Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia

Their Time is Now

Integral Technical Report Plan International Asia Regional Office, 2018

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 1 Cover photo: © Plan International/Alf Berg

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Plan International Asia Regional Office Raša Sekulović Regional Head of Child Protection and Partnerships [email protected]

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First published by Plan International in 2018 Text, illustrations, design by © Plan International 2018

Acknowledgements This report, including the recommendations and conclusions contained herein, were prepared for Plan International by GreeneWorks. Plan International would like to acknowledge and thank GreeneWorks for the extensive research that they undertook on CEFM in the 14 countries in Asia upon which this summary report is based. www.greeneworks.com Their Time is Now Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia

Plan International Asia Regional Office, 2018 © Plan International ii Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia List of Figures iv List of Tables iv List of Acronyms v 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background on the practice of child marriage 1 1.2 Research methodology 1 1.3 Limitations of this research 2 2. Prevalence and context of child, early and forced marriage in Asia 3 2.1 Comparative rates and numbers 3 2.2 Individual country profiles 9 2.3 A discussion of trends in the region 28 3. Causes of child, early and forced marriage in Asia 31 3.1 Gender inequality and the subordination of girls 32 3.2 A view of girls that prioritizes their sexual and reproductive roles 33 3.3. Family expectations and traditions 35 3.4 Economic scarcity/poverty and environmental pressures 37 3.5 Civil conflict/refugee circumstances and uncertainty 38 3.6 A lack of alternatives to marriage 38 3.7 Weak legal frameworks and funding commitments 38 4. Consequences of child, early and forced marriage in Asia 40 4.1 Maternal and child health 40 4.2 Violence 41 4.3 Psychological impact 42 4.4 Education 42 4.5 Economic impact 44 4.6 Fertility and the intergenerational impacts of early childbearing 44 4.7 Girls’ well-being and social and civic participation 45 5. Efforts to prevent child, early and forced marriage in Asia 46 5.1 Community level: Social norms, attitudes, behaviours and relations 47 5.2 Policy frameworks and budgets 50 5.3 Social and economic resources and safety nets 52 6. Recommendations and conclusions 58 6.1 Recommendations organized by the three domains of Plan International’s theory of change 58 6.2 Discussion and conclusions 62 7. Bibliography 65

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia iii List of figures

Figure 2.1 Median age at first marriage across study countries Figure 2.2 Adolescents married by age 15 and by age 18 across the 14 study countries Figure 2.3 Percentage of adolescent girls aged 15-19 who are currently married Figure 2.4 Median age at marriage and median age at first sexual intercourse Figure 2.5 Trends in age at marriage in Bangladesh, 1993-2014 Figure 2.6 Trends in age at marriage in Cambodia, 2000-2014 Figure 2.7 How the sex ratio might impact on CEFM Figure 2.8 Trends in age at marriage in India, 1992-2006 Figure 2.9 Trends in age at marriage in Indonesia, 1987-2012 Figure 2.10 Trends in age at marriage in Nepal, 1996-2011 Figure 2.11 Trends in age at marriage in Pakistan, 1990-2013 Figure 2.12 Trends in age at marriage in the Philippines, 1993-2013 Figure 3.1 Gender disparity in minimum age at marriage laws Figure 4.1 Age at marriage in Bangladesh by level of education, 1993-2014 Figure 5.1 Dimensions of change for ending CEFM, drawn from Plan International’s Theory of Change for ending CEFM Figure 6.1 Dimensions of change for ending CEFM, drawn from Plan International’s Theory of Change for ending CEFM

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Percentage of women currently aged 20-24 who married before the age of 15 and before the age of 18 Table 2.2 Number of women aged 20-24 who married between the ages of 15 and 19 Table 2.3 Median age at first marriage in India, by state of residence, women aged 15-49 (DHS, 2005-6) Table 2.4 Percentage of men married by age 18 among ever-married men currently aged 25-49 Table 2.5 Percentage of students aged 13-15 who reported ever having sexual intercourse, by gender, according to developing region and country Table 2.6 Proportion of 15-19-year-old females who have ever had sexual intercourse before age 15, by residence and wealth, according to developing region, subregion and country Table 2.7 Proportion of 15-19-year-old females who have ever had sexual intercourse before age 15, by residence and wealth, according to developing region, subregion and country Table 3.1 Types of beliefs regarding child marriage, with examples Table 3.2 Median age at first marriage by wealth quintile Table 4.1 Measures of sexual and reproductive health among adolescents Table 4.2 Percentage of married women aged 15-19 who have experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands

iv Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia List of Acronyms

ARSHI Adolescents’ and Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Health Initiative BALIKA Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income and Knowledge for Adolescents BRAC Building Resources Across Communities CEFM Child, early and forced marriage DHS Demographic and Health Survey DoH Department of Health ELA Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents FGM Female Genital Mutilation FSSP Female Secondary School Stipend Programme GDP Gross Domestic Product MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey MMR Maternal Mortality Ratio NFHS National Family Health Survey NGO Non-Governmental Organization PPP Purchasing Power Parity PRACHAR Promoting Change in Reproductive Behavior of Adolescents SER School Enrolment ratio SRVS Sample Vital Registration System SUSENAS National Socioeonomic Survey UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund WHO World Health Organization

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia v © Plan International/Nina Ruud

vi Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background on the practice 1.2 Research methodology of child marriage This report examines the prevalence of CEFM in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, The harmful impact of child marriage on the lives of Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri girls and their children, families, communities and Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. It provides countries has been increasingly well documented. data on countries where child marriage is common Many governments and civil society organizations (Nepal, Bangladesh, and others), and where it is less around the world have taken steps to address the common (China), with an emphasis on the former. The practice and to target its root causes. In Latin America data presented on prevalence and trends is drawn and the Caribbean there is a comparatively high from UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys incidence of adolescent pregnancy and consensual (MICS) and other data, the Girls Not Brides website, unions, which has complicated the issue of early government websites of the countries in question, marriage in this region. The fact that girls seem to Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Population apparently choose to enter relationships and to Reference Bureau reports, and other published have children has resulted in less recognition of sources that analyse trends overtime. (A complete list these practices as harmful issues for girls, and of data-related publications and websites are listed in data remain comparatively scarce in this region. the bibliography, see page 65). (Adolescent pregnancy is closely related to child marriage and the report provides some basic This report synthesizes evidence that governments, data on this). universities and civil society organizations, including Plan International, have generated over the past Plan International has made child, early and forced 10 to 15 years. The objective of this review of the marriage (CEFM) a key commitment of its work to 14 countries that make up Plan International‘s Asia improve the lives of girls. Plan International has region is to consolidate and systematically analyse developed a Position Statement on CEFM and progress the latest evidence on the prevalence, causes, trends, is being made under the global umbrella of 18+ Global levers and impact of child, early and forced marriage that encompasses programming on CEFM in all four (CEFM); and the work undertaken by governments, regions, including the Asia region. The Asia Regional public and private sector actors and civil society Office has contributed to the development of innovative organizations to end the practice. The report supports tools such as the Index of Child Marriage Acceptability. Plan International in preparing for the later stages of Plan International’s work harmonizes well with broader the research it intends to conduct on programmatic global commitments, including the Joint General interventions and in its development of a regional Recommendation/General Comment No. 31 of the plan of action to end CEFM. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and No. 18 of the Committee on the The dramatic increase in research on CEFM has Rights of the Child (CRC) on Harmful Practices, with highlighted the similarities and differences in this its holistic framework for addressing harmful practices. practice across diverse settings. It has also generated With the objective of driving Plan International’s focus numerous studies that approach CEFM from different on girls’ rights at scale, the reach of 18+ Global has angles, use different data, and evaluate different been expanded globally to encompass and influence all interventions. There is a need to consolidate this CEFM programming. research and assess it to help focus and guide further research, programming and advocacy in the Asia region. In the Asia region, Plan International has examined the causes and consequences of CEFM in Bangladesh, The report is organized around four research questions: India and Nepal (with the International Center for Research on Women 2014); in Bangladesh, Indonesia 1. What is the prevalence of CEFM in the 14 and Pakistan (with Plan International and Coram countries where Plan International works in Asia? Children’s Legal Centre, 2015); and in separate reports What are the historical trends? in Laos and other countries. Plan International has 2. What are the root causes/drivers of CEFM in the 14 conducted a mapping of its research activities in the countries where Plan International works in Asia? region. The 10+ Asia described the prevalence of 3. What are the impacts of CEFM in the 14 CEFM and explored the causes and consequences countries where Plan International works in Asia of the practice in the countries where research (this includes a focus on health, protection, was conducted. Plan International has focused on education and economic outcomes for girls, eliminating child marriage as a fundamental component and their social/political participation and of its commitment to children and adolescent girls, engagement)? in particular, and to achieving the Sustainable 4. What actions have been taken to prevent CEFM Development Goals (SDGs), as the practice impacts in the 14 countries where Plan International on many health and development outcomes. works in Asia?

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 1 1.3 Limitations of this research • The limitations of data: ▶ Not always available: The countries included in this report vary quite significantly in This report is based on an extensive review of available whether data are available and how child literature that was submitted to Plan International by marriage is measured and defined, making consulting firm, GreeneWorks, in October 2017. All for considerable inconsistencies across statistics and figures included herein are current as of these country settings. that date. While there is significant value in conducting ▶ May not reflect key groups: Data on child this type of comprehensive desk review, some marriage tend to emphasize the experiences important limitations of the process and of the of 15-19-year-old girls. Little is known about data have been identified. the 10-14 age group or the transition to marriage of boys, who are an important • The mixed quality of published analyses: The early-marrying group in some of the desk review is naturally limited by the extent of countries in this study, most notably Nepal. existing data and research. The massive volume of research generated over the past ten years Despite the limitations of existing data and published is not all of the same value, meaning that research, this review, nonetheless, provides a broad non-research-oriented organizations must sift overview of CEFM in Asia, with a focus on the through a great deal of information and may 14 countries in which Plan International works. end up focusing or building on reports that are Its primary contribution is to consolidate the vast accessible but do not necessarily drive the field array of studies that have been published on CEFM forward as much as might be hoped. Some in the region and in the world over the past ten of the research reflects measurements and or more years. Its second major contribution is to perspectives that have not been informed by demonstrate the specificity of factors that drive more recent understandings of the factors that CEFM in the countries included in the analysis and drive child marriage and what can be done to the factors that are common to all and prevail in end the practice. other countries in different regions.

2 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 2. Prevalence and context of child, early and forced marriage in Asia

The research team focused on available data and Pakistan where sexual activity, particularly among provided an analysis of CEFM among both boys and girls, must occur within the context of marriage. girls in the targeted countries, and how CEFM in these two groups manifested itself. One challenge The report first lays out the comparative tables was the comparative lack of data on boys, which and graphs where data exist across the 14 countries. has not been collected systematically. It then details individual country profiles that vary in length and focus depending on the availability Where possible, the report includes data on of data. prevalence and trends using the following indicators:

• Mean age at marriage among 20-24-year-olds 2.1 Comparative rates and • Percentage of 15-19-year-olds who are married • Percentage married before the age of 15 numbers • Percentage married before the age of 18 • Trends over time Prevalence data on child marriage are typically • Age at first birth presented in several forms and often reflect different • Age at first sexual intercourse. age ranges. The median age at marriage generally uses the age range of 15, 20 or 25 to 49. The data Knowing the age at first sexual intercourse and the in Figure 2.1 are for women currently aged 25 to 49. age at first birth can help identify girls at risk and The median age at marriage was above 20 in 10 of the specific age group of girls in the years leading the 14 countries, with the exception of Bangladesh, up to the “tipping points” that are strongly related India, Nepal and Pakistan. Median age at marriage to CEFM. Age at first intercourse or sexual initiation was highest in Sri Lanka at 25, and nearly a decade is particularly difficult to document where there is lower, at 15.8, in Bangladesh: this illustrates that half strong normative pressure around early marriage. of all women currently aged 25-49 in Bangladesh These data are not collected in countries such as were married before the age of 16.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 3 Figure 2.1 Median age at first marriage across study countries

15 Age

China India Laos Nepal Pakistan Thailand Vietnam Cambodia Indonesia Myanmar Sri Lanka Bangladesh Philippines Timor-Leste Women aged 25-49

Sources: Recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) or Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MIC), by country, 2009-2016; and China National Census 2010.

A second common statistic is the percentage of currently married women aged 20-24 who were married by exact age 15 and exact age 18. Child marriage by age 15 was highest in Bangladesh at 18 percent, while it was negligible in China and Indonesia. More than one in three women in Laos and one in five in Thailand were married by the age of 18.

Figure 2.2 Adolescents married by age 15 and by age 18 across the 14 study countries

30 Percent

20 Married by age 15

Married by age 18 10

China India Laos Nepal Pakistan Thailand Vietnam Cambodia Indonesia Myanmar Sri Lanka Bangladesh Philippines Timor-Leste

Women currently aged 20-24

Sources: Recent DHS and MICS data, by country, 2009-2016; UNFPA, UNESCO and WHO, 2015.

The percentage of men who married by exact age 18 is often available only for ever-married individuals currently aged 25 to 49. This percentage tends to exceed the number of men aged 15 to 19 who are currently married, as age at marriage has risen. While the percentage of men married as adolescents was not insignificant, table 2.1 shows that women married in adolescence at far higher rates than men. In this table, Bangladesh stands out for the especially large gender disparity in the percentages married as children. The Philippines and Vietnam showed the smallest gap between women and men in the timing of marriage.

4 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Table 2.1 Percentage of women currently aged 20-24 who married before the age of 15 and before the age of 18

Table 2.1 shows that in addition Among women aged 20-24 to the variability in child marriage Country married < 15 married < 18 rates among these countries, there are considerable differences Bangladesh 18% 52% in the rates of marriage before the age of 15. Only in Bangladesh, Cambodia 2% 19% India, Laos and Nepal did more China NA NA than 4 percent of girls marry before the age of 15, and the India 18% 47% rates were quite high in the first Indonesia NA 14% two countries at 18 percent. Laos 9% 35% The percentage of adolescent girls currently aged 15 to 19 who Myanmar NA NA are married is suggestive of Nepal 10% 37% trends in the youngest cohort towards a somewhat older age Pakistan 3% 27% at marriage (see figure 2.3). Marriage among women in this Philippines 2% 15% age group exceeded 10 percent Sri Lanka 2% 12% in all countries except in China, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste. Thailand 4% 22% Timor-Leste 3% 19% Vietnam 1% 11%

Sources: Girls Not Brides website, DHS, MICS.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 5 Figure 2.3 Percentage of adolescent girls aged 15-19 who are currently married

5 Percentage of adolescents aged 15-19 who are 0 currently married

China India Laos Nepal Pakistan Thailand Vietnam Cambodia Indonesia Myanmar Sri Lanka Bangladesh Philippines Timor-Leste Country

Source: ICF International; recent DHS and MICS 2009-16; China Population Survey, 2012.

6 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia In which countries are the greatest numbers of girls affected by child marriage?

It is important to consider not only the percentage of the population of women who married as children but the actual numbers of women affected. The percentage of women aged 20 to 24 who married between the ages of 15 and 19 is shown at table 2.2, along with the total population of 20-24 year-olds and the number of 20 to 24 year-olds who married between the ages of 15 and 19 in each country.

While the percentage of girls marrying between the ages of 15 and 19 varied greatly in the 14 countries in which Plan International works, from 2 percent in China to 34 percent in Bangladesh, India had by far the largest number of married girls. With its large population of 1.2 billion, nearly 16 million women currently aged 20-24 were first married between the ages of 15 and 19. Bangladesh ranked second, with 2.5 million women married as adolescents. Pakistan and Indonesia had more than 1.2 million women currently aged 20-24 who married between the ages of 15 and 19. In China, with its population of nearly 1.4 billion, 2 percent translated to 900,000 women. While the size of five-year age cohorts varies slightly from year to year, a similar number of girls currently aged 15 to 19 can be expected to marry in these countries in the next five years.

Table 2.2 Number of women aged 20-24 who married between the ages of 15 and 19

Percentage of Population of 20-24 year old Number of 20-24 year old Country women married women women married aged 15-19 between ages 15-19

Bangladesh 34 7,460,000 2,536,400

Cambodia 16 781,900 125,104

China 2 45,300,000 906,000

India 30 52,950,000 15,885,000

Indonesia 11 10,600,000 1,348,900

Laos 25 360,400 90,100

Myanmar 12 2,511,000 301,320

Nepal 25 1,584,000 396,000

Pakistan 14 10,258,000 1,236,120

Philippines 10 4,642,000 462,000

Sri Lanka 9 806,400 72,576

Thailand 16 4,642,000 742,720

Timor-Leste 8 58,100 4,648

Vietnam 10 3,965,000 396,500

Sources: ICF International; recent DHS and MICS by country 2009-16; U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 7 © Plan International/Michael Rhebergen

What is the relationship between marriage and first sexual intercourse?

In contrast to recent trends in Africa, median age at first sexual intercourse in South and Southeast Asia was generally higher than median age at first marriage, confirming that the first sexual experience for most women occurred within marriage (see figure 2.4). Among the countries with data on sexual initiation, only in the Philippines did the first sexual experience occur, on average, before marriage. But patterns are changing, and the fear of a daughter’s exposure to sex before marriage is a key driver of early marriage. Early sexual experience outside of marriage as well as early pregnancy are both drivers of CEFM.

Figure 2.4 Median age at marriage and median age at first sexual intercourse

15 Percent 10 Medium age at marriage

Medium age at first sexual intercourse 5

India Nepal Pakistan Vietnam Cambodia Indonesia Myanmar Bangladesh Philippines Timor-Leste

Women aged 25-49 Data for China, Laos, Sri Lanka and Thailand are not Source: ICF International; recent DHS and MICS by country, 2009-16. available in this data source.

