About 10 million girls all over the world are at risk of becoming child brides over the next decade in the context of the pandemic, UNICEF has warned in a report published on 8 March. This threatens the progress made in this respect since 2011 when the rate of underage marriages fell by 15%.
Overview
As many as 650 million women alive today have been forced into marriage before they turned 18, UNICEF noted in its report. Half of these were from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria, countries known for their tradition of underage marriage. Nevertheless, over the past decade efforts have been made and policies put in place to eliminate this tradition. As a result, over the past 10 years, 25 million girls have been prevented from becoming child brides.
Yet this positive trend was far from being enough to be able to end the practice by 2030 in order to meet the relevant Sustainable Development Goal. UNICEF’s pre-COVID projections were not encouraging in this respect, noting that 100 million more girls were expected to become child brides over the next decade. With the ongoing pandemic now likely to add 10 million more girls to the figure, achieving this goal is looking rather doubtful.
COVID-19 impact
COVID-19 badly affects girls’ lives, limiting their access to healthcare, education, and social services. According to UNICEF, the closure of schools as an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus increases the risk of marriage by 25% per year. Moreover, pandemic-related restrictions affect the financial situation of families to which households tend to react in one of two ways – either cutting the family expenses or its size. Both responses may lead to child marriages, according to UNICEF.
In this respect, UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, noted, “COVID-19 has made an already difficult situation for millions of girls even worse. Shuttered schools, isolation from friends and support networks, and rising poverty have added fuel to a fire the world was already struggling to put out.”
Girls who marry before they turn 18 more often than not abandon education and are more likely to be subject to domestic violence with early pregnancy increasing the risk of mortality and social isolation impacting upon their mental health. UNICEF stressed that as “marriage fundamentally alters the course of a girl’s life, the full effect of the pandemic on human development will play out over a generation.”
Immediate actions needed
Henrietta Fore called for “immediate actions” to reduce the effect of the pandemic on girls and their families and said:
“By reopening schools, implementing effective laws and policies, ensuring access to health and social services – including sexual and reproductive health services – and providing comprehensive social protection measures for families, we can significantly reduce a girl’s risk of having her childhood stolen through child marriage”.
