an Eldis Resource

This paper outlines the problems which can arise from marriage for girls who marry before they are 18, and offers some examples of initiatives which have been taken to reduce the incidence of early marriage.

Some of the problems associated with early marriage include:

• less autonomy or decision-making power for girls
• higher levels of violence in marriage
• non-consensual sexual activity
• high maternal mortality and morbidity, including fistula
• higher rates of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS
• extreme vulnerability to violence, abuse, divorce, and abandonment
• lack of control over own fertility can result in resort to unsafe abortions
• social isolation
• lack of access to information about health, and access to health services often determined by other family members
• access to education reduced for girls, and anticipation of early marriage often precludes investment in girls' education.

In addition, poor infant and child health outcomes are strongly associated with the early age of mothers, due in part to young women’s physical vulnerabilities and in part to the lack of social and reproductive health services for this high-risk group.

The lack of information about and access to health services is compounded by the problem that health, family planning and services for pregnant women are often tailored for older women and do not recognise the needs of younger women.

The report notes a number of initiatives in different countries which have had some success in reducing the incidence of early marriage. Examples which have helped to delay marriage include:

• making safe paid work available to girls
• long-term programmes that allow young women to receive the money that the state invested in them at birth only when they have completed a certain level of schooling and are still unmarried
• secondary school scholarships for girls, in which both girls and their parents receive a stipend that is conditional upon the girl remaining unmarried through completion of the 10th year of school
• activities which create safe social spaces for girls, peer support to stay in school, and public education campaigns
• denying government jobs to people who marry early.

Additional initiatives include the provision of health counselling at marriage, and the establishment of schools specifically for young married women.

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