8 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 2.2 Individual country profiles

The profiles below provide a snapshot of the data available by country. More comprehensive country and regional reports are included in the bibliography, for example Plan International’s Child Marriage in Nepal report. In addition to weak management information systems in many of these countries, reliable survey data with comparable dates are not consistently available across these 14 countries. In countries where Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) have repeatedly been implemented, trends can be plotted over time in age at first marriage. In some countries, the data are insufficient to show change over time. Other sources such as the Laos Population and Housing Census, 2015, contain limited data on marriage. The profiles below draw on these and other sources.

Bangladesh COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Total Population: 165 million highest in the world. Twenty-nine percent of girls in Population Under Age 15: 29% Bangladesh married before the age of 15, and Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 34% 2 percent married before the age of 11, according Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: to a UNICEF study. 2,536,400 Percent of women aged 20-24 who: Although a law specifying 18 as the legal age • Married before age 15: 18 percent of marriage has been in effect since 1929, • Married before age 18: 52 percent religiously-based “personal” law, which does not Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 60; adhere to statutory requirements, prevails. The average Females 67 age at marriage among women aged 25 to 49 in the Adolescent Fertility Rate: 163 births per 1,000 women 2014 Bangladesh DHS was 15.8. Over nearly 25 years, by age 19 for women aged 15-24 the mean age at marriage has only risen by 1.7 years Median age at first intercourse: 15.9 among women since the 1993-1994 DHS survey, despite concerted aged 25-49 efforts, including by Plan International, to end child Median age at first marriage: 17.2 among women aged marriage. However, Bangladesh is one of only two Asian 20-24 and 15.8 among women aged 25-49 countries for which the median age of marriage among Age at first birth: 19.2 among women aged 20-24 20 to 24-year-old women has been calculated from the Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population most recent DHS (2014), and this age, 17.2, suggests, Reference Bureau; DHS 2014; MacQuarrie et al, 2017; promisingly, that the younger cohort is marrying Girls Not Brides website; UNICEF MICS data. significantly later than older cohorts. (MacQuarrie, et al, 2017). While the Bangladesh Sample Vital Registration For girls under the age of 18, Bangladesh had the System (SVRS) shows the median age at marriage being highest percentage of girls who married as children in over the age of 18 since at least 2010, this system is Asia, and the fifth highest in the world. For girls under designed to provide data at the subnational level and is the age of 15, the rate of child marriage remained the not typically cited for international comparisons.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 9 Figure 2.5 Trends in age at marriage in Bangladesh, 1993-2014

15.5

14.5

13.5 Age at first marriage

12.5 1993-94 1996-97 1999-00 2004 2007 2011 2014

Bangladesh DHS

Sources: ICF International; successive and recent DHS; DHS Statcompiler.

Nationally, nearly one in four women, (23.8 percent of girls than boys are older than their actual grade level. those aged 15 to 49) married before the age of 15. Child The SER, however, remains less than 68 percent for marriage was highest in Rajhahi Division, (33.3 percent), either sex. However, the percentage of women aged 15 Rangpur, (31.5 percent), and Khulna, (31.1 percent.) It to 49 who are literate has increased by 12 percentage was lowest in Sylhet (9.2 percent). Nearly two out of points between the 2007 and 2014 DHS. While HIV three women aged 20-49 (62.8 percent) married before rates are low (less than 0.1 percent) among males the age of 18. The rates of child marriage were highest and females aged 15 to 24, nationally only 9 percent in the same three divisions where they ranged from 71 of women aged 15 to 24 can identify three ways of to 75 percent of all women married by the age of 18. preventing HIV as well as reject major misconceptions Among women aged 15 to 19, 34 percent were currently about HIV transmission. married. Again, the rates were highest in Rajshahi (47.8 percent), Khulna, (43.5 percent) and Rangpur, (41.9 According to Human Rights Watch, 2015, government percent) (Progotir Pathey, 2015). The adolescent birth inaction and complicity by local officials (not requiring rate (83 births per 1,000 women nationally) was highest birth certificates, not looking closely enough at false in Rajshahi (99) and Rangpur (94) and lowest in Sylhet ones, not intervening in weddings when the bride or (45) (Progotir Pathey, 2015). groom are obviously children) allows child marriage to continue unchecked, while Bangladesh’s high A recent qualitative study found that most child vulnerability to natural disasters pushes families into marriages were arranged (MacQuarrie et al, 2016). poverty and drives decisions to marry daughters Women reported having no input into whether, early. Recently, the government has been reported when and to whom they would marry. Most had no to be more proactive and collaborative in combatting desire to get married but were resigned to defer to child marriage (personal communication with Soumya their parent’s wishes. Among child marriages, 4.2 Guha, Deputy Country Director, Programmes, Plan percent were polygamous. Nationally, 20.4 percent of International Bangladesh). 15 to 19-year-old married girls had a spouse who was ten years their senior. This percentage was highest In 2017, Parliament passed the Child Marriage in Khulna, (23.8 percent) and lowest in Rangpur (15.4 Restraint Act 2017, now awaiting Presidential percent). Spousal age differences among married approval. While the earlier Act established 18 as women aged 20-24 were similar. It would be useful to the minimum age at marriage, the new Act allows have more data on the age gap between spouses, marriages for girls under 18 in “special cases” or as age differences can be a significant predictor of for “the greater good of the adolescent,” but does a lack of autonomy for women with a much older not define what makes child marriage acceptable in spouse. Physical or sexual violence committed by these “special cases.” Girls Not Brides Bangladesh, a a husband or a partner was very high in Bangladesh. coalition of civil society organizations (including Plan More than half of women aged 15 to 49 (53.3 percent) International) working to end child marriage, issued had experienced such violence (DHS, 2007). a statement anticipating that the law could be widely abused and effectively mean that Bangladesh has no The secondary school enrolment ratio (SER) has risen minimum age of marriage. It urged the government to dramatically – 20 points since 2008 – without a parallel define “special cases” in order to prevent the new law increase in the age at marriage (World Bank, 2017). The from being abused and girls being forced to marry as higher ratio for girls than boys may indicate that more children (Girls Not Brides, 2017).

10 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Cambodia COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 15.9 million More than 15 percent of women aged 15 to 19 Population Under Age 15: 32 percent were currently married. The median age of marriage Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 15 percent was just under 21 years, a rise of nearly one year Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 125,000 since 2000. Median age at marriage was above 20 Percent of women aged 20-24 who: in all but four provinces: Kampong Speu, Kratie, • Married before age 15: 2 percent Kampot/Kep and Mondul Kiri/Ratanak Kiri, all of • Married before age 18: 19 percent which had median ages above 19 (National Institute Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Data not available of Statistics, Directorate General for Health, and ICF Adolescent Fertility Rate: 57 births per 1,000 women International, 2015, Table 9.4.1). Marriage below aged 15-19 the age of 15 has declined from 7 percent among Median age at first intercourse: 20.7 among women women aged 45 to 49 to 1 percent among women aged 25-49 aged 15 to 19. Median age at first birth: 22.4 among women aged 25-49 The legal age of marriage is 18 but girls can be Sources: World Population Data Sheet 2017. married at 16 with parental consent. Population Reference Bureau; 2014 DHS; Girls Not Brides website; UNICEF MICS data.

Figure 2.6 Trends in age at marriage in Cambodia, 2000-2014

20.6 20.5 20.4 20.3 20.2 20.1 20 Age at marriage 19.9 19.8 19.7 2000 2005 2010 2014 Cambodia DHS

Source: ICF Statcompiler, successive DHS.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 11 Among women with no education, the median Among married women aged 15 to 49, 18.2 age at marriage was 19.7, two years younger than percent had experienced physical or sexual women with a secondary education. Among the violence committed by a husband or partner lowest income quintile, the median age at marriage (2014 DHS.) Among women aged 15 to 19, was 20 compared to 23 for women in the highest 46 percent believed a husband was justified in wealth quintile. Among women aged 15 to 19, 61.8 beating his wife for at least one of six reasons. percent had completed some secondary schooling, This is lower than the 57 percent of women while 2.8 percent had no education. Among those with aged 45-49 who shared this view, suggesting that no schooling, 10 percent could not read. Twenty-six women are becoming less tolerate of wife beating percent of 15-19-year-olds had no exposure to mass (National Institute of Statistics, Directorate media on a weekly basis. Fifty-five percent of women General for Health, and ICF International, 2015). aged 15 to 19 were employed, and in four provinces, over 80 percent were employed. Second to agriculture The authors do not know of any government (36.4 percent), the most common occupation among 15 initiatives to tackle CEFM in Cambodia but looked to 19-year-olds was skilled manual labour (33 percent). to the country team to verify and add instances of prevention and mitigation work. Global Slavery Data on first sexual experience suggests that women Index’s website reports that Article 5 of the Law on rarely engage in sex before marriage. Median age Marriage and Family (1989) allows for the marriage at first birth was above 22 except in the above four of children upon the consent of their parents or provinces in addition to Siem Reap. There has been guardians if the girl becomes pregnant. an increase in adolescent fertility in recent years. Age specific fertility among 15 to 19-year-olds is now 57, One additional observation on Cambodia is up from 46 in the 2010 Demographic Health Survey. that a recent study on the lingering impact of the Among 15 to 19-year-olds, 18.4 percent had begun genocide during the Khmer Rouge era suggests that childbearing by the age of 18, and by 19, 31.3 percent children who experienced the genocide intensely of 15 to 19 year-olds were pregnant or had given birth. face disadvantages in both education and physical Neonatal mortality was highest among women who growth (Islam et al, 2017). Since difficulties in grade were less than 20 years of age at birth. Among progression has been shown to be associated with high-risk births, 2.7 percent were attributed to the early marriage in other country settings, this may mother’s young age, (less than 18 years). More than be an important dynamic to consider when trying to 95 percent of women who gave birth before the age understand early marriage in the Cambodian context. of 20 received antenatal care from a skilled provider, The authors hypothesize that marriage markets may primarily a midwife. Fourteen percent of infants born to act to concentrate the adverse impact of conflict mothers under the age of 20 were small or very small. across generations.

CHINA COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 1.39 billion in 2000 to 0.6 percent in 2010. In March 2016, the Population Under Age 15: 17 percent controversial “One Child Policy” was replaced by a two- Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 2 percent child equivalent out of concern for the rapidly ageing Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 906,000 population and its effect on economic growth. Following Percent of women aged 20-24 who: the revision of the population policy, the Total Fertility • Married before age 15: Data not available Rate has risen from 1.6 to 1.8. • Married before age 18: Data not available Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 93; Females The general legal framework for child marriage is included 96 in Article 3 of General Provisions: Marriage upon arbitrary Adolescent Fertility Rate: 7 births per 1,000 women decision by any third party, mercenary marriage and any aged 15-19 other acts of interference in the freedom of marriage Median age at first intercourse: 23.1 shall be prohibited. The exaction of money or gifts in Mean age at first birth: 28.4 (Note: mean rather than connection with marriage shall be prohibited. Bigamy median) shall be prohibited. Maltreatment and desertion of one Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population family member by another shall be prohibited (personal Reference Bureau; Guo et al, 2009; UNESCO, 2012; communication with Hongman Zhang, Plan International Girls Not Brides website; UNICEF MICS data. China Country Office). All of these factors provide a generally supportive framework for working against child, The Sixth National Population Census in 2010, showed early and forced marriage. that the early marriage rate for women between the ages of 15 and 19 was 2.1 percent, an increase of The legal age at marriage in China is 20 for women and 0.87 percentage points since 2000. For males, the 22 for men. In contrast to several other Asian countries, percentage of child marriages doubled from 0.3 percent the median age at marriage nationally, 22.8 for women

12 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International

and 24.6 for men, significantly exceeded the legal age 2016, and 14 percent of new cases were among those (2010 National Census.) The Marriage Law was enacted aged 15 to 24-years-old (www.avert.org). in 1950 and revised in 1980. The law stipulates that marriage is based on the freedom to choose a partner, the The one-child policy, in a culture with a strong preference practice of monogamy, equality of the sexes and bans the for sons, contributed to a highly imbalanced sex ratio at use of money or gifts in the arrangement of a marriage. birth. Nationally, the sex ratio at birth was 113.51, and it Late marriage is to be encouraged. In deference to the was above 110 in all but three provinces, including Beijing customs of ethnic minorities, who practice early marriage, (106.8), ranging from a near normal low of 101.5 male to including the Muslim Hui of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous female births in Jiangsu to more than 125 male to female Region, a supplementary policy to the Marriage Law was births in Anhui, Fujian and Hainan provinces (National enacted in 1981; the policy allows ethnic minorities, but Bureau of Statistics, 2012). See figure 2.7 below. not Han Chinese living in the region, to marry at the age of 18 for females and 20 for males. Early marriages among This imbalance portends an ongoing shortage of the Hui people have gradually declined. women of marriageable age, and to a growing age gap between spouses. It is possible that girls choose early Education is nearly universal. Among all women aged 15 marriage to a peer rather than being later coerced into and above, 4.1 percent in urban areas and 10.7 percent in marriage with an older man as the shortage of women rural areas were illiterate. Among those married between drives men to seek women from younger cohorts. the ages of 15 and 19, 34 percent had primary or less Child marriage as a percentage of all marriages could education (National Bureau of Statistics, The People’s be quite rare in China and still impact a significant Republic of China, 2012). number of girls, given the enormous population of China, nearly 1.4 billion. More than 900,000 women HIV prevalence in China was low at 0.037 percent in aged 20 to 24 married between the ages of 15 and 19 2014. New HIV cases increased in China from 2015 to (see figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7 How the sex ratio might impact on CEFM The sex ratio at birth (SRB) in 2010 was above 110 in all but three provinces (Beijing, Xinjiang and Tibet). In Anhui, Fujian and Hainan provinces, the sex ratio exceeded 125 males per 100 females. Both direct and indirect factors including son preference and corresponding sex selection practices, the influence of the family-planning policy, the unequal social and family status of females, and incomplete social security systems may have contributed to the high SRB, particularly in rural areas and certain provinces.

Source: National Bureau of Statistics, Tabulation on the 2010 Population Census of the people’s Republic of China, 2012.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 13 India COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 1.35 billion According to a key indicators report from the Population Under Age 15: 29 percent National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS), 2015-2016, Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 30 percent the percentage of women aged 20-24 who married Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 15.9 before the age of 18 was 26.8 percent, a full 20 million percentage points less than in the 2005-2006 Percent of women aged 20-24 who: NFHS-3 (47.4 percent). The percentage of women • Married before age 15: 18 percent aged 15 to 19 who were pregnant or had given birth • Married before age 18: 47 percent had also fallen by half, from 16 percent in 2005-2006 Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males and to 7.9 percent in 2015-2016. (Government of India, Females: 74 2017). Because of India’s enormous population, Adolescent Fertility Rate: 25 births per 1,000 women with 54 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19, aged 15-19 nearly 16 million or a third of all adolescent girls were Median age at first intercourse: 17.6 among women married. Until the recent survey it was estimated aged 25-49 that globally, every third child marriage occurred Median age at first birth: 19.8 among women aged in India. Seventy-five percent of women aged 15 25-49 to 49 married before the legal age of 18. UNICEF Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population ranked India number 10 in the world in terms of Reference Bureau; 2005-6 DHS; Girls Not Brides the prevalence of child marriage. website; UNICEF MICS data.

Figure 2.8 Trends in age at marriage in India, 1992-2006

17.5 17.4 17.3 17.2 17.1 17 16.9 Age at marriage 16.8 16.7 16.6 1992-93 1998-99 2005-06 India DHS

Sources: Recent Demographic and Health Surveys. NOTE: median age of marriage from the 2015-2016 NFHS-4.

