 15 (UNICEF, 2019). They have a very high religious tradition where premarital sex and pregnancy outside of marriage drive child marriage (UNICEF, 2019). Out of insecurity, families marry off their children to halt this seemingly religious disgrace. However, poverty is the main drive in Niger for child marriage. In an attempt to make an economic profit, families marry their children off. Not only is a lower dowry being made, but the additional expenses of the child are being uplifted. In Niger, child marriage is evident in education with “81 percent of women aged 20 to 26 with no education and 63 percent with only primary education were married or in union at age 18, compared to only 17 percent of women with secondary education or higher” (UNICEF, 2019). The less opportunity for the woman or girl to have education corresponds with how likely they are to be married off at a young age or how likely they have already been married young.
Child Marriage in Asia and its Subcontinent
Southeast Asia and its Subcontinent is known for child marriage as well. Child marriage is most common in rural areas of India. Although it is being monitored within the country, it still occurs. With 27 percent of girls being married before the age of 18 and 7 percent married before the age of 15, India has the highest number of child brides at 15,509,000 girls (UNICEF, 2017). Some Indian child brides are even promised marriage before birth so that the child bride is able to have a prosperous or wealthy future (UNICEF, 2017). Religion restricts certain laws from banning child marriage. This tradition has been an ongoing occurrence for various generations, and so it is seemingly difficult to discontinue and rebrand the minds of the Indian religions. Education is another reason for the continuous generations of child brides and marriage because a woman is seen as someone’s property or money. In conclusion, educating women is then seen as something unnecessary as they should be spending their time providing in the home for their marital family (UNICEF, 2017). Even grimmer, there is a fear that the girl would lose her premium or virginity from external environments, so families push for her marriage as soon as puberty occurs (UNICEF, 2017). This is because a father can lose credibility in his community if his daughter goes against his wishes of staying “pure” or marrying without his consultation or consent (UNICEF, 2017).
In Bangladesh, 59 percent of girls are married before they are 18 years old and 22 percent are married before they are 15 years old (UNICEF, 2017). UNICEF has shown through research that Bangladesh has the fourth-highest rate of child marriage in the entire world (UNICEF, 2017). In terms of education, UNICEF shows that girls who have no education tend to be married by 15 years old, but those who have completed secondary school or more are married by 20 (UNICEF, 2017). Unlike Niger though, displacement because of violence in certain countries has caused many refugees to marry off their young daughters in an attempt to access more food rations (UNICEF, 2017). There is also frequent flooding within Bangladesh so it has left many families in insecure and impoverished situations (UNICEF, 2017).
Within the Subcontinent is Pakistan. Pakistan is known, as well as various countries in Africa, for its female genital mutilation of young girls in an effort to create everlasting purity for husbands. In terms of child marriage, there are fines and laws but they are not strictly enforced (Sotirova, 2020). 21 percent of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18 and 3 percent are married before the age of 15 (Girls Not Brides, 2019). Similar to India, it is hard to enforce these child marriage laws because it is very close to their religion (Sotirova, 2020). Contrary to India, Pakistani girls are sometimes married as money to settle debt disputes (Girls Not Brides, 2019). Family marriages amongst their tribes are common where 34 percent of girls are married to a first cousin (Girls Not Brides, 2019).
Child Marriage in the Caribbean and South America
The Caribbean and Latin American countries are seen as great vacation destinations for families and those who like to travel. However, people do not think about the extensive cases of child marriage. 23 percent of young women or girls in Latin America and the Caribbean were married by the time they were 18 and 5 percent were married off by the age of 15 (Rendo, 2017). Many frequent the Dominican Republic but 36 percent of girls are married before they are 18 years old and 12 percent are married before they are 15 years old (Girls Not Brides, 2018). Informal unions are also common here where girls move into the homes of men and become wives to them without any official paperwork by the civil registration systems (Girls Not Brides, 2018). The leading causes for child marriages are poverty where 59 percent of women in the Dominican Republic’s poorest areas are married off, and domestic violence at home causes girls to want to escape into marriage or adolescent pregnancy. Adolescent pregnancy is common where 23 percent of girls married before the age of 15 already had children (Girls Not Brides, 2018). In the Caribbean, Jamaica has a rate of 8 percent of girls married before they turn 18 and 1 percent are married before the age of 15 (Girls Not Brides, 2018). They are common in the rural and urban parts of Jamaica making them prominent in all regions (Girls Not Brides, 2018). Similar to other countries mentioned previously, poverty and education are the leading factors in child marriage. With 15 percent of girls being married before the age of 18 because of being in a poor household, it shows that Jamaicans are at times trying to marry off their children for financial gain or prosperity.
