روند و عوامل مرتبط با کودک همسری بین دختران در کشورهای شبه قاره هند

Child marriage as an anti-human rights behavior has irreparable consequences in the mental, physical, social, and economic dimensions of girls. This study analyzes the rate, trends, and factors related to child marriage using secondary analysis of World Bank and UNICEF data in eight countries of the Indian subcontinent with Excel and Spss software. The findings of this research showed that child marriage is a common problem in the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh and Nepal have the highest percentage of child marriages, and Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar have the lowest. The general trend of child marriage in the last 25 years among the eight countries of the Indian subcontinent has downward changes. The highest rate of child marriage occurs in the poor, uneducated, and rural classes. Also, the current research findings indicate that with the increase of the gross national income, human development, fertility, and the reduction of poverty and gender inequality, mutually the social and economic disparities have also decreased. As a result, the number of female child marriages has decreased. Patterns and policies should widely promote the prohibition of marriage before the age of 18 with targeted and supportive interventions for disadvantaged groups.

Introduction

Child marriage is a human rights violation that has irreparable consequences in the emotional, physical, social and economic dimensions of girls’ lives. Child marriage is a marriage performed by a person who has not yet reached the age of puberty or maturity intellectually, emotionally, biologically and psychologically (Fatima, 2023). In countries of the Indian subcontinent, a marriage between two people who have not reached their legal age is called child marriage. Child marriage affects both girls and boys, but it disproportionately and negatively affects the lives of girls, and they are more likely to marry at a younger age than boys, especially in South Asia. Each year, approximately 12 million girls around the world are married as children (UNICEF, 2022). Half of the world’s child marriages occur in South Asia (Sabarmani et al., 2022). More than a quarter of the world’s children (under 18 years of age) live in South Asia, in the countries of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (UNICEF, 2023). Despite the observed decline in child marriage in South Asia, the practice remains widespread and often high in some areas. This phenomenon is a serious public health and child rights issue, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Early marriage affects the overall health, social health and psychological well-being of girls. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the trends and factors influencing child marriage in countries of the Indian subcontinent.
2- Research Methodology
This study analyzes the rate, trend, and factors associated with child marriage using secondary analysis on longitudinal data extracted from the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, UNICEF in eight countries of the Indian subcontinent. Data were collected over a 5-year period from 1994 to 2019 from national surveys on child marriage and socio-economic indicators of the Indian subcontinent, including eight countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives). Excel and SPSS software were used to analyze the data. The social, demographic, and economic indicators of the countries studied in this study include 6 indicators: poverty line, gross domestic product, human development, gender inequality, fertility, and child marriage. These indicators were recorded by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, and UNICEF in various countries and were collected and analyzed during the time periods considered in this study.
 
3- Discussion
In this study, the rate and trend of child marriage was examined in the Indian subcontinent for a period of 5 years from 1994 to 2019. The findings of the study show that child marriage is a common problem in the Indian subcontinent. Based on raw statistics of the number of women married before the age of 18, the highest rate of child marriage occurred in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives, respectively. However, in terms of the ratio of the number of women married before the age of 18 to the population of young women in that country, it can be said that the lowest rate of child marriage was in Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, respectively, and the highest rate of child marriage was in Bangladesh and then Nepal. The overall trend of child marriage in the last 25 years among the eight countries has shown downward changes. Maldives has had the highest rate of decrease in child marriage among the countries. Next in order, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal have had the highest rate of decrease in child marriage during the last 25 years. Myanmar and Sri Lanka have shown the lowest rates and little change in child marriage trends in the last 25 years. In the Indian subcontinent, inequality in child marriage is observed based on education, wealth and residence. Child marriage of girls is higher among disadvantaged groups and lower economic classes. And there is a higher rate of child marriage among women with little or no education and poor and rural families. Therefore, cultural and social factors also play an important role in this regard. In many societies, early marriage is accepted as a social norm and girls are encouraged to marry at an early age due to social and economic pressures. Also, the results of the Pearson correlation test show that there is a significant relationship between socio-economic indicators of countries and child marriage. For example, as gross national income, human development, and poverty levels, gender inequality and fertility rates increase, the rate of child marriage also decreases. Based on the results of the correlation test between variables, it can be said that the gender inequality index, human development, and gross national income have the highest correlation with the rate of child marriage in the countries of the Indian subcontinent, respectively.
 
4-Conclusion
The results of this study indicate that child marriage is a widespread and serious problem in the Indian subcontinent. In this region, social and economic inequalities strongly influence the trend of child marriage. In fact, the highest rate of child marriage occurs in the poor, uneducated and rural classes, and these girls experience double inequality. A study of the trend of child marriage in the Indian subcontinent showed that a significant decrease has occurred in countries such as the Maldives, India, Bangladesh and Nepal since the 1990s, with the Maldives experiencing the largest decrease. The downward trend in child marriage indicates that these inequalities have generally decreased in the past decade. The lower the economic, gender and social inequalities, the higher the level of development of that country and the lower the incidence of child marriage. The sum of these conditions shapes norms, financial poverty, cultural poverty, the trend of child marriage and the experience of early pregnancy in girls (Septiaram et al., 2019). In order to reduce child marriage, there is a need for targeted and supportive interventions for disadvantaged groups and the promotion of laws prohibiting marriage before the age of 18. In general, improving economic, social and cultural indicators at the micro and macro levels can help reduce child marriage.
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