14 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Table 2.3 Median age at first marriage in India, The median age at marriage nationally for women by state of residence, women aged 15-49 aged 15 to 49 rose from 16.9 between 1992 to 1993 to (DHS, 2005-6) 17.4 between 2005 to 2006, an increase of about half a year. Due to India’s enormous cultural and economic variability, the percentage of married adolescents varied widely, from over 50 percent in Andhra Pradesh India median age at first marriage and Bihar to less than 7 percent in Goa and Mizoram. by residence: Women aged 15-49 There were strong interstate and urban rural differentials in median age at marriage (16.8 rural All Urban 18.7 versus 18.7 urban) as well as regional differences as shown in table 2.3. Between the 2000 MICS and All Rural 16.8 the 2005-2006 DHS, the median age at marriage Andhra Pradesh 15.9 increased in all regions, but most significantly in Bihar, (14.6 to 16.3), Rajasthan (15.8 to 16.5), and Uttar Arunachal Pradesh 18.0 Pradesh (16.4 to 17.0). In Andhra Pradesh the median Assam 18.7 age at marriage rose by more than half a year, (15.3 to 15.9), but remained below the age of 16. Comparable Bihar 16.2 state level data from the recent NFHS-4 were not Bihar, including Jharkhand 16.3 yet available as one report, but the median age at marriage can be expected to have risen significantly Chhattisgarh 16.8 in most states. Goa 24.2 The percentage of women aged 15 to 49 who were Gujarat 18.3 literate rose by 15 percentage points between 2005-6 and 2015-6, from 60.4 to 75.4 percent. Haryana 17.7 Himachal Pradesh 19.3 More than a third of married women aged 15 to 49 (37.2 percent) had experienced physical or sexual Jammu & Kashmir 19.6 violence committed by a husband or partner. (2005-6 Jharkhand 16.7 DHS). In India as a whole, the earlier a girl married, the more likely she was to experience intimate partner Karnataka 17.9 violence. For girls married below the age of 15, 30 percent had experienced physical violence in the Kerala 20.9 last year (NFHS-3, 2006-7). Among girls who married Madhya Pradesh 16.6 after the age of 18, the figure was 16.7 percent. In Bihar, women who married before the age of 15 were Madhya Pradesh, including Chhattisgarh 16.7 more than three times as likely to experience physical Maharashtra 17.7 violence as compared to those who married after the age of 18 (Singh and Anand, 2015). Manipur 22.1 Meghalaya 20.1 In 2015-16, among women aged 15 to 49, 20.9 percent had a comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS, a small Mizoram 21.3 increase from 17.3 percent in 2005-6. Somewhat more Nagaland 20.4 than half (54.9 percent) knew that consistent condom use could reduce the chances of contracting New Delhi 19.3 HIV (Government of India, 2017). Orissa 17.7 The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006 sets Punjab 19.5 the minimum legal age at marriage at 18 for females and 21 for males. While it establishes punishment for 16.5 Rajasthan those who do not prevent child marriage, and includes Sikkim 19.8 a right to annulment of child marriages, the Act relies on families to report violations. A national plan of Tamil Nadu 19.0 action to end child marriage was drafted in 2013, Tripura 18.1 but according to Girls not Brides, has not yet been finalized (www.girlsnotbrides.org). Uttaranchal 18.1 Uttar Pradesh 16.9 The government and civil society initiatives addressing child marriage are so numerous in India that it is hard Uttar Pradesh, including Uttaranchal 17.0 to know how to begin to describe them. One place to start is the now outdated Knot Ready report from the West Bengal 17.0 International Center for Research on Women.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 15 Indonesia COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Total Population: 264 million The seven Demographic and Health surveys Population under age 15: 28 percent conducted between 1987 and 2012 showed Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 17 percent a steady rise in the age at marriage. Although Number of married girls (below the age of 18): a recent report using the annual National 1,348,886* Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) suggests Percent of women aged 20-24 who: that progress has stalled, the gradual decline has • Married before age 15: Data not available continued. Between 2010 and 2015, the proportion • Married before age 18: 14 percent of ever-married women aged 20 to 24 who married Adolescent Fertility Rate 15-19: 48 births per 1,000 before the age of 18 declined from 24.5 to 22.8 women aged 15-19 percent. Marriage among girls below the age of Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males and 15 declined from 2.5 percent to 1.1 percent of Females: 86 ever-married women over the same period. Marriages Median age at first intercourse: 20.6 among women among 16 and 17-year-olds accounted for 19.3 aged 25-49 percent of all marriages in 2016 and has remained Median age at first birth: 22.0 among women aged fairly stable since 2008 (Statistics Indonesia, Badan 25-49 Pusat Statistik (BPS), and UNICEF, 2016). Sources: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population Reference Bureau; UNICEF Indonesia, The percentages of girls marrying before the 2016*; DHS 2012; Girls Not Brides website; age of 16 and before the age of 15 are also UNICEF MICS data. declining and are low compared to South Asian countries, at 3.54 percent and 1.12 percent in 2015, As one of the world’s most populous countries, with respectively (BPS and UNICEF, 2016). However, more than 10 million girls aged 15 to 19, Indonesia the overall picture from the most recent analysis has one of the highest number of girls married as of child marriage in Indonesia is that progress in children. In 2012, 1,348,886 girls were married before reducing child marriage in Indonesia has stagnated the age of 18. Of these, 110,200 married before the and that child marriage remains a significant problem, age of 15 (UNICEF Indonesia, 2016). According to the with rates among girls aged 16 and 17 of greatest 2012 DHS, about 17 percent of the female population concern (UNICEF, 2016). aged 15 to 24 married before the age of 18.

16 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Figure 2.9. Trends in age at marriage in Indonesia, 1987-2012

20 20.4 19.8 19 19.2 18.6 18 18.1 17.7

Age at marriage 17 17.2

15 1987 1991 1994 1997 2002-03 2007 2012 Indonesia DHS

Sources: ICF International; successive DHS; DHS Statcompiler.

The legal age at marriage in Indonesia was established The maternal mortality ratio has declined but was still by the Law on Marriage of 1974 as 21, but the true high at 126 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2016, permitted minimum age is 16 for girls and 19 for boys, especially in the poorest provinces and among the with parental consent required when either party poorest women. Maternal mortality is associated with is under the age of 21 years (18+ Coalition, 2016). young age at first marriage (Raj and Boehmer, 2013). Parents may petition to a judge or “other competent In 2014, a judicial challenge to the Marriage Law was authority” for their child to marry below these ages, filed by an NGO coalition, identifying the minimum and these petitions are very likely to be approved age of marriage (16 with parental consent) as a (UNICEF Indonesia, 2016). Most of the dispensations significant contributing factor to the maternal mortality for marrying before the age of 21 are given because ratio. The Constitutional Court rejected the challenge parents are afraid that their child will have sex before (U.S. Department of State, 2016), largely to make the marriage and want to avoid the risk of their child dispensation available so that pregnant girls can marry. bringing shame to the family by being unmarried The role of pregnancy in driving early marriage shows and sexually active. the importance of adolescent sexual and reproductive health education for children. A 2002 Law on Child Protection makes parents accountable for preventing underage marriages. Aggravating the problem of preventing child marriage Nonetheless, like Bangladesh, Indonesia is governed is that the registration of births is inconsistent across by personal (religious) and traditional laws as well as regions. Reportedly, nine out of ten child marriages statutory laws and these traditional laws and customs involved girls and boys who did not have birth have led, in some areas, to a mean age at marriage certificates (Plan Australia, 2014). below the age of 15. According to the Universal Periodic Review of Nationally, the prevalence of child marriage was 22.82 Indonesia, 2017, a married child can be treated as percent but it ranged widely from 11.73 percent in the an adult before the law and does not receive special Riau Islands to 34.22 percent in West Sulawesi. Twenty protections afforded to children under the age of 18 provinces in both western and eastern Indonesia had as required by the Convention on the Rights of the a higher prevalence than the national average. The Child. The Review recommends that the government five provinces with the highest prevalence were West take immediate action to prevent child marriage and Sulawesi (34.22 percent), South Kalimantan (33.68 push local governments to educate and advocate for percent), Central Kalimantan (33.56 percent), West its prevention. It also urged reducing dispensations Kalimantan (32.21 percent) and Central Sulawesi for child marriages of girls and boys below the age (31.91 percent) (BPS, 2016). of 16, which is usually granted in cases of pregnancy (Universal Periodic Review of Indonesia, 2017, One explanation for this diversity comes from a as cited by the Sexual Rights Initiative, 2017). An study of “adat”, a system of cultures and traditions evidence gathering survey, which may not have been that govern decision-making in everyday life in nationally representative, found that seven out of ten Indonesia. This suggests that the minimum age at child marriages are preceded by pregnancy (Plan marriage varies locally according to the adat traditions, International and Coram Children’s Legal Centre, with a mean age of marriage as low as 14.8 for girls 2015). This is in stark contrast to the majority of child and 16.7 for boys in the Bugis region (Buttenheim marriages in South Asia, where age at first sex typically and Nobles, 2009). follows age at first marriage.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 17 Laos COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Among ethnic groups, age at marriage was lowest among the Hmong-Mien (17.5) and the Mon-Khmer (18.2) (Ministry of Education and Sports, Laos, 2013).

Literacy among women aged 15 and above was 79 percent compared to 90 percent for men (Laos 2015 Population and Housing Census). Twenty percent of women aged 15 to 49 had no education. Among women with no education, 45 percent of 15 to 19-year-olds were married. The highest percentage of 15 to 19-year-olds who were currently married were among the Hmong-Mien ethnic group (35 percent). One in ten married women aged 15 to 19 had a spouse who was ten or more years their senior.

The median age at first sex was slightly lower than the © Plan International median age at marriage (18.8 versus 19.2), suggesting some premarital sex. Childbearing was common among 15-19-year-old young women, but varied significantly by Population: 7 million rural or urban residence, at 44 births per 1,000 women Population Under Age 15: 34 percent aged 15 to 19 in urban areas, 89 births per 1,000 women Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 18 percent aged 15 to 19 in rural areas with roads, and 121 births per Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 90,100 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in rural areas without roads. Percent of women aged 20-24 who: Forty-seven percent of 15-19-year-olds had already had • Married before age 15: 9 percent at least one child (Lao Statistics Bureau, 2016). • Married before age 18: 35 percent Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 64; Overall, age specific fertility among 15 to 19-year-olds Females 59 has declined from 94 births per 1,000 women aged 15 Adolescent Fertility Rate: 76 births per 1,000 women to 19 in the 2011-12 MICS to 76 in the 2015 Population aged 15-19* and Housing Census. In the 2011-12 survey, age Median age at first intercourse: 18.8 specific fertility was highest in Phongsaly and Bokeo Median age at first birth: 16.6 among 15-19-year-olds provinces (145 and 149 respectively), and among the who have given birth Hmong-Mien (161). Girls with no education had much Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population higher birth rates (190) than those with lower secondary Reference Bureau; Lao Statistics Bureau, 2016; Laos and above (85 and below). The poorest adolescents had 2015 Population and Housing Census; Girls Not Brides nearly twice the birth rate of middle-income adolescents website; UNICEF MICS data. (183 versus 96). The average age of first birth among 15 to 19-year-olds who had given birth was very low While the population of Laos is small relative to most at 16.6 years. Nineteen percent of women had given Asian countries, it is also very young, with a third (34 birth by the age of 18 (Ministry of Health, (2012), Lao percent) of the population under the age of 15. Among PDR Social Indicators Survey, 2011-12.) The maternal 15 to 19-year-olds, 18 percent of women in Laos and mortality ratio (MMR) was 206 deaths per 100,000 live 7 percent of men are married (Laos 2015 Population and births, down from 405 in 2006. MMR was higher among Housing Census). Among women aged 20 to 24, 9 percent women aged 15 to 19, (190 per 100,000 live births) were married before the age of 15 and 35 percent were compared to 178 per 100,000 live births for women married before the age of 18 (MICS 2011-12). Among 15 to aged 20-24 (2015 Population and Housing Census). 19-year-olds, 22.2 percent of women were currently married. The median age at first marriage was lowest in the North The population is 65 percent Buddhist. The legal age to (18.5) and two years younger in rural compared to urban marry is 18 for both males and females, but the Family areas (18.7 percent versus 20.7 percent). Almost twice as Law of 1990 states that the age can be lowered to 15 many women in rural areas were married before the age “in special and necessary cases”. The Penal Code of of 18 than in urban areas (43 versus 23 percent). Age at 1989 specifies that engaging in sexual intercourse with marriage was youngest in Huaphanh (18.2) and Xayabury a girl or boy under 15 years of age will be punished provinces (18.3) but also below 19 in Oudomxay, Bokeo, by imprisonment and a fine (United Nations Statistics Luangprabang, Xiengkhuang, Borikhamxay, Savannakhet, Division, accessed 2017). Saravane and Sekong provinces (Ministry of Education and Laos PDR 2011-12, Table MS 3: Median Age at first Fifty-six percent of women aged 15 to 19 believed marriage. 20-49). Marriage was more than four years a man has the right to beat his wife for at least one lower among women with no education (18.2) compared reason, most commonly that she neglects the children to those with post-secondary education (22.7), and nearly (44.2 percent) or goes out without telling him (28.9 three years younger among the poorest compared to the percent). The percentage of women who justified wife wealthiest quintiles (18.4 percent versus 21.2 percent). beating was higher in all categories than among men.

18 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Myanmar COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 53.4 million indicating that nearly all intercourse takes place Population Under Age 15: 28 percent within marriage. Marriage among girls in the poorest Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 7.4 percent quintile was about twice as high compared to those Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: in the richest quintile (9 percent versus 4.3 percent). 301,320 Seven percent of women gave birth before the Percent of women aged 20-24 who: age of 18, but 18 percent had begun childbearing • Married before age 15: Data not available by the age of 19. Nineteen percent of those who • Married before age 18: Data not available had never been to school had begun childbearing Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 51; as compared to 11 percent of those with primary Females 52 and 3 percent of those with secondary schooling. Adolescent Fertility Rate: 36 births per 1,000 women Among the poorest quintile, 9 percent had begun aged 15-19 childbearing compared to 3 percent among the Median age at first intercourse: 22.5 among women wealthiest quintile. Adolescent childbearing aged 25-49 was highest in Kachin, Chin and Shan States, Median age at first birth: 24.7 among women aged suggesting that these states might be a focus for 25-49 efforts to delay marriage. Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population Reference Bureau; DHS 2015-2016; Girls The percentage of secondary school-aged children Not Brides website; UNICEF MICS data. who were enrolled in secondary school was 77 percent in urban areas and 52 percent in rural areas, Key influences on child marriage in Myanmar are but overall the secondary school enrolment ratio the country’s cultural isolation, the non-sacramental was barely above 50 percent for both males and transition to marriage, and a focus on love marriage. females. Among 15 to 19-year-olds, 7 percent had no Among young women aged 15 to 19 in Myanmar, education, 12.3 percent had some primary education 7.4 percent were currently married and 1.1 percent and less than 15 percent had completed secondary were married by the age of 15. More girls and young education and above. Girls with secondary or higher women in rural areas (8.4 percent) were married than education were less likely to be married than those girls in urban areas (5.1 percent). The highest rate with only primary education: 5.2 percent versus 12.4 of early marriage was found in Shan (East), at 22.3 percent. Educational levels were by far the lowest percent. Prevalence of early marriage was also high in Shan (43.1 percent had no schooling). About in Shan (North) and Shan (South), at 13.7 percent 88 percent of all women could read. Among 15 to and 11.2 percent, respectively. The lowest rate was 19-year-old women, 24.3 percent had no exposure found in Sagaing at 4.7 percent (Ministry of National to mass media and 10 percent with no education Planning and Economic Development, 2011). could not read. Myanmar has the second highest prevalence of HIV in Southeast Asia, after Thailand Median age at first marriage for women aged 25 to 49 (www.avert.org). While female youth are not currently was 22.1. Nineteen percent of women aged 20 to 49 among the key populations at risk, the overall were married before the age of 18, and 3.4 percent low level of education and access to prevention were married before the age of 15. On aggregate, information increases their vulnerability. Among 15 the median age of marriage was above 20 years of to 19-year-old women, 54 percent were employed, age in all states/regions and among urban and rural mainly in unskilled manual labour (37.3 percent), sales residents. The World Policy Analysis Data Center and services (21.4 percent), and agriculture (17.5 does not provide a legal or minimum age of marriage percent) (Ministry of National Planning and Economic for Myanmar. Development and Ministry of Health, 2011). Among married women aged 15 to 49, 16.3 percent had The median age at first sexual intercourse was experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated 22.5, slightly higher than the mean age of marriage, by a husband or partner (DHS 2015-16).

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 19 Nepal COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 29.4 million Adolescents aged 10 to 19 comprised 24 percent of Population Under Age 15: 31 percent the population in Nepal (DHS 2013). The legal age Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 37 percent of marriage is 18 with a guardian’s consent, and 20 Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: without such consent. According to the 2014 MICS, 396,000 10 percent of women aged 20 to 24 were married Percent of women aged 20-24 who: by the age of 15, a decline from 14 percent in 1996. • Married before age 15: 10 percent Nearly half of all women married below the age of 18. • Married before age 18: 37 percent Among 15 to 19-year-olds, 37 percent were married, Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 67; and among 20 to 24-year-olds, 62.3 percent were Females 72 married. Among rural residents, 92.9 percent of 15 Adolescent Fertility Rate: 71 births per 1,000 women to 24 year-old women were married. Child marriage aged 15-19 was highest in the Terai and in the Central region, and Median age at first intercourse: 17.7 among women geographic isolation and caste both play important aged 25-49 roles in contributing to child marriage. Median age at first marriage: 18.9 among women aged 20-24 The median age at marriage has risen by 1.3 years Median age at first birth: 20.2 among women aged over 15 years and is currently 17.7 among women 25-49 aged 20 to 24 and 17.5 among women aged 25 to 49, Sources: World Population Data Sheet 2017. suggesting that younger women are marrying Population Reference Bureau; 2011 DHS; Girls Not slightly later than older cohorts. Eighty-four percent Brides website; UNICEF MICS data. of women aged 15 to 24 are literate, but nearly a third of adolescents (32 percent) leave school in order to marry (Wodon, Nguyen, Yedan et al, 2017).

Figure 2.10 Trends in age at marriage in Nepal, 1996-2011

17.5 17.5

17 17

16.7 16.5

Age at marriage 16.2 16

15.5 1996 2001 2006 2011 Nepal DHS and MICS

Sources: Successive DHSs and MICSs; UNICEF.