Child Marriage in the United States
Child marriage (children under the age of 18) is legal in 48 states in the United States. Although for this marriage to occur, they need a judge’s permission, parental consent, or if the couple was or is pregnant, but is not always monitored in terms of the soon-to-be-married child’s wants or consent (Selby, 2019). 248,000 United States’ children were married between the years 2000 and 2010, with some children being as young as 12 (Selby, 2019). 77 percent of those young United States citizens were married to adult men and more likely than not forced to drop out of high school once at age (Selby, 2019). Child marriage in the United States is most common in West Virginia, North Dakota, and Hawaii (Selby, 2019). In the United States, citizens see child marriage as cruel and unjust but are not aware of how often it happens or how similar it is to child sex trafficking. According to the Office of Victims of Crime, out of the 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked across international borders annually, 50 percent of them are children (Office of Victims of Crime, 2005).
Tourism Marriages
Some countries where child marriage is very prominent are secretly known for their “tourism” marriages. This is where girls are forcibly married “for the purpose of sexual exploitation” (Girls Not Brides, 2017). Child “tourism” marriages have increased tourism in countries such as Egypt and increased the marketing of their country. It has a spike in the summer months when wealthy men from different countries fly into Egypt to temporarily marry a young woman or girl (Fisher, 2013). Fisher explains that it affects over two million children per year, “often in countries that are poor but have preexisting tourism infrastructure, such as Thailand, India, Costa Rica, and others” (Fisher, 2013). Child “tourism” marriages can be defined as prostitution, but are under a veil of temporary marriage so it is not seen as horrid to their religion or culture. Children are married off to at least 60 people before the age of 18 under this practice (Fisher, 2013). Although this act is purely inhumane for the pleasure of wealthy men, it is rarely monitored or not monitored because it brings income and tourism to poor areas. These things are rarely mentioned in media or news and are instead passed through word of mouth through elitists. If news were made about the effects of child marriage or child “tourism” marriages, it would have a detrimental effect on the tourism and marketing involved in making the country look appealing and safe to families and guests.
Economic Negatives
Child marriage harms the economy because of the economic cost related to fertility and population growth (Wodon & Petroni, 2017). Due to the costs of early childbearing, contraceptive use, domestic violence, lack of educational opportunities resulting in negative impacts on earnings in adulthood, and early mortality in children of young brides, child marriage will cost underdeveloped countries trillions of dollars by 2030 (Wodon & Petroni, 2017). Research has shown that child marriage has cost economies at least 1.7 percent of their respective GDPs (BER Staff, 2018).
Young brides are unable to break this pattern of poverty due to the overwhelming expenses child marriage causes. It creates an everlasting cycle of poverty because, without an education, women are unable to create a healthy and sustainable life where they can earn enough income for themselves and their families (Girls Not Brides, 2019). Child marriage has equated to higher dropout rates in schools among young women and girls. These girls have limitless potential but without the education that they need to succeed, their chances of earning higher and better wages are cut by 9 percent over their entire life (BER Staff, 2018). The cycle continues forever as large families with young brides struggle through things they are uneducated in, and continue the stereotypes and stigmas of stay-at-home mothers and wives. These stigmas and stereotypes are then passed along to the young bride’s children as they are also deprived of the amount of education they need (BER Staff, 2018).
Conclusion
Throughout the research, it has shown that stopping child marriage would benefit countries economically and would allow girls to receive the education they need to succeed in life. This would assist in the pay cuts the girls receive later because of a lack of education and experience. By ending child marriage, businesses would flourish because the children of child brides would be educated more as well. In Niger, UNICEF partnered with their Traditional Leaders Association and their Islamic Congregation to teach the Niger citizens about the importance of positive key family practices (UNICEF, 2019). They’ve also worked closely with high religious leaders in conducting open community dialogues and assemblies to use their voices in stopping child marriage (UNICEF, 2019). In Bangladesh, if child marriage ended there would be a 12 percent rise in productivity and income earnings (UNICEF, 2017). In India and Pakistan, certain laws have been made to try to enforce laws against child marriage and have instilled fines for those who perform these acts. UNICEF is also working hard to stop child marriage and is implementing new regulations to monitor and stop it completely by 2030.
