Peasant song

The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program  The Condition of Women in South Asia Page 9 of 25

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4. Adolescence - the Walls Close in: Married as Girl

Girls in South Asia are married very young - often as children.  They have children at an early age. This is harmful to their health and limits their participation in activities that bring about the end of hunger.

With the addition of a girl to the household, the in-laws get a laborer, someone who will feed the cattle and clear the house, a servant who comes free of cost.
-Ratan Katyani, social worker in Jaipur, India

   When a family's eldest daughter is married, her younger sisters may also be married off at the same time to save expense.     (Photo by Sondeep Shankar)

Of course, we know that marrying children is against the law, but it's only a paper law.
- Govind Singh Patel, village elder in Rajasthan

• Both Bangladesh and India have long traditions of early child marriage, despite laws which prohibit it.

• According to tradition, an unmarried daughter who is beyond puberty is felt to be an embarrassment to the family.

• Early marriage robs a girl of the opportunity for full physical, emotional, and psychological development.

• Decades of research show that child marriages contribute to countless social problems: soaring birth rates, poverty and malnutrition, high illiteracy and infant mortality, and low life expectancy.

• In India, child marriages are most deeply rooted in the northern states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

• In Rajasthan, a 1993 government survey showed that 56% of women had married before age 15. Of these, 3% married before they were 5 and another 14% before they were 10.

• In Bangladesh in 1991, 3% of girls aged 10-14 and 49.6% of those aged 15-19 were married.

• Because of early marriage, girls bear children before they are physically and emotionally ready.

• 64% of girls aged 17-19 in India, and 58% of girls below age 19 in Bangladesh, are pregnant or already are mothers, despite severe health risks.

• 37% of births in India occur within two years of the previous birth. This endangers both the health of the mother and the survival of the infant and older siblings.

Peasant song

The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program  The Condition of Women in South Asia Page 9 of 25

Confined