20 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Nearly all sexual activity and childbearing takes place for maternal and infant mortality included high levels of within marriage in Nepal. By the age of 19, a third of anaemia among women aged 15 to 19 at 43.6 percent. Nepalese women had begun childbearing (DHS 2013). Thirty percent had a live birth and 5 percent were The Government of Nepal held a national “Girl Summit” pregnant. Adolescent births were twice as high in rural in 2016, pledging to end child marriage by 2030 as areas than in urban areas, but fairly equally distributed part of its commitment to the global Sustainable among mountain, hill and terai zones. Adolescent Development Goals. With partners, including the childbearing was highest by far in State 2 of 7 States, United Nations and NGOs, it developed a National (27 percent), and lowest in State 3, (10 percent). The Strategy to End Child Marriage, which has yet to be unmet need for family planning was highest among implemented (Human Rights Watch, 2016). married women aged 15 to 19 at 35 percent. A detailed study of the perceived advantages and Adolescent childbearing was highest among young harms of child marriage among lower caste rural women with no education, 32.6 percent, compared to 7.2 girls in remote areas provides rich data on the push percent among those with secondary or higher education and pull factors influencing parents’ decisions to (DHS 2013). By income, adolescent childbearing was marry them (Karim et al, 2016). It also shows the higher among the middle-income wealth quintile, 21.8 role that Nepal’s remote geography plays in pushing percent, than among the lowest and second lowest parents to marry daughters when potential grooms wealth quintiles (19.5 percent and 19.8 percent, present themselves, as they are uncertain of when respectively). Among the wealthiest quintile, 5.9 percent a comparable spouse might be available (this is of adolescents had begun childbearing. Risk factors discussed in more detail later in this report).

Pakistan COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 207.774 million Population Data Sheet 2017. Population Reference Population Under Age 15: 35 percent Bureau; Demographic and Health Surveys 2012-13; Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 14 percent Girls Not Brides website; UNICEF MICS data. Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 1,236,120 As in other parts of South Asia, family connections and Percent of women aged 20-24 who: honour play important roles in driving child marriage in • Married before age 15: 3 percent Pakistan. The median age of marriage in Pakistan has • Married before age 18: 27 percent risen less than a year over more than twenty years, Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 49; from 18.6 in the 1990/91 DHS to 19.5 in the 2012/13 Females 39 DHS. Three percent of girls aged 20 to 24 had married Adolescent Fertility Rate: 44 births per 1,000 women by the age of 15 and 21 percent by the age of 18. aged 15-19 The national legal minimum age of marriage is 16, Median age at first intercourse: Data not available with and without parental consent (except in Sindh Median age at first birth: 22.2 among women aged province where the legal age of marriage is 18 for 25-49 girls and boys). This is the lowest legal age among the Source: Government of Pakistan; Ministry of Statistics, countries included in this review (although Bangladesh Statistics Division; Pakistan Bureau of Statistics - 6th has considered lowering the minimum age at marriage Population and Housing Census, August, 2017; World from 18 to 16).

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 21 Figure 2.11 Trends in age at marriage in Pakistan, 1990-2013

19.6 19.5 19.4 19.2 19 19.1 18.8 18.6 18.6

Age at marriage 18.4 18.2 18 1990-91 2006-07 2012-13 Pakistan DHS

Sources: Successive DHS surveys, 1990-2010.

Two Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys were conducted in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab in 2014. In Sindh, early marriage was higher than for the country as a whole: 16.3 percent of young women aged 15-19 were currently married. Among women aged 15 to 49, 9.3 percent had married by the age of 15 and 31.2 percent had married by the age of 18. Among women aged 45 to 49, 17.5 percent had married before the age of 15, compared with 4 percent of women in the 15-19 year age group, indicating that very early marriage is declining, most likely as a consequence of the © Plan International expansion of education and changes in attitudes towards very early marriage. Among married women an equal percentage were underweight. Literacy among aged 15 to 19, 12.4 percent had a spouse who was 15 to 24-year-olds was 67 percent, but only 24 percent of ten or more years their senior. children of secondary school age were currently attending secondary school (Bureau of Statistics Punjab, 2016). The province of Sindh passed the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 2014, becoming the first province to The Punjab provincial assembly passed a law in March do so. The Act criminalizes marriages to children under 2015 increasing the penalties for parents and clerics who the age of 16. The legal age of marriage is 18 for men assisted in marriages between children, although the law left and 16 for women and violators face imprisonment for unchanged the legal minimum age for adolescents to marry up to a month, a fine of 1,000 rupees ($9.90), or both. at 16 (Library of Congress, Global Legal Monitor. Pakistan). Although many cases have been filed, prosecutions have been limited. In 2016, Sindh also became the first Pakistan has one of the highest rates of consanguineous province to pass legislation for the registration of Hindu marriages in the region. Such marriages are often preferred and other-non-Muslim marriages. This was a response to and take place when the bride is a child. There is limited reported forced marriages in Sindh. The adolescent birth consultation with the girl. Cousin marriages are associated rate for married women aged 15-19 in Sindh was 56. Ten with adverse maternal and child health outcomes including percent of women aged 20-24 gave birth before the age stillbirths and miscarriages as well as greater risks of of 18. More than half (52.3 percent) of women aged 15 to termination (Omar, Farook and Jabeen, 2016). 24 were literate (Pakistan 2014 MIC, Sindh). Early and forced marriages, including treating girls as In the Punjab, 9.2 percent of women aged 15 to 19 were chattels to settle disputes and resolve debts, continue, currently married. Of these, 18.8 percent had a spouse despite the 2011 Prevention of Anti-Women Practices ten or more years their senior. In the Punjab, the total Amendment Act, which criminalizes giving a woman in fertility rate was 3.5; the contraceptive prevalence rate marriage to settle a civil or criminal dispute, or coercing for women aged 15-49 was 39 percent; and 5.2 percent or compelling a woman by any means to enter into a of women aged 15-49 were married before the age of marriage. In 2016, the National Assembly Standing 15, while 21 percent were married before the age of Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony 18. The adolescent birth rate was 34. Twelve percent rejected an effort to amend the definition of “child” in the of women aged 20-24 had a live birth before the age of Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 from 18 for males 18. Thirty percent of all births were of a low-birth weight. and 16 for females to 18 for both sexes. Pressure from The infant mortality rate was 75. Stunting was highly Muslim clerics and particularly the Council of Islamic prevalent among children: one-third of all children below Ideology were believed to be the reason for the age of five were moderately or severely stunted and the withdrawal of the bill.

22 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia The Philippines COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 105 million 2013 at 22.3. Fifteen percent of women aged 25 to 49 Population Under Age 15: 32 percent were married by the age of 18. Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 10 percent Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: The recent DHS data showed that 2 percent of girls aged 496,000 20 to 24 married before age 15 and 15 percent married Percent of women aged 20-24 who: before age 18. Urban women married on average two • Married before age 15: 2 percent years later than rural women, (23.1 percent versus 21.5 • Married before age 18: 15 percent percent). The age at first sexual intercourse for women Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 84; aged 25-49 was 21.5 years, eight months lower than Females 93 the median age of marriage. This difference is more Adolescent Fertility Rate: 57 births per 1,000 women significant than in most South and Southeast Asian aged 15-19 countries studied (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2014). Median age at first intercourse: 21.5 among women aged 25-49 The legal minimum age for marriage for both sexes Median age at first birth: 23.5 among women aged is 18; anyone below 21 must have parental consent. 25-49 Under Muslim customary law, Muslim boys may marry Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population at 15 and Muslim girls may marry when they reach Reference Bureau; DHS 2013; Girls Not Brides puberty. There is some evidence of early forced/arranged website; UNICEF MICS data. marriage among indigenous peoples in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Save the Children, 2016, Poverty and low levels of education are important factors Child Rights Situation Analysis in ARMM; UNICEF, 2016, contributing to the practice of CEFM in the Philippines Participatory Research with IPs in ARMM a report that and to rendering girls vulnerable to exploitative marriage reviews previous studies of violence against children). schemes. In a 2013 visit to the Philippines, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons Girls who marry young face challenges in preventing stated that child and forced marriage in the Philippines early, unintended pregnancies. Ten percent of girls aged is closely linked to the trafficking and sale of children. 15-19 had begun childbearing: 8 percent were already Girls and young women are trafficked domestically and mothers and 2 percent were pregnant with their first internationally for domestic work and sexual exploitation, child (DHS 2013). The adolescent birth rate was 57 and and mail-order bride services and “sponsorship” play most births took place within marriage. Infant mortality an important role in supporting and concealing this among children whose mothers were under age 20 was exploitation. When marriages take place between a about 30 percent higher than for mothers aged 20 to Filipina girl and a foreign man, the wedding ceremonies 39. About 75 percent of mothers under 20 had a skilled are held in the Philippines so that the husband can be attendant present at birth. eligible for a spouse visa. Among women aged 15-19, 13.8 percent agreed Median age at marriage has remained relatively high and with one or more circumstances in which a husband stable from the 1993 DHS (21.6) to the most recent DHS was justified in beating his wife. About 22 percent

Figure 2.12 Trends in age at marriage in the Philippines, 1993-2013

22.4 22.3 22.2 22.1 22.2 22 22 21.8

21.6 Age at marriage 21.6 21.4

21.2 1993 1998 2003 2008 2013

Philippines DHS

Source: ICF International; successive DHS Surveys.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 23 of married women aged 15 to 49 had experienced Health Act allows practitioners to deny reproductive physical violence since age 15. Women aged 15-19 had health (RH) services based on personal or religious the highest proportion of women who had experienced beliefs, requires spousal consent for women to violence in the last 12 months (8 percent). However, obtain RH care and requires minors to have parental this was not broken down by marital status (Philippine consent. Private health care facilities are not required Statistics Authority, 2014). to provide access to family planning. In September, 2016, the Supreme Court sustained its June 2015 According to the December 2015 Human Development temporary restraining order preventing the Department Report, the maternal mortality rate was 120 per of Health (DoH) from procuring, selling, distributing, 100,000 live births. The United Nations Development administering, or promoting specific hormonal Programme (UNDP) attributed the high rate of maternal contraceptives. Under President Duterte, who supports deaths to inadequate access to reproductive health family planning for poverty reduction, the 2017 family services. As amended by the Supreme Court in 2014, planning budget will increase two-fold over the the 2012 Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive current budget (U.S. Department of State, 2016).

Sri Lanka COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 21.4 million educated and have greater professional engagement Population Under Age 15: 25 percent and mobility than many of their peers in the region: they Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 9 percent are vulnerable to non-consensual relationships with Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 72,576 men; the unintended consequence of pregnancy then Percent of women aged 20-24 who: generates family pressure for girls to marry. The authors • Married before age 15: 2 percent concluded that early marriage is often entered not for • Married before age 18: 12 percent reasons of tradition, but rather reflects an attempt to Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 97; conform to normative standards dictating that girls who Females 102 engage in sex should be married. Adolescent Fertility Rate: 15 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 Sex with a girl under age 12 is considered statutory Age at first intercourse: Data not available rape for Muslims, while for non-Muslims, the age Median age at first marriage: 23.2 among women aged of statutory rape is 16. The legal age of marriage 25-49 for non-Muslims is 18. An article in The Mean age at first birth: 26 (2007) Economist reported: Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population Reference Bureau; UNESCO; Girls Not Brides website; Some conservative Muslims say the Koran UNICEF MICS data. permits child marriage. They insist that Muslims must continue to be exempt from secular family Sri Lanka’s DHS of 2006 is not in the public domain, law. A qazi in Colombo told researchers that girls while results from the 2016 DHS are pending. Since had to be married between 15 and 17 because 1987, when an earlier DHS survey found that 3.4 their “value” decreases as they get older. Some percent of young women aged 20 to 24 married below present child marriage as a way to make teenage age 15 and 24.4 before age 18, child marriages by 2000 pregnancy less of a problem (The Economist had declined to 1.3 percent of marriages among girls June 15, 2017). below the age of 15 and 19.7 among adolescents aged 15 to 19. The median age of marriage for all women There is no minimum age of marriage for Muslims. was 23.2 in 2007, and 9 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 The researchers found it difficult to obtain information were married. The Ministry of Women and Children’s about early marriage or statutory rape in the Muslim Affairs has conducted programmes in many districts community, and thus this study was only conducted to educate the public at the village level on the health in non-Muslim areas. Most people were aware of the and social complications that may result from early legal age at marriage, but there was some confusion marriage. Women in Sri Lanka enjoy a comparatively about whether children under age 18 could marry high status and child marriage is lower in the country, with parental consent. Incidences of early marriage or certainly compared to its South Asian neighbours. cohabitation are inconsistently reported to the police and to Probation and Child Care Services. Some young A case study suggests that early marriage and couples who want to marry before age 18 lie about their cohabitation in Sri Lanka more often results from ages or cohabitate until they are old enough to marry. sexual relations between teenaged girls and adult Parents consent to these arrangements to save the men, leading to pregnancy, rather than to arranged girl’s honour. There is little evidence of forced marriage. marriage (Goonesekere and Amarasuriya, 2013). As this Early marriage and statutory rape are mainly viewed was based on a small sample, there is no prevalence from a moral perspective rather than as a violation of data. Though young women in Sri Lanka are better child rights (Goonesekere and Amarasuriya, 2013).

24 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Thailand COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 66.1 million the age of 15. The percentage of women married Population Under Age 15: 18 percent before the age of 18 among various age cohorts is Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 14.1 percent also similar. Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 742,720 The minimum legal age for marriage for both sexes Percent of women aged 20-24 who: is 17 years; anyone younger than 20 years requires • Married before age 15: 4 percent parental consent to marry. A court may grant • Married before age 18: 22 percent permission for children to marry between 15 and 16 Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 133; years. Islamic committees have joined government Females 126 agencies in seeking to raise awareness and prevent Adolescent Fertility Rate: 51 births per 1,000 women child marriage under Islamic tradition. Some civil aged 15-19 society organizations have observed that early Median age at first intercourse: Data not available and forced marriages between student teenagers Mean age at first birth: 23 (2009) who become pregnant, a practice to “save face” Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population and protect the baby’s legal status, appear to be Reference Bureau; UNESCO; Girls Not Brides website; increasing as the country’s teenage pregnancy rate UNICEF MICS data. has increased (Equality Now, 2014). Thailand has comparatively high levels of premarital sex compared The 2015-16 Thailand MICS showed that 14.1 percent to some other countries in the region. of girls aged 15 to 19 were currently married (National Statistical Office and UNICEF, 2016). Among 20 to The literacy rate for women aged 20-24 is 95 percent. 24-year-olds, 21.3 percent of women and 8 percent The secondary school enrolment ratio of greater than of men married before the age of 18. In the North and 100 percent for both males and females suggests Northeast, a higher percentage of women aged 15 not only universal secondary schooling, but that a to 19 were currently married (17.7 percent) than in significant proportion of students are older or younger Bangkok and the South. Urban and rural differences than the official or typical ages of those grades (World were not great (13.4 percent versus 14.7 percent), Bank, 2017). but almost half (46.6 percent) of women aged 15-19 with a primary level education were currently married, Thai women are less likely than women in most Asian while 15.7 percent of women with no education, 13.5 countries to believe that spousal violence is justified. percent of women with secondary education and Nine percent of women aged 15 to 19 believed a 1.4 percent of women with higher education were husband was justified in beating his wife for at least currently married. A girl in the poorest quintile was one of five reasons (National Statistical Office and almost ten times more likely to be married than a girl United Nations Children’s Fund, 2016). in the richest quintile. Thailand has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in Southeast The proportion of women married or in union by the Asia. While its HIV epidemic is declining, new HIV ages of 15 and 18 has not varied significantly over infections are rising among young people under the time: among women aged 45-49, 4 percent were first age of 25, who are found to have less knowledge of married by the age of 15 while among today’s 15-19 HIV prevention than those over the age of 25 year-olds, 4.4 percent of women were married before (www.avert.org).

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 25 Timor-Leste COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 1.3 million Less than one in four mothers under 20 delivered in Population Under Age 15: 44 percent a health facility and only 33 percent of infants were Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 8 percent delivered by a skilled birth attendant. Neonatal, infant Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 4,648 and child mortality were all highest for children of Percent of women aged 20-24 who: mothers who were less than 20 years old at the time of • Married before age 15: 3 percent birth compared to all other age groups. Fifty percent • Married before age 18: 19 percent of all children were stunted and this percentage had Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Males 74; increased since an earlier survey. Females 80 Adolescent Fertility Rate: 47 births per 1,000 women Although a small country, 45 percent of the population aged 15-19 is under the age of 15, and a significant number Median age at first intercourse: 20.9 among women of girls are at risk of child marriage. According aged 25-49 to law, a marriage cannot be registered until the Median age at first birth: 22.4 among women aged younger spouse is at least age 16, but the civil code 25-49 recognizes cultural, religious and civil marriages. Source: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population Cultural pressure to marry, especially if a girl becomes Reference Bureau; DHS 2009-10; Girls Not Brides pregnant, is strong. Underage couples cannot website; UNICEF MICS data. officially marry but are married de facto once they have children together. Forced marriage is rare The median age at marriage for 15 to 49-year-old (U.S. Department of State, 2017). women was 20.9, as was the median age at first sexual intercourse among women aged 25 to 49. The turbulent history of Timor-Leste appears to There was little difference between urban and rural age have contributed to a normalization of violence of all at marriage. Median age of marriage among women forms, and gender-based violence is very common. currently aged 25 to 29 was lowest in Oecussi (18.8) According to a recent study by the Asia Foundation, and Covalima (18.9) and above 19 in all other districts. 51 percent of ever-partnered girls aged 15 to 19 Eight percent of girls and 0.4 percent of boys aged 15 had experienced physical or sexual intimate partner to 19 were currently married. Three percent of girls had violence in the last 12 months, and 14 percent of married by the age of 15 and 19 percent by the age women aged 15 to 49 had been raped by someone of 18. Even among the lowest education and wealth other than their partner (Abbas and Ria, 2016). Among quintiles, the median age of marriage was above 19. all women aged 15 to 19, 81 percent agreed that a husband was justified in beating his wife for at least The unmet need for family planning among 15 to one reason. Thirty-five percent believed a wife was 19-year-olds was 27 percent (National Statistics not justified in refusing sex with her husband even Directorate of Timor-Leste, 2010). Maternal mortality if he had a sexually transmitted infection (National was high in 2010 at 380 deaths per 100,000 live births. Statistics Directorate Timor-Leste, 2010).

26 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Vietnam COUNTRY DATA PROFILE

Population: 71 million However, 26.0 percent of women aged 15-19 from the Population Under Age 15: 24 percent poorest households versus 2.3 percent of those from Girls aged 15-19 currently married: 10.3 percent the richest households were married by the age of 18. Number of 20-24-year-olds married by age 19: 396,500 Child marriage was most prevalent in the Northern Percent of women aged 20-24 who: Midlands and Mountainous areas where 22.6 percent • Married before age 15: 1 percent of 15 to 19-year-olds were currently married, and the • Married before age 18: 11 percent Central Highlands, where 14.8 percent were married. Secondary School Enrollment Ratio: Data not available - see below The adolescent birth rate has declined from 45 in Adolescent Fertility Rate: 34 births per 1,000 women the most recent DHS to 34 in the 2014 MICS. The aged 15-19 percentage of women aged 15-24 who had a live Median age at first intercourse: 21.2 among women birth before the age of 18 was less than 5 percent. aged 25-49 Mean age at first birth: 22.5 (2002) Among women aged 15-49, 28.2 percent agreed Sources: World Population Data Sheet 2017. Population with at least one reason where a man was justified Reference Bureau; 2014 MICS*; AIS 2005; UNESCO; in beating his wife (General Statistics Office and Girls Not Brides website; UNICEF MICS data. UNICEF, 2015). The age of consent for sex is 18 and penalties for sex with minors range from five The mean age of marriage was 21.2. The legal age to ten years in prison. The most recent sex ratio is of marriage is 18 for girls and 20 for boys. The law of concern: 113 male births per 100 female births. criminalizes organizing or entering into marriage with The government has a rather strict population policy an underage person (General Statistics Office and aimed at no more than two births per woman without UNICEF, 2015). Ten (10.3) percent of girls aged 15 to permission, but the policy does not have penalties 19 were currently married, 5.8 percent to a spouse for violators. ten or more years their senior. Less than 1 percent (0.9 percent ) of women aged 15-49 years were first Education in Vietnam is free and compulsory up married or in union before the age of 15, while 11.2 to the age of 14 (US Department of State, 2017). percent of women aged 20-49 were married before Literacy among 15 to 24-year-olds is 96.5 per cent the age of 18. and 83.9 percent of children of secondary school age are currently attending secondary school, The difference in urban and rural child marriage a substantial increase over the last decade. Three was not as large as in some countries (7.4 percent in ten married girls are in the lowest educational in urban areas versus 11.7 percent in rural areas). category with only primary education.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 27 A review of the health consequences of child marriage 2.3 A discussion of trends in in Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan (Marphatia et al 2017) found that under-age marriage is occurring at a the region slightly older age range, but still below 18 years. Between 1991 and 2007, the overall prevalence of marriage under As the data illustrates above, levels of child marriage in 18 years of age for women aged 20-24 decreased in the Asia region varied dramatically between countries, these countries, largely as a consequence of the fewer ranging from 75 percent among young women in marriages of girls below 15 years. Demographic Health Bangladesh to 14 percent among young women in Survey data show that there has been little change in the Vietnam; and from 5 percent among young men in prevalence of marriage at ages 16 and 17. As Marphatia Timor-Leste, Vietnam and Indonesia to 19 percent and her colleagues note, “These patterns are important among young men in Nepal (DHS 2009-2016, most to recognize because the predictors and consequences recent for each country). It may be possible, however, of marriage in these different age groups are likely to to highlight some ways in which the Asia region as a be different.” whole differs from other parts of the world. The existence of data on child marriage and the validity • Marriage in the region tends to precede sexual of this data are an issue in the region. Few countries activity, especially for young women; this is in in the region have robust and reliable Management contrast with Africa and Latin America, and Information Systems, and Civil Registration and Vital as many as 156 million men live in the region Statistics are often incomplete or inconsistent. As a today who married as children as shown in consequence, it is not always possible to analyse the table 2.4 (UNICEF global databases, 2016, practice of child marriage as it relates to early sexual based on DHS and MICS, 2007-2014). Nepal activity and pregnancy. Tables 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 illustrate and Laos ranked among the top countries where the limited data available on early intercourse and early at least 10 percent of boys married as children. birth, independent of marital status. There is very little information on their experiences (one exception is some of the Data on sexual initiation are hard to come by, and data on research emerging from CARE’s Tipping non-marital childbearing with its higher rates of associated Point project in Nepal). terminations are even harder to obtain, especially for • In other parts of the world child marriage countries where termination is illegal. One global analysis has diminished significantly before the age of of early pregnancy and abortion does not include any of 15. Bangladesh, at least, continues to have the 14 countries included in this review (Sedgh et al 2015). considerable proportions of young women A recent study of the proportion of 15-year-old students marrying before the age of 16. There seems who had ever had sexual intercourse (Woog and Kågesten to be an East Asian and a South Asian pattern, 2017) found that the figure was highest in Latin America, with age at marriage slow to go beyond 18 in followed by Africa, and the Western Pacific excluding South Asia, while it has increased to 19 and Samoa. The researchers found that the proportion of 13 into the early 20s in East Asia. to 15 year old students reporting sexual intercourse in the four Southeast Asian countries with data were 0.5 per cent Table 2.4 Percentage of men married by of males and 0.2 percent of females in Indonesia; age 18 among ever-married men currently 19 percent of males and 11 percent of females in aged 25-49 Thailand, 14 percent of males and 4 percent of females in Bangladesh, and 4 percent for both sexes in Vietnam. Percentage of Country men married by 18 Table 2.5 Percentage of students aged 13-15 Bangladesh 6.3 who reported ever having sexual intercourse, by gender, according to developing region Cambodia 8.5 and country India 11.9 Indonesia 4.9 Country Year All Boys Girls

Laos 14.6 Bangladesh 2014 10 14 4 Myanmar 7.1 Cambodia 2013 13 15 11 Nepal 19.1 Indonesia 2007 0 0.5 0.2 Pakistan 8.7 Philippines 5.4 Laos 2015 10 13 7 Thailand 8.0 Malaysia 2012 8 10 7 Timor-Leste 4.8 Mongolia 2013 10 13 7 Vietnam 4.9 Thailand 2015 15 19 11 Source: ICF International; DHS and MICS 2009-16; Laos age range Vietnam 2013 4 4 3 20-49; Thailand age range 20-24.

Data for China and Sri Lanka are not available in this data source. Source: Woog and Kågesten, 2017.

28 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia In describing overall trends in marital timing in the Sexual debut before the age of 15 was more common Asia-Pacific region, Farahani et al (2012) identified in South and Southeast Asia than in East or Central three distinct patterns of age at marriage and Asia, where it was less than 1 percent of girls in the never-marriage: In Japan and Australia, there has countries surveyed. Bangladesh and India stand out as been a sharp rise in both age at marriage and in having 15 percent and 8 percent respectively of girls never-marriage over the past four decades. In Iran, aged 15 to 19 who had sexual intercourse before the Thailand, Malaysia, Azerbaijan and New Zealand, age age of 15, (table 2.5); sexual debut is almost exclusively at marriage has experienced a small increase and within marriage in these countries. Sexual debut varied non-marriage some increase over the same period. much more by residence and wealth in India than in In a third set of countries, including China, India and Bangladesh. In Southeast Asia, the highest percentage Tajikistan, a third pattern is observed where there has of girls who had initiated sexual intercourse before the been a minimal change in the age at marriage and age of 15 was in Laos (5.2 percent of girls aged 15 to non-marriage. Given the legacy of China’s one-child 19) and, as in India, this varied greatly by residence and policy, however, there are large numbers of men in wealth. Among the wealthiest quintile, age of sexual China who will never marry; this is not the case in debut in India was on a par with other East and Central India (Farahani et al, 2012). Asian countries.

Table 2.6 Proportion of 15-19-year-old females who have ever had sexual intercourse before age 15, by residence and wealth, according to developing region, subregion and country

Residence Wealth quintile Region, subregion and country Total Rural Urban Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest ASIA Eastern Asia Mongolia (2013-2014) 0.6 0.7 0.5 0.6 0.6 1.3 0.2 0.2 Central Asia Kazakhstan (2010-2011) 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.6 0 0.3 0.9 0.3 Kyrgzstan Republic (2014) u u u u u u u u Tajikistan (2012) 0.1 0.2 0 0.4 0.3 0 0 0 Turkmenistan (2006) u u u u u u u u Uzbekistan (2006) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Southern Asia Afghanistan (2010-2011) u u u u u u u u Bangladesh (2014)* 15 15.1 14.7 17.4 16.6 13.8 14.8 11.2 Bhutan (2010) 2.2 3.1 0.6 4.5 5.4 3.4 0.4 0 India (2005-2006) 8 10.2 2.7 15.9 12.7 7.6 3.6 0.7 Maldives (2009)* 0.1 0.1 0 0 0.4 0 0 0 Nepal (2014) u u u u u u u u Pakistan (2012-2013)* u u u u u u u u Sri Lanka (2006-2007) 1.2 u u u u u u u Southeast Asia Cambodia (2014) 1.4 1.4 1.3 0.9 1.7 1.3 1.3 1.4 Indonesia (2012) 1.6 2.5 0.8 3.7 2.5 1 0.9 0.4 Laos (2011-2012) 5.2 6.7 1.5 11.9 8.5 3.8 3.8 0.4 Philippines (2013) 2.2 2.7 1.8 4.4 1.7 2.1 3.2 0.3 Thailand (2012-2013) u u u u u u u u Timor-Leste (2009-2010) 1.1 1.3 0.5 1.6 1.8 1.6 0.6 0.2 Viet Nam (2013-2014) u u u u u u u u

Sources: (Woog and Kagesten, 2017) *Sample consists of ever-married women (those who are currently married, widowed or divorced/separated) only; never-married women were not surveyed. Data have been adjusted to represent all women in the age group by using household survey data to represent both ever-married and never-married women. This is not the case for Sri Lanka where data are only available from country reports where data have not been adjusted. Notes: Data are from the most recent survey available (years denoted parenthetically). u=unavailable. Sources: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Republic, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam - Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Sri Lanka, Thailand - DHS country reports (survey data unavailable). All other countries, most recent DHS surveys.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 29 Early childbearing is most risky for mothers and infants when the mother is very young. Births before the age of 15 were quite rare in all Asian countries profiled as illustrated in table 2.6 with the exception of Bangladesh, where 4.4 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 had given birth by the age of 15. Only among the wealthiest 20 percent in Bangladesh did this percentage fall below 2 percent. As shown earlier, a high percentage of girls in many of these countries had given birth by the age of 18.

Table 2.7 Proportion of 15-19-year-old females experiencing a birth before age 15, by residence and wealth, according to developing region, subregion and country

Residence Wealth quintile Region, subregion and country Total Rural Urban Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest ASIA Eastern Asia Mongolia (2013-2014) 0 0.2 0 0.3 0 0 0 0 Central Asia Kazakhstan (2010-2011) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kyrgzstan Republic (2014) 0.1 0.1 0 0 0 0.3 0 0 Tajikistan (2012) 0.1 0.1 0 0 0.3 0 0 0 Turkmenistan (2006) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Uzbekistan (2006) 0.1 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 0 0 Southern Asia Afghanistan (2010-2011) 1.6 1.9 0.2 3.7 1.7 1.6 1.1 0.4 Bangladesh (2014)* 4.4 4.7 3.6 6 5.9 4.1 3.8 1.6 Bhutan (2010) 0.5 0.7 0.2 1.6 0.1 1.5 0 0 India (2005-2006) 1.2 1.4 0.5 2.6 1.5 1.2 0.6 0.1 Maldives (2009)* 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nepal (2014) 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.2 1.2 0.4 0.3 Pakistan (2012-2013)* 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.2 0 0.2 0 Sri Lanka (2006-2007) 0.1 u u u u u u u Southeast Asia Cambodia (2014) 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.6 0 0.1 0 Indonesia (2012) 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.9 0.3 0 0 0.3 Laos (2011-2012) 1.2 1.5 0.4 3.7 1.8 1.2 0 0 Philippines (2013) 0.4 0.6 0.3 1.2 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.1 Thailand (2012-2013) 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.9 0.3 0.2 0 Timor-Leste (2009-2010) 0.4 0.5 0.1 0.5 0.5 1 0 0 Viet Nam (2013-2014) 0.2 0.3 0 0.9 0 0 0 0

Source: (Woog and Kagesten, 2017) *Sample consists of ever-married women (those who are currently married, widowed or divorced/separated) only; never-married women were not surveyed. Data have been adjusted to represent all women in the age-group by using household survey data to represent both ever-married and never-married women. This is not the case for Sri Lanka where data are only available from country reports where data have not been adjusted. Notes: Data are from the most recent survey available (years denoted parenthetically). u=unavailable. Sources: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Republic, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe - Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Sri Lanka and Thailand - DHS country reports (survey data unavailable). All other countries - Demographic and Health Surveys.

30 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 3. Causes of child, early and forced marriage in Asia

To gain an understanding of the causes of child, marrying girls as children. This next section on early and forced marriage in Asia, the report draws the causes of child, early and forced marriage is from an analytical review of literature from these organized around these seven drivers of the practice. countries over the past 10 to 15 years. It describes broad categories of causes/drivers and illustrates 1. Gender inequality and the subordination of these in the various country settings. The report also girls. identifies gaps in some of the countries, as this type 2. A view of girls that prioritizes their sexual and of analysis is not possible systematically across the reproductive roles. focus countries. 3. Family expectations and traditions that focus on family interests and alignments. The causes of child, early and forced marriage are 4. Economic scarcity and the pressures this often related to one another, with, for example, places on families to marry their daughters. gender inequality shaping an intense concern with 5. The impact of conflict and instability on family the management of girls’ sexuality and limiting decision-making regarding marriage. girls’ choices and putting pressure on their families, 6. A lack of alternatives for girls apart from especially poor families, to marry them early. The marriage. causes of child marriage vary across settings, but it 7. A weak legal framework, a lack of enforcement would be unusual to find a cause in one setting that of laws, and plural legal systems. is not reflected in some way in the causes of the practice elsewhere. Drawing from earlier research by These causes of child marriage are interrelated Greene (2014) and Bicchieri, Jiang and Lindemans but have been separated for the purposes of this (2014), a typology of reasons was developed for analysis.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 31 on domestic roles. These are qualities valued by 3.1 Gender inequality and the men, as they for their part tend to be socialized to take the lead in household decision-making and to subordination of girls be concerned with roles and relationships beyond the walls of the home. The characteristics viewed Gender inequality, with all of its limited vision of as appropriate for girls and young women focus on girls and their prospects, the constraints it places their subordination and their domestic roles. Many on girl’s access to information and services and the people believe girls should be good wives and impediments it poses to the realization of their rights mothers, focusing on others and putting their own subordinates them to the wishes of others, deprives well-being and personal development in second them of important human capital investments and place. In a male-dominated society like Pakistan girls drives them into relationships in which they lack and women are largely confined to the walls of their control. Subrahmanian (2008) in a study of child own home, with the intention of keeping them safe marriage among rural women in India argues that and dignified as good sisters, daughters, wives and early marriage is part of the wider practice of mothers. excluding females, through their subordination to men and deprivation of equal access to social and Besides, girls’ and young women’s subordination material resources. Through child marriage, girls and is also valued in young women as they are being women are systematically deprived of educational, considered by potential grooms and their families financial and social resources and prevented from who tend to prefer young, malleable brides. Docility realizing their rights and accessing their entitlements as an expression of the subordination of girls and (Lane 2011). women is cultivated from childhood, making it more difficult for girls to defend their own interests, An interest in the connection between social norms including when family discussions of marriage arise. and gender inequality has provided important insights into the lives of girls in recent years. A close study Different expectations often exist regarding the timing of these connections has permitted researchers of marriage for boys and girls (Plan International and and practitioners to pick apart specific aspects of Coram Children’s Legal Centre, 2015). Figure 3.1 gendered social norms and explain how they are below shows the disparity in minimum age at supported by other factors and conditions in girls’ marriage laws for boys and girls (Arthur et al, 2014). lives, including economic opportunities, services and Of note is the concentration of countries where girls even geography (Vaitla et al, 2017). are permitted to marry at least one year before boys in the Asia region, with India and Bangladesh having One factor at the intersection of gender inequality laws that allow girls to marry three to four years and child marriage is a value for docility and a focus earlier than boys.

Figure 3.1 Gender disparity in minimum age at marriage laws

There are no cases where the minimum age for boys is younger than the minimum age for girls. No minimum age for girls and boys In eight countries, the minimum age of marriage Girls can be married 3 to 4 years younger than boys for females is 18 years old or older, but legislation specifies a higher minimum age of marriage for Girls can be married 1 to 2 years younger than boys males. The difference in age is reflected in this No difference in minimum age map to shop gender disparities in legislation.

Sources: Arthur et al, 2014; Analysis of data from World Policy Analysis Center; Child Marriage Database, 2013.

32 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International/Sorbong Kiyoshi

These laws encapsulate the normative expectation that girls should marry earlier than boys. The majority 3.2 A view of girls that of countries where there is a significant disparity in the minimum age at marriage for males and females prioritizes their sexual and are found in Asia. In Indonesia, for example, the true reproductive roles minimum age at marriage, despite the law stating that the age of 21 is the minimum, is 16 for girls and Societies that are patriarchal – where fathers are 19 for boys (18+ Coalition, 2016). This is associated the heads of families, and men have authority over with community perceptions about women who marry women and children – offer girls and women little at older ages, and perceptions about what women choice regarding their sexual lives. The concern with should be (perceptions that women should do most the management of girls’ sexuality and reproduction of the domestic work and gendered low expectations translates into social control, and a girls’ lack of choice for women’s roles outside the home) (communication regarding her sexuality is a core aspect of patriarchy. from Plan International Indonesia colleagues). Despite its importance, however, development interventions aimed at gender inequality and girls The lack of a unified movement for girls’ rights has and women’s rights and empowerment have largely made it difficult to advance their rights, even after remained silent on the subject of sexuality. To address decades of the women’s movement. Plan child marriage, it is critical to address sexuality, and International’s ultimate commitment to girls’ rights is with it, the patterns of male dominance and female focused at a high level of gender transformation. It subordination that define sexual relations within the goes beyond improving specific conditions in girls’ context of child, early and forced marriage (Greene et lives and seeks to improve their social position and al 2017). The fact that young girls are viewed as being their value and contribute to the full realization of ready for marital sexual relationships enters them into their rights. long-term social pacts that lock them into a place of subordination to their husbands. A huge gap in the gender inequality literature concerns the role of men in marriage and early As a socially constructed experience, sexuality reflects marriage in particular. It is men who are marrying gender inequalities, and the requirements for its girls, yet there is little research on this. What are management reinforce gender inequalities (Greene, their motivations and attractions? This is an Perlson and Hart, 2017). Social norms shape how important gap in understanding this practice. sexuality is viewed, expressed, experienced and

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 33 © Plan International/Vincent Tremeau

constrained. Parents want their daughters to be chaste, Variants on the theme of chastity, as elaborated by and there is a risk that girls who grow older may lose Bicchieri, Jiang and Lindemans, 2014, include: their virginity outside of marriage, because they might have love affairs or they might be harassed. • Ignorance-about-chastity: Parents overestimate the risk of love affairs and harassment, in Discriminatory social norms that value girls primarily part because the consequences in socially in terms of their reproductive capacities are critical conservative settings may be so severe for girls to understanding early marriage (Harper et al, 2014). and their families. Expectations about girls’ childbearing are fundamental • Chastity-norm: Daughters are expected to be to the pressures to marry them early. Research in chaste, and the slightest suggestion of premarital Nepal has found that despite decreases in the total sex would ruin the reputation of both daughter and fertility rates in Nepal, women who marry earlier have parents. a significantly larger total number of children over their • Ignorance about chastity-norm: Parents reproductive lives (Adhikari 2010). This pattern is likely overestimate the extent to which others expect replicated in other settings; it has been said that fertility them to have chaste daughters, but since this postponed is fertility foregone (Morgan 1982), and the is not a topic that people can discuss freely and opposite is also true: fertility begun today can lead to without judgment, it is difficult for this perception the fertility of tomorrow, with early starts bearing greater to be corrected. numbers of children. • Desire and independence: Children themselves desire love and marriage (referred to as “Juliet” Global research has increasingly linked female genital by Bicchieri, Jiang and Lindemans, 2014). In Sri mutilation (FGM) and child marriage as manifestations Lanka, for example, sexual relationships, often of a similar concern with the management of female non-consensual, take place between adolescent sexuality. One review, for example, notes that although girls and adult men (the typical pairing in the FGM is most commonly practiced in Africa, it is also context of patriarchal attitudes about dominance practiced in several countries included in this review: and submission), with pregnancy sometimes in Indonesia, and in specific ethnic groups in India, leading to marriage and cohabitation, rather than Pakistan and Thailand, for which there are no reliable families arranging marriages as was historically data on prevalence (DFID, 2013). the case (Goonesekere and Amarasuriya, 2013).

34 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia In indigenous communities in Cambodia, desire • Religion: Religion is important in the region similarly drives adolescent girls’ relationships, but and plays out in marriage patterns in widely they are likely to pair off with adolescent boys divergent ways. It is referenced as a key driver in only a year or two older than themselves (Plan child marriage in India, Pakistan and Nepal, for Cambodia & Breoghán Consulting, 2017). example, but is not so closely associated with • Fear of sexual assault: Singh and Vennam marriage in Myanmar and China, in contrast. (2016) observe that, “early marriage protects Where it plays an important role, it guides mate girls’ marriageability, which can be destroyed selection, ritual, and reflects group identity. by premarital sex, whether it occurs through ▶ Group identity is an expression of religious sexual violence or through choice.” The impact beliefs (people act in a certain way because of parental concern with sexual violence is they belong to a particular religion and might corroborated by research conducted by Plan feel different from others of that faith). International’s Asia Regional Office (2013). ▶ Traditional practice reinforces the belief that this is how it has always been done. Adolescent pregnancy also plays an important role • Ignorance about harm: People underestimate in driving child marriage in Asia. In Indonesia, for the harm child marriage causes or disregard example, in the scoping survey conducted for the Yes it because of the perceived benefits of early I Do project, implemented by Plan Netherlands, along marriage. with CHOICE, Rutgers and Amref (the African Medical • Perception of benefits: Most families who marry and Research Foundation) in December 2016, seven girls early can readily identify both the harms and out of ten child marriages in Indonesia were as a result benefits of marrying girls early and for delaying of pregnancy. This shows that adolescent pregnancy their marriages (e.g., Karim et al, 2016 in Nepal and the limited knowledge of sexual and reproductive and Bangladesh). An important manifestation of health among girls are key factors in driving child this factor is the lack of control young people, marriage in the region. This is compounded by the including young men, often have over their own lack of youth-friendly and gender-sensitive health marriages, particularly in South Asia. Johnson services, which is discussed later in the report. has analysed the evolution of how children’s perspectives are valued in the changing context of Nepal (2010). In Nepal, in addition, fathers’ 3.3 Family expectations and attitudes towards old-age care speeds up the process of bringing new wives into the household traditions for their sons, while mothers are more reluctant to bring a young wife into the household for Marriage is deeply rooted in family expectations and fear it will spoil their relationship with their son cultural traditions, and these are often invoked as (Jennings et al, 2012). important reasons for marrying girls early. This section • Caste: There are pressures to accept available highlights expectations and traditions that focus on partners, even when the girl is too young. family interests and alignments, perceptions about the Research in Nepal highlights the importance age at which other families are marrying their daughters, of caste in constraining and forcing families to and the view that as a tradition, child marriage is more accept available spouses, as the pool of eligible important than any limited harm it might cause to a girl. partners may be limited, particularly in remote Child marriage is linked to the high value of religion and rural areas (Karim et al, 2016). As a consequence family identity as members of a given religious group, of caste requirements, families jump at the and in South Asia, the role of caste. chance to marry a girl, even when she is very young, in response to the availability of an Traditions are reflected in the way people think about appropriate prospect for marriage. Banerjee et child marriage in a variety of ways. al (2013) have written about the impact of caste on mate selection in India and observe that • Conciliation: Marriages are primarily an instrument despite the preference to marry within caste in to bring families closer together rather than to West Bengal, 30 percent of their sample study make spouses happy. married outside it, indicating what is potentially • Conformity: All girls are getting married young an important trend. therefore families must marry their daughter young. • Safeguard: If (good) grooms are scarce, Regarding appropriate age at marriage, young it is better to marry whenever a (good) women are viewed as “left over” by the age of 26 in possibility arises. This has been illustrated in China, for example, or much earlier in South Asia. the caste-related research referenced above ▶ Ignorance about conformity: Parents but can be relevant for the population in general. overestimate the number of girls that are getting married young, and this translates Some of the social norms literature has highlighted into the impression that they must follow suit some very specific technical concepts regarding or they will “miss the bus” and lose out on beliefs and expectations of relevance to child opportunities to marry their girls. marriage. Most closely associated with the distinction • Tradition: Child marriage is a “custom”, a “tradition”, between different kinds of beliefs and expectations part of people’s “culture.” There is no doubt that and their measurement is Christina Bicchieri and marital arrangements and weddings are a moment colleagues. One study by Bicchieri, Jiang and when family traditions are expressed. But this refers Lindemans (2014) was very useful for this study to the perception that because something is a and information from it can be seen at table 3.1. tradition, it cannot be questioned or avoided.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 35 © Plan International/Vincent Tremeau

Table 3.1 Types of beliefs regarding child marriage, with examples

Type of belief Definition Example

Beliefs about reality other than about An older girl will not find a good Factual beliefs people’s behaviour and thoughts husband. Beliefs about how a person should I should marry my daughter as soon as Personal normative beliefs behave she reaches puberty. All my neighbours marry their daughters Empirical expectations Beliefs about what people do as soon as they reach puberty. My neighbours think that daughters Beliefs about what other people think Normative expectations should marry as soon as they reach people should do puberty.

Source: Bicchieri, Jiang and Lindemans (2014 white paper).

This framework of norms is very interesting but seems to ignore the issue of power as the condition for inequality. Who sets the rules of the game? Usually the persons in power, with subordinate members of society playing their contributing roles. In this sense, the normative focus sidesteps the power hierarchies that shape so much of value and practice in any society.

36 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 3.4 Economic scarcity/poverty and environmental pressures

Across the 14 countries in this study, girls in poorer families are more vulnerable to child marriage for many reasons; for example, they leave school earlier because of the costs associated with education, and limited resources are more likely to be spent on a boy’s education than a girl’s (Singh and Vennam 2016). If a girl is not attending school, parents are more likely to marry her and sometimes marry off a younger daughter along with an older sibling to avoid the costs of a separate marriage later. UNICEF, 2014b found that in India, the median age at first marriage was 19.7 years for females in the richest quintile of their sample compared to 15.4 for females in the poorest quintile. See table 3.2.

The cost benefit argument is often given as a factor in child marriage, but as Bicchieri, Jiang and Lindemans (2014) point out, most studies do not clearly define the costs and benefits, and instead point to ‘moral rules’ that shape expectations related to conforming to normative marriage age (104).

Table 3.2 Median age at first marriage by wealth quintile

Median age at first marriage [Women]: 25-49

Wealth quintile

Country Survey Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest

Bangladesh 2014 DHS 15.2 15.4 15.7 15.8 17.3

India 2005-06 DHS 16.3 16.4 16.9 17.8 19.8

Indonesia 2012 DHS 19.1 19.4 19.7 20.6 22.6

Cambodia 2014 DHS 20.3 20.0 20.2 20.4 21.6

Myanmar 2015-16 DHS 19.8 20.7 22.1 22.9

Nepal 2011 DHS 17.0 17.1 17.0 17.5 19.1

Philippines 2013 DHS 19.8 20.9 21.9 23.4

Pakistan 2012-13 DHS 17.8 18.6 19.2 20.2 22.1

Timor-Leste 2009-10 DHS 20.9 20.8 20.7 20.5 21.3

Sources: ICF International, 2015; The DHS Program STATcompiler. www.statcompiler.com. Accessed July 15, 2017.

Data for China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are not available in this data source.

• Why educate?: Girls are costly to raise, and marriage means one less mouth to feed. • Dowry: Parents have to pay higher dowries for older girls, lowering age at marriage. For very young brides in Bangladesh, dowry is low or sometimes waived entirely (Human Rights Watch (HRW) 2015). In Southeast Asian culture, the “bride price” is paid by the groom; dowry is relevant to the South Asian context only.

Environmental conditions and climate change have added additional economic pressure on families to marry their daughters early, especially poor families. CARE’s Tipping Point research in Nepal and Bangladesh documents the intense vulnerability of girls from families in flooded areas of Bangladesh and in remote mountains of Nepal (Karim et al, 2016). Research by Human Rights Watch (2015) reiterates the vulnerability of households in Bangladesh. Many marriages are driven by environmentally induced poverty. The dowry can be very low or waived altogether for very young girls, and these marriages can be sped up by environmental pressures. In several interviews, HRW was told that parents would sometimes insist on paying a dowry because they believed the transaction would increase the value accorded to their daughter and she would be treated better by her in-laws. Girls Not Brides synthesizes additional information on the impact of climate change in Bangladesh on child marriage here.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 37 The media play an important role in influencing families’ 3.5 Civil conflict/refugee and girls’ perceptions about marriage at an early age, and shaping girls’ expectations regarding marriage, circumstances and uncertainty schooling, and socialization with friends. The lack of role models also plays a role since their presence Early marriage is often perceived by families as signals the possibility of other pathways and alternate a protective measure and used as a community futures for girls. response to crisis (e.g., Myers, 2013 in Bangladesh). Fear of rape and sexual violence, of unwanted pre-marital pregnancies, of family shame and dishonour, 3.7 Weak legal frameworks and of homelessness and hunger or starvation were all reported by parents and children as legitimate reasons funding commitments for early marriage (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2016). Poverty, weak legislative frameworks and Legal frameworks are fundamental for establishing a enforcement, harmful traditional practices, gender shared social expectation regarding the appropriate discrimination and a lack of alternative opportunities timing of transition to marriage. But there are many for girls (especially education) are all major drivers ways in which these legal frameworks may be weak. of early marriage that are sharpened by the fear and anxiety symptomatic of fragile contexts. As a result, • No laws forbid child marriage or, if they do, they parents and girls resort to early marriage as a protection are not enforced. In India, for example, child against both real and perceived risks. marriage has been prohibited since the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929. In Cambodia a recent study on the lingering impact of • Existing laws are inconsistent. Any discussion of the genocide during the Khmer Rouge era suggests that weak legal frameworks must include a discussion children of people who were of a marriageable age at of contradictions related to statutory legislation. the time of the genocide and experienced the genocide In Indonesia, for example, the marriage law and intensely face disadvantages in both education and child protection laws do not support each other. physical growth (Islam et al, 2017). However, since In Indonesia the minimum age for marriage for girls difficulties in grade progression have been shown to is 16, and for boys it is 19, meaning that the legal be associated with early marriage in other settings (see framework contributes directly to supporting child Mensch et al 2017), this may be an important dynamic marriage. In this case the law itself is part of the to consider when trying to understand early marriage in problem, and advocacy is needed to change the law. the Cambodian context. The authors hypothesize that • Existing laws are only weakly enforced. India marriage markets may act to concentrate the adverse provides an illustration of a situation where the impact of conflict across generations. laws against early marriage and dowry have been on the books for years but for a variety of reasons, they are not enforced. 3.6 A lack of alternatives to • People are ignorant of the law: The laws forbidding child marriage are not known to the population. marriage • Co-existing and competing plural legal systems and the supremacy of customary law Can families envision a life for girls that does not undermine minimum age at marriage laws. involve marriage in childhood? The answer to this Customary law plays a key role in perpetuating question depends, in part, on the availability of child marriage (UN Special Representative of the services and circumstances that make an alternative Secretary-General on Violence Against Children life possible. Education, employment opportunities, Office). In addition, exceptions that give parents and public safety that make it possible for girls to the right to approve marriages undermine the access the services that are their right and entitlement national minimum age at marriage; this is are all often missing, especially in poor rural areas. In the case in Indonesia, for example. these settings, it verges on being pointless to inform • Weak birth registration impedes documentation people of the harms of early marriage, as they cannot of the age of girls and boys when they marry foresee a successful life course for their daughters and undermines enforcement of the law. Only where child marriage is not the centrepiece. about 60 percent of births and 57 percent of marriages in Nepal are registered, for example. When there are no good schools nearby and no jobs The government’s failure to register births and for women, young women may be pushed to marry marriages undermines efforts to prevent child earlier than they or their families might otherwise marriage, and one researcher refers to an “invisible prefer (e.g., Field and Ambrus, 2008 in Bangladesh; generation” (Panta, 2015). In Indonesia, as another Jensen, 2012 in India). This is partly a structural example, nine out of every ten child marriages problem, partly a lack of demand for higher quality involve girls and boys who do not have birth local services for girls, and partly a reflection of the certificates (Plan International Australia, 2014). constraints placed on girls in the context of gender inequality (for example a refusal to permit them the The limitations of the law and policy have been mobility to go to school in the next village). The analysed in this study. Beyond this, however, and underlying reasons leading to the lack of access even in settings where the most supportive legislation to basic services should be examined here in has been passed, the failure to allocate resources more detail. to ending child marriage remains a barrier.

38 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International/Vincent Tremeau

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 39 4. Consequences of child, early and forced marriage in Asia

Although many countries have not documented the more common among young, physically immature negative impact of child marriage in their specific mothers. A study in Pakistan found that women settings, this research draws from work in other settings with obstetric fistula were more likely to be first time to shed light on the consequences of child marriage mothers under the age of 20. An unrepaired fistula in Plan International’s focus countries in Asia. (The can lead to lifetime incontinence, pain and social information presented here focuses more on the lives isolation. Ninety percent of a small sample of Pakistani of girls, little has been written about the impact of early women with obstetric fistula reported that it had a marriage on the lives of boys). major impact on their lives, yet few had the knowledge or resources to seek a repair, and of those who did consult a doctor, three out of four had a failed repair 4.1 Maternal and child health (Jokhio et al, 2014).

Early marriage often leads to pregnancy and Child marriage is also associated with poorer maternal childbearing before the age of 18. In Bangladesh, nutrition, and higher rates of child mortality and stunting nearly one in four women (24.4 percent) aged among offspring. In Nepal, the infant of a mother under 20-24 had at least one live birth before the age of 18. the age of 18 years is 60 percent more likely to die in Adolescent births are linked to many adverse health its first year of life than an infant born to a mother older outcomes for both mother and infant. Complications than 19 years (Cousins, 2016). A World Bank analysis of pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading has estimated that if child marriage was eliminated cause of death among 15 to 19-year-old girls globally, globally, 2.1 million fewer child deaths and 3.6 million with nearly 70,000 deaths annually (UNFPA, 2013). fewer cases of stunting would occur between 2016 and Across 144 countries, maternal deaths are about one 2030, affecting an average of 140,000 children per year third higher among adolescent mothers aged 15 to (Wodon, Onogoruwa and John, 2017). Table 4.1shows 19 (260 deaths per 100,000 live births) compared to that in countries such as China and Sri Lanka, where 190 deaths per 100,000 live births among women births to adolescents are rare, maternal and infant who give birth between the ages of 20 and 24 years mortality are low in comparison to countries where (Nove et al, 2014; Mendez and Victora, 2014). In terms a significant percentage of adolescents have begun of pregnancy-related morbidity, obstetric fistulas are childbearing (are pregnant or have given birth).

40 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Table 4.1 Measures of sexual and reproductive health among adolescents

Percentage of Percentage of 15-19 adolescents Country MMR/100,000 IMR/1,000 year-olds with unmet who have begun contraceptive need childbearing* Bangladesh 30.8 176 38 17 Cambodia 12.0 161 26 16 China 27 11 India 16.0 174 40 27 Indonesia 9.5 126 30 7 Laos 197 55 Myanmar 5.9 178 61 Nepal 16.7 258 33 42 Pakistan 7.9 178 67 15 Philippines 10.1 114 22 29 Sri Lanka 30 8 Thailand 20 10 6 Timor-Leste 7.2 215 45 27 Vietnam 3.4 34 15

*Adolescents who are pregnant or have given birth. Source: ICF International, 2015; The DHS Program. Accessed 15/7/2017; Guttmacher Institute, 2017. MMR: Maternal Mortality Ratio: Deaths per 100,000 live births. IMR: Infant Mortality Rate. Deaths in the first year of life. Unmet need for contraception: A woman wants to prevent or delay a birth by two years but is not using contraception.

Young brides lack the ability to negotiate safe sex, the use of contraception or to practice birth spacing. 4.2 Violence A large national survey in India found that child marriage was significantly associated with a lack of While girls are often married off by parents who have use of contraception before first birth, higher fertility, the intention of protecting their daughters, physical closely spaced births, and multiple unwanted and sexual abuse is often perpetrated against child pregnancies (Raj, Saggurti et al, 2010). The unmet brides by their husbands. Early and forced marriage need for contraception is as high as 42 percent of has been described as a “reservoir” of sexual abuse 15 to 19-year-old married girls in Nepal. These married and exploitation in which young married women have women would like to prevent or delay (next) birth by little or no power over how they are treated. It has at least two years but are not using contraception. In been argued that marriage legitimizes acts such as Bangladesh, a qualitative study found that more than non-consensual sex that would be crimes outside of a third of young married women had no knowledge of marriage (ECPAT International and Plan International, contraception or ways to avoid pregnancy and some 2015). Girls forced in to early marriage experience lacked any basic knowledge of sex and reproduction higher rates of intimate partner violence than women (MacQuarrie et al, 2016). who marry between the ages of 20 and 24. Among Plan International countries with available data, Bangladesh Children of less well-educated, often young, mothers has the highest percentage of married women aged 15 are less likely to be well-nourished and immunized to 19 who have experienced physical or sexual violence against childhood diseases and more likely to die committed by their husband/partner. The Bangladesh than those of more well-educated mothers (Smith Bureau of Statistics’ Report on Violence against Women and Haddan, 2015). Children born to young mothers Survey 2015 found that 34 percent of all girls aged 10 are more likely to be stunted. In Bangladesh, children to 14 and nearly 40 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 had under 12 months born to mothers aged 15 to 17 had 44 been raped at least once (U.S. Department of State percent lower height for age scores than children born Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016). to mothers aged 18 to 25. In India, the figure was 40 A study in Tamil Nadu, India found that more than half to 60 percent, suggesting that 10 to 20 percent of all of women married before the age of 15 experienced stunting could be prevented by ending child marriage physical violence (Singh and Anand, 2015). (Yu, et al, 2016).

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 41 Table 4.2 Percentage of married women aged Among women who had experienced physical or sexual 15-19 who have experienced physical or sexual violence, as shown at table 4.2, the majority of women violence by their husbands in the four surveys agreed that they were afraid of their husbands “most of the time”. The four countries for which this data are available are Cambodia, 77.7 percent; Percentage of Myanmar, 67.5 percent; Nepal, 70.6 percent; and the 15-19 year-old Philippines 76.8 percent (recent DHS surveys). A study Country women who have in the U.S. found that girls married as children suffer experienced violence from depression, severe isolation and emotional in marriage violence in their homes, and women who married as Bangladesh 47.3 children were more likely than women who married as adults to receive treatment for any psychiatric Cambodia 7.1 illness during their lives (Le Strat, Dubertret and Indonesia 30.6 Le Foll, 2011). Psychiatric treatment for depression and other psychological ailments is not an option Myanmar 24.0 for many poor women married as children in less Nepal 21.4 developed countries. Philippines 16.5 Timor-Leste 29.8 4.4 Education

Source: DHS surveys. The impact of child marriage on education plays out in several ways. It is well established that girls who are poorly educated are more likely to be married as The “violence” module used in a growing number children. Demographic and Health Survey data from of countries as part of the Demographic and Health 78 countries shows that between 2000 and 2010, Survey questions women and men about the 63 percent of women aged 20 to 24 with little or no circumstances under which a husband is “justified” in education were married by the age of 18 compared beating his wife: 1) she goes out without telling him; to 20 percent of women with secondary education 2) she neglects the children; 3) she argues with him; 4) (Loaiza and Wong, 2012). As figure 4.1 for Bangladesh she refuses to have sex with him; and 5) she burns the illustrates, age at marriage is higher for those with food. In Bangladesh and the Philippines, women are higher levels of education. Here, however, only more likely than men to believe that beating is justified women with higher education are typically spared in one or more of these circumstances. In the Punjab from child marriage. and Sindh regions of Pakistan, 49 and 40 percent of married women respectively aged 15 to 49 agreed with Girls drop out of school in order to get married. In at least one of these reasons as a justification for wife Nepal, nearly one in three girls (32 percent) aged 12 beating. Men’s justification for wife beating is highest to 17 indicated that child marriage was the reason in Timor-Leste, where a very violent political history they dropped out of school (Wodon, Nguyen, Yedan appears now to contribute to violence against women et al, 2017). Early marriage curtails the opportunity for and children (Abbas and Ria, 2016). A recent analysis completing school as well as any future prospects for of DHS data on women aged 15-49 from Bangladesh, schooling and earnings. Nepal, India and Pakistan found that women who married at younger ages were more likely to experience The earlier a girl drops out of school, the greater violence than women who married later (Macquarrie, the effect child marriage has on her educational 2016). Violence in marriage has repercussions for attainment. Each year of marriage before the age of 18 mental and physical health, confidence, autonomy and can decrease the probability that a girl will complete other measures of social well-being. secondary school by 4 to 6 percent (Nyugen and Wodon, 2015). In South Asia, the effect of marrying at age 12 or earlier is a 24 percent reduction in the 4.3 Psychological impact likelihood of completing school as compared to girls who marry at age 18 or older. For girls married at 17, Globally, depression is a major and growing cause the likelihood of completing school is reduced by 4.9 of disability and a precursor to suicide and self-harm percent. And, conversely, the longer a girl stays in (Ferrai, 2013). A study on the causes of death among school, the lower the probability that she will marry young people worldwide showed that in the WHO below the age of 18. For every additional year a Southeast Asia region, the number of injury-related girl spends in school, her probability of marrying is deaths among young women, particularly from reduced by 4 percent in Bangladesh and Nepal and fire-related deaths and suicide, is significant, and noted 3 percent in Pakistan (Wodon, Nguyen, Yedan and that the role of violence from family members in many Edmeades, 2017). Increased education has often been cases was an important precursor. Self-inflicted injuries proposed as the solution to ending child marriage, but, were the second leading cause of death (after maternal as the Bangladesh chart above illustrates, even with causes) among women aged 15 to 19 and 20 to 24 in increased education, and fewer women with little or this region (Patton, et al. 2009). In Afghanistan, child no education, most girls continue to marry below the marriage is identified as a key factor in causing women age of 18. to self-immolate (Khanna, Verma and Weiss, 2013).

42 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Figure 4.1 Age at marriage in Bangladesh by level of education, 1993-2014

15 No education

Primary 10 Secondary

5 Higher

0 1993 1996 1999 2004 2007 2011 2014

Bangladesh DHS Year

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 43 If children are exposed to less education as a result opportunity costs of having children at a given time, the of their mother having married very early, they may economic activities of boys and girls, the economics of experience disadvantages themselves, related to family formation and the costs of marrying a daughter both their health and education. Studies in Nepal or son, and the roles girls and boys play in supporting and Bangladesh uphold this association of the parents in their old age. In summarizing the literature, intergenerational impact of child marriage (Choe, 2005; the Ware study (1978) showed that the economic Bates et al, 2007). Although data and analyses on the circumstances of families determine to a large part intergenerational impacts of child marriage are only their calculations of the value of their children and their available for some country settings, it can be assumed willingness (and ability) to invest in them. that this intergenerational effect is present across the 14 country settings in this report. Women married as children also tend to have more children over their lifetime. Eliminating child marriage While the evidence is very limited, child marriage can would reduce population growth by 21 percent per have a negative effect on boys’ schooling as well. year in Bangladesh, 8 percent per year in Nepal and In general, boys are not required to leave school as 2 percent per year in Pakistan. This would increase consistently as girls when they marry. Evidence from the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the the United States shows that in instances where boys poor would especially benefit (Wodon, Onagoruwa, support partners or babies they are likely to experience Yedan et al, 2017). reduced school attainment with lasting economic effects (Greene and Merrick 2015). Child marriage also has an economic impact due to the increase in the likelihood of stunting among children of adolescent mothers. Stunted children have 20 to 4.5 Economic impact 25 percent lower earnings as adults. The estimated economic benefit of ending child marriage would mean The economic benefits of ending child marriage are an increase globally in purchasing power parity (PPP) often seen through the lens of education and its effect of $US41.6 billion in 2016 as child mortality decreased, on later earnings. For women who marry as children, a and $US9.1 billion as stunting decreased. Globally, lack of engagement in the labour force has long-term ending both child marriage and early childbirth would implications for the girls themselves and their families, increase these economic benefits to between $US56 and also at the community and societal level (Chaaban and $US109 billion annually (Wodon, Onogoruwa and and Cunningham, 2011). Recent studies by the World John, 2017). Bank and the ICRW have estimated the economic impacts of child marriage through several channels and provide a strong economic rationale for countries 4.6 Fertility and the to end child marriage (Parsons et al 2015). In terms of the effect of child marriage on labour force participation intergenerational effects of and earnings, ending child marriage in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan would result in gains in earnings by early childbearing girls, who otherwise married early, ranging from 11.85 percent in Bangladesh to 13.28 percent in Pakistan. The South Asia differs from other parts of the world in that aggregated gross national income from these increased sexual intercourse still occurs mostly within marriage. earnings are substantial: $US4.8 billion in Bangladesh, As a consequence, marriage marks the beginning of $US710 million in Nepal and $US6.3 billion in Pakistan the period over which a woman will be exposed to (Wodon, Savadogo and Kes (2017). A report on the the risk of pregnancy. Early marriage means a longer economic impact of child marriage in Indonesia (Rabi, period of potential childbearing and thus potentially 2015) indicates that if girls were to marry after the age a greater number of children. Even, however, as of 20, the increase in schooling and in earning capacity adolescents, girls may experience lower fertility than would mean that cash flow would increase by up they do in their twenties. Various studies have shown to 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product, which that girls who marry as children have higher fertility is significant. over their lifetimes (in Nepal, see Adhikari, 2010; in Bangladesh, see Nahar et al, 2013; in India, young The economic value of girls and boys is contingent women who marry early and have several children are on the opportunities that are available to them and likely to be sterilized in their early twenties as Raj et that they are permitted to pursue. To what extent can al, 2009 found). Higher fertility likely occurs through a this be changed? It would be useful to have more number of mechanisms, including a greater demand information on the views of boys and their families of for children on the part of husbands and in-laws, less child marriage, and the varying economic value of boys reproductive control, shorter birth intervals and more to their families and how this varies by marital status. unwanted pregnancies (Godha et al, 2013). The short Many of the interesting studies on the economic value interval between generations that occurs from early of boys and girls to their families in Asia were written marriage and childbearing means that child marriage in the 1970s and 1980s, when there was a special has an impact on the aggregate level of fertility and interest in understanding the connections between the growth of a country’s population. this value and fertility. A major cross-cultural study on the value of children in Asia was conducted by the Research suggests that raising the age at marriage East-West Institute (Arnold and Fawcett, 1975; Ware, could have a significant impact on a number of health 1978). The most important themes for understanding outcomes as well as cumulative fertility. Raj and their economic value are the costs of childrearing, the Boehmer (2013), for example, conducted simulations

44 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia using data from 97 countries and found that a 10 much opportunity to develop her knowledge, percent increase in girl child marriage could be skills and confidence. Restricted to her domestic associated with a 3 percent increase in the infant role and limited in her mobility, she is prevented mortality rate, a 0.3 percent increase in the total from access to her friends and peers, and often fertility rate, a 70 percent increase in the maternal sufficiently isolated that it may harm her mental mortality ratio, and a 10 percent decrease in skilled health (Greene, 2014). Child marriage, with its birth attendance. association of a lack of education, exposure to violence and other consequences, contributes to reducing young women’s empowerment, and 4.7 Girls’ well-being and social this continues throughout their lifetimes (Lee-Rife 2010). The social consequences build on one and civic participation another, reinforcing girls’ and women’s limited social and human capital, harming their health Girls’ opportunities and self-determination are and that of their children, and keeping them in sharply constrained by child marriage. The fact the domestic sphere away from civic life and that married girls tend to have less education, opportunities to contribute to their communities. whatever the causal relationships that bring this about, has implications for their well-being A final note on consequences: Although data (UNICEF 2016), their status within their families on divorce are not readily available for a number (Malhotra, 2012), their social networks, their of countries in this study, data from Indonesia adherence to rigid gender norms (Bongaarts suggests that divorce rates are higher for women et al 2017), and their social and civic participation. married before the age of 18 (Badan Pusat Statistik and UNICEF, 2016). This is a consequence of Adolescence is a period of personal development, child marriage that deserves a more systematic but if the emphasis in a girl’s life is on her domestic analysis around the world. tasks and parenthood, she may not be afforded

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 45 5. Efforts to prevent child, early and forced marriage in Asia

What are the most promising options to end and mitigate child marriage in Asia?

The analytic framework for this section, and throughout this report, is based on Plan International’s Theory of Change on child marriage. The framework provides the backdrop and rationale for the actions and outcomes, discussed below, needed to end the practice of CEFM.

Figure 5.1 Dimensions of change for ending CEFM, drawn from Plan International’s Theory of Change for ending CEFM

1. Social Norms, 2. Policy Attitudes, Frameworks and Behaviours, and Budgets Relations

3. Social and Economic Resources and Safety Nets

Plan’s Theory of Change to end child marriage emphasizes the interconnectedness of three major areas. These areas determine the discussion on programme options and the recommendations that follow.

a. Social Norms, Attitudes, Behaviours, and Relations - requiring interventions at various levels to change norms, attitudes behaviours and relations. b. Policy Frameworks and Budgets - requiring the engagement of government at various levels to promote policies and investments to end child marriage. c. Social and Economic Resources and Safety Nets – calling for the provision of services to support and empower girls, including economic opportunities that shift traditional incentives for early marriage.

This section focuses on examples of programme interventions that have been implemented in each of these areas.

46 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia The most critical of these coincident changes seem 5.1 Community level: Social to be education, economic opportunities, exposure to norms, attitudes, behaviours new ideas and political and social mobilization. and relations Central to shifting gender-related social norms is to offer women greater economic opportunities An important focus, especially in recent years, (Kabeer et al, 2013). This is discussed at greater has been on opportunities to work with families, length later in this report. Changes within the garment communities and local leaders to change gendered industry in Bangladesh provide an example of the social norms at the grassroots level. As experts ways that ‘external’ forces can contribute to shifts in on social norms have pointed out, however, child gender-related behaviours long viewed as immutable. marriage is often a result of a complex range of Economic opportunities for adolescent and young circumstances and influences. Norms are important women in garment factories have enabled both but changing the factors that perpetuate child greater personal mobility and improved financial marriage entails more systemic understanding and security. At the same time, these gains seem not to integrated interventions. A recent, authoritative have dramatically shifted expectations about the review states: appropriate timing of girls’ marriages. (Amin et al, 1998). Long-lasting changes in these values and Our study suggests that improving girls’ expectations entail resetting social patterns that well-being requires providing information discriminate against girls from birth, shaping their about the consequences of harmful norms identities and confining their aspirations. while creating safe spaces for community members to come together to question A key implication for programme responses is that existing norms, expand personal capacities the disadvantages girls face are a social product and aspirations, and reimagine existing – meaning they are the outcome of the ideas and relationships. Successful projects do not only actions of women and men, and girls and boys across work with girls, but also include boys, women, societies and communities. Creating better outcomes and men in their families and in the community for girls therefore necessarily entails engaging more at large. Interventions that fail to include the inclusively across genders, age and social groups. entire social network might increase girls’ “It is imperative to...[overcome the norms that] put a capacity to resist social expectations but would higher value on boys and encourage parents not to not achieve durable change in those social invest in educating a girl because she is viewed as expectations — possibly increasing, rather paraya dhan or belonging to someone else” (Singh than reducing, harm and violence. Successful and Vennam 2016). interventions have an integrated approach; that is, they address the factors other than social Address sexuality norms that result in gender inequality, including the economic and legal circumstances that Girls’ and women’s lack of choice regarding their contribute to sustaining harmful practices and sexuality is a core aspect of patriarchy and its behaviours (Vaitla et al, 2017). gendered power disparities (Greene, Perlson and Hart 2017). With the advent of the Sustainable In summary, this perspective highlights the need Development Goals (SDGs), the world has been given for “practical solutions” grounded in multi-sector an opportunity to strengthen the ways in which the strategies to address the root causes of gender community of donors, policymakers, and practitioners disparities discussed in Section 3. The causes of engage in the struggle to end gender inequality. To gender inequalities are complex and disparate and are improve girls lives sexuality must be addressed (see usually best addressed with multi-sector interventions. Report: Expert working meeting on sexuality and Changing mindsets about appropriate roles, child, early and forced marriage (CEFM)). The reality, relationships and opportunities for girls requires an however, is that waves of development interventions expanded set of approaches and tactics. These may aimed at gender inequality and girls and women’s range from legal measures such as birth registration rights and empowerment have largely remained silent to economic actions such as cash transfers or to on sexuality. educational initiatives and inter-generational or peer-to-peer discussion groups. By ‘addressing sexuality’ programmes must take into account what is known about family and community Support the evolution of gender-related views of girls’ and boys’ sexual lives. Sexuality is social norms central to marriage. Concern with the proper management of girls’ sexuality limits how girls are viewed, their life prospects and shapes the nature An analysis of the literature on norms by Marcus et al of marriage. Sexuality seems like a high-potential (2014) highlights the importance of ‘large-scale drivers’ and also high-risk area of intervention. Traditional of gender norm change, by which they mean shifts in interventions may well have avoided sexuality for economic opportunity, education, communications, good reason. But efforts to end child marriage may and legal frameworks. Additional drivers of change stagnate if no attempt is made to think and talk include social reforms, cultural change, political about the social ideas about girls and boys and mobilization and resolving conflict. They found that their sexual relationships and roles that drive the significant shifts in gender norms and relations have practice of child marriage. typically been driven by several factors simultaneously.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 47 © Plan International

Disseminate strategic public communications Livelihood-centred activities to empower girls provided a base to communicate messages about Building broad public awareness and support to gender-based discrimination. In Nepal, CARE’s end child marriage is important to the sustainability Chunauti project used behaviour change strategies of short-term interventions to eliminate child including mass media, peer education and celebrity marriage. Bouman et al (2017) make the case for endorsements to challenge existing norms and using theory-based entertainment-education as a advocate for the establishment and enforcement of complementary strategy to build such support. Such laws and policies against child marriage. These efforts approaches can have high initial costs, especially significantly improved knowledge on the harmful effects given the formative research needed to develop of child marriage among parents, adolescent boys and appropriate and high-quality content. But these girls in three districts. Social mobilization included the strategies can be cost-effective in terms of producing development of child marriage eradication committees, lasting normative change on a mass scale. For example, forums addressing gender-based violence, and the Population Foundation of India, based in Delhi, children’s clubs which raised awareness about child developed a primetime television series challenging marriage at the community level and advocated for the discrimination that women face in India. Reaching law reinforcement at the district and national level. 58 million viewers, pre- and post-evaluations showed a significant increased awareness of the adverse Promote family and community discussion consequences of child marriage and a rise in the ideal age for a woman to have her first child. Save the Children’s Voices, Choices and Promises series (2011; 2013) used a variety of behaviour Other profiled programmes include Breakthrough change communication strategies to help parents, (Nation against Early Marriage) in Bihar and Jharkhand, communities, girls and boys understand the benefits India, which uses videos highlighting the role of fathers, of gender equality and the harmful consequences of among others, and Bedari in Pakistan, where radio child marriage. Choices was a curriculum for 10 to and street theatre programmes raise awareness of 14-year-olds aimed at improving opportunities and child marriage and the need for new legislation. In aspirations among children and advocating for girls a qualitative study of the effectiveness of different to remain in school. An evaluation by Georgetown communications strategies targeting adolescent University’s Institute for Reproductive Health found girls in the Kailali district of Nepal, Samuels and a significant positive impact of the programme in Ghirme (2015) found that street dramas, girls’ clubs creating more gender equitable attitudes. Significantly and radio programmes were all effective in changing fewer boys and girls felt that domestic violence was discriminatory social norms. acceptable and significantly more believed that girls should have the same chances as boys to go to These communications were most effective school and to work outside the home. The companion when they focused on girls, boys and parents. programme, Promises, targeted parents and community

48 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia members with the aim of influencing more gender marriage, Walker (2015) found that while it is important equitable behaviours towards their children, along to engage with religious leaders in discussions about with keeping girls in school, delaying marriage, and family law reform and women’s empowerment, success reducing gender-based violence. In the field-tested is not a given. Religious leaders tend to support communication strategy, posters, based on the keeping girls in school and delaying marriage but feel communities’ input and expressed aspirations, constrained by their own conservative societies from were prominently displayed to encourage dialogue. publicly supporting the age of 18 as the minimum age These approaches are useful to consider as a of marriage. In a Plan International report in Niger (2013) consciousness-raising strategy when working described as “perhaps the best case for engaging at the community level. Muslim scholars in the fight to end child marriage,” it was noted that religion and tradition are often used to In the interest of challenging intractable social norms insulate and sanction child marriage practices. such as child marriage and gender-based violence, CARE (2017) developed and tested new social norm Work with men and boys measures based on Bicchieri’s synthesis of social norms theory (Bicchier, 2006). Bichhieri proposes that In almost all contexts addressing the attitudes of male social norms are held in place both by empirical (what family and community members regarding child marriage I think others do) and normative (what I think others and the role of masculinity in shaping these attitudes is expect me to do) expectations. A difference between fundamentally important (Greene et al 2015). The review empirical and normative expectations suggests a point here of interventions that currently work with men and of entry to challenge existing normative behaviour. boys looks at what can be built upon more systematically CARE followed Bicchieri’s recommendation to develop in future work on child marriage. It is rather remarkable vignettes or short stories about imaginary characters that regarding the institution of marriage, so little has followed by guided questions to ascertain whether been done to address the role of men and boys, whose a norm existed, and how norms were influencing power and control of decision-making and resources is behaviours. This work was developed in Ethiopia and so central to maintaining the status quo. Sri Lanka. CARE’s research offers some insights on understanding and changing behaviour around social Men and boys must be included if efforts to challenge norms that is worth considering in locations where child patriarchal social norms are to be sustained beyond marriage norms have been very slow to change. the duration of any intervention. Traditional male understandings of ‘what it means to be a man’ and Work with faith communities of the roles embedded within that understanding – brother, husband, father, partner – are often identified The relationship between child marriage and faith can as constraints for more equitable gender relations. change depending on the community and the ways Programme models are emerging that support shifts that norms relating to child marriage are addressed. along various paths towards more equitable and While child marriage is more common among Muslims mutually beneficial roles and relationships between in many settings, there is considerable variation in men and women. Often these programmes emphasize marriage rates among adherents that is shaped by other the incentives for men to be more caring, respectful, local factors driving child marriage – often including supportive, and non-violent, and to share decision- poverty. Islamic faith leaders have been successfully making prerogatives, household assets and domestic engaged in efforts to retain girls in school and delay duties more fairly. marriage (Gemignani and Wodon, 2015). Engaging with faith-based organizations, faith communities and The values and expectations people carry throughout faith leaders can help build support for policies that their adult lives are often inculcated at very young ages, seek to eliminate child marriage and can help address making it essential to engage adolescents and young the needs of married girls who are often overlooked women to challenge gender norms that are against their in interventions focused on preventing child marriage interests or well-being. The same rationale applies to (Karam, 2015). the values and expectations held by men and boys, who should be engaged across age groups to support Engaging religious leaders to speak out against child ending child marriage. marriage can be an important strategy to support families in deciding not to marry their daughters The association between fathers’ attitudes and sons’ early. In Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in marriage-related behaviours are independent of the collaboration with the Population Council and UNFPA, association between mothers’ attitudes and sons’ went a step further, developing key messages about behaviours, suggesting that interventions that target issues including HIV/AIDS, and opposing early marriage parents separately could be worthwhile (Jennings et al and female genital mutilation, to incorporate into church 2012). Specifically, “fathers’ positive attitudes towards teachings and promote new social norms (Mekbib et al, sons’ care of elderly parents speed marriage timing, 2012). Although the evaluation of the “Developmental while mothers’ positive attitudes slow sons’ marriage Bible” showed mixed results in terms of influencing timing” (Jennings et al 2012: 940). The authors’ attitudes towards early marriage, greater success in interpretation is that fathers want a daughter-in-law to changing knowledge and attitudes about HIV suggests help with caregiving, while mothers are fearful for the the potential for training and facilitating religious leaders relationship they have with their sons and hesitate to as agents of social change. bring a new wife into the household. Given that parents and siblings have such a key role in determining when However, in a study examining programmes that girls gets married, it is important to change current involved Muslim religious leaders in efforts to end child mindsets, which see the future role of girls as being

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 49 limited to ‘wives, daughters and mothers’, and to use In 61 countries, girls are allowed to be married at positive role models in the community to influence younger ages than boys; in 52 countries, the age prevailing notions of entrenched patriarchy (Singh disparity is two to four years. Countries in which strong and Vennam 2016). protective laws exist but are not adequately enforced include Bangladesh, which has a legal minimum age of marriage of 18 without any permitted exceptions, 5.2 Policy frameworks but the rate of marriage for girls between 15 and 19 has hardly changed in 20 years (51.3 percent in and budgets 1991 versus 45.7 percent in 2011). Compliance with marriage registration policies is important to ensure Numerous policies can influence child marriage, directly that marriages are legally recognized so that girls do and indirectly, including minimum age at marriage laws, not lose their marital rights (Arthur et al, 2015), which education policies, child protection guidelines, gender is particularly important in the case of the death of a equality-related laws and policies and public safety. spouse, divorce or abandonment. What is the situation in regard to national and regional laws and policies in Asia? National plans for addressing Support laws that convey new standards and child marriage vary hugely in type and scope. There parameters regarding child marriage is almost certainly no cross-country consistency or universal metric to measure how effective they are. In Nepal, 10 percent of girls are married by the age Instead, they are sorted here by the domain that of 15. Based on interviews with 149 key informants, they attempt to address. primarily married girls, Human Rights Watch (2016) recommended that Nepal’s existing child marriage Support laws that convey new expectations law be reformed to make it more effective. “Reforms regarding child marriage should: 1) include tougher punishments for those who arrange or conduct child marriages; 2) remove There is strong interest in understanding the impact provisions that discriminate based on gender; of legal mechanisms to change overarching norms 3) establish a requirement that anyone conducting or and acceptance. The review undertaken for this registering a marriage verify the age of the spouses; report indicates that legal mechanisms are singularly 4) provide support services and compensation to ineffective in changing norms and acceptance. Strictly victims of child marriage; and 5) increase the statute legal responses to child marriage have been found to of limitations for legal action regarding a child backfire in a number of settings including India and marriage until the married child reaches at least Ethiopia. In India, for example, the law is punitive – the age of 21.” the law treats girls as the sole victims, punishing boys/young men by putting them in a juvenile home Singh and Vennam 2016 assert that the: and arresting parents, thus separating girls from their “Enforcement of existing laws within an enabling families. Anyone can make a complaint, bringing the environment is critical. It is important that existing police onto the scene. Girls may not want to marry laws to curb girls getting married during adolescence early but rarely go against their parent’s wishes. A are enforced within an enabling framework, so that punitive legal approach does not seem appropriate all avenues – legal, economic and political – support and has unintended negative consequences for girls young girls and ensure that they are provided and their families. with the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Structural barriers need to be identified and culturally Laws alone are not the answer. Despite laws to prevent appropriate systems evolved that support the smooth child marriage in many of the countries where child transition of girls from secondary schools and higher marriage is common, rates globally have declined little education into the job market. Only if girls become over the past ten years. While strengthening birth and financially independent will they be able to take marriage registration systems makes it easier to enforce crucial decisions that affect their entire future, child marriage legislation by being able to prove a such as choosing their marriage partner.” girls’ age at marriage, registration systems also enable targeted programmes and services to the neglected One challenge to the enforcement of progressive laws girls who are already married (Machel, et al. 2013). is that there are often competing customary laws The evidence on the impact of registration on child that undermine civil law. In Pakistan, discriminatory marriage is limited, however, and there is no concrete practices under Shari’a law, such as giving a child assessment of its impact on education or child marriage in marriage to settle a dispute, persist in tribal areas in this report. Although the percentage of countries that and in the Punjab, despite a 2004 Act prohibiting the allow child marriage has decreased, exceptions based practice. The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices on religious or customary law allow girls in 33 countries (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2011, resulting from a to be legally married before the age of 18. struggle by women’s rights organizations, is described as “a milestone in the history of women’s rights Most children marry with parental consent. Considering in Pakistan.” The law penalizes early and forced both parental consent and religious or customary law, marriages, as well as the wrongful denial of inherited 31 percent of countries allow girls to be married at property for women. However, as responses to the the age of 15 (World Policy Analysis Center, 2015). previous law show, concerted efforts are needed to Girls are also subject to marital age discrimination. enforce the new law (Abbas and Ria, 2012).

50 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International

Encourage and adopt multi-sectoral or Global and regional policies can also play integrated policies and programmes important roles

Nepal has a new National Strategy to End Child The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly Marriage as part of meeting the Sustainable reference harmful practices – including child marriage Development Goal to end child marriage by 2030. and female genital mutilation – that stand in the way of In a country where girls are still considered an the achievement of gender equality and the realization economic burden, Indu Ghimire, Gender Advisor of girls’ rights. This has created an opportunity to at CARE Nepal, said a multi-sectoral approach, shape national implementation plans that have and will which includes addressing poverty, caste issues, continue to follow from the SDGs as countries report gender-based violence, and cultural norms, is back on their progress in this area. necessary (Cousins, 2016). The new strategy incorporates six pillars: the empowerment of In 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council girls and adolescents; quality education for girls unanimously adopted the first-ever substantial and adolescents; engaging boys, adolescents, resolution to strengthen efforts to prevent and eliminate and men; mobilizing families and communities; child, early and forced marriage. Such marriages were improving access to services; and strengthening declared a violation of human rights. The resolution and implementing laws and policies in line with calls for national action plans on child marriage and international human rights standards. The law must encourages member states to work with civil society to be harmonized with other provisions including those develop and implement a “holistic, comprehensive and for property rights, gender-based violence, divorce, coordinated response to address child marriage and annulment, marital rape, dowry, birth registration, and support married girls.” The resolution was adopted by citizenship (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2016). 85 member states. In 2017, the Human Rights Council passed a similar resolution to end child marriage in Given that dowry rises with a girl’s age in a way that humanitarian settings (www.girlsnotbrides.org). drives age at marriage downward, it may make sense to build a campaign against the practice of dowry United Nations treaty monitoring bodies call for in the countries of South Asia where it is prevalent, governments to address girls’ limited access to health something akin to a public health campaign like services and reproductive health information; ensure those that have been linked to preventing HIV (Singh access to adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive and Vennam 2016). Since dowry continues to have a health services; raise awareness about the negative negative impact on both girls and boys, the latter often effects of child marriage; address gender-based violence have to take out large loans to pay for their sisters’ arising from child marriage; establish a minimum age marriages, and is a major cause of girls being married of marriage of 18 in all domestic law; enforce and to the first male who makes ‘reasonable demands’, strengthen existing legislation; and improve birth and it is critical to build a campaign against this practice. marriage registration to curb the practice of child ‘Dowry-free blocks and districts’ should be declared marriage (Khan et al. 2013). Child marriage violates many and celebrated in countries. There is little research rights that are recognized in the individual constitutions on the practice of bride price in the East Asian region of a number of states. These include rights to equality and the extent to which altering this practice in these and non-discrimination, the right to dignity, the right countries would reduce early marriage. to life and health, the right to education, the right to

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 51 freedom from slavery and exploitation, and the right to rural households. Vulnerable girls living in the poorest personal liberty and privacy. “Personal” religious and households, especially in rural areas, require a special customary laws violate these rights as does parental empowerment focus, as they experience the highest rates consent as a substitute for a girl’s consent to marriage of child marriage. The expansion of the Mahatma Gandhi (Shah et al. 2013). National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and crop insurance will provide the poorest families with the means Advocate for and facilitate the implementation to retain children in schools and not pull them into paid of laws and systems on the books work from an early age (Singh and Vennam 2016).

The Center for Reproductive Rights calls on South A replication of Building Resources Across Asian governments to take a multifaceted approach to Communities (BRAC) Empowerment and Livelihood eliminating child marriage and addressing adolescent for Adolescents (ELA) in Uganda shows the impact pregnancy as a consequence of child marriage and of addressing information gaps and providing a leading cause of maternal mortality. The “wholly income-generating opportunities (Bandiera et al, 2012): inadequate” response to child marriage by South “The programme offers some promise to policymakers, Asian governments reflects their “overwhelming lack of as a low cost and scalable intervention that enables accountability and political will” to eliminate the practice adolescent girls to improve their life outcomes. The and address violations of reproductive rights and the gains from a twin-pronged ELA-style programme are right to be free from sexual violence that girls experience especially acute among adolescent girl populations, as a result of early marriage. Through its district wide who face constrained labour markets as well as the approach, Plan International Bangladesh has linked norms of early marriage and childbirth.” together the empowerment of girls, the engagement of their community leaders and families, activities to Save the Children USA’s Kishoree Kontho is one of the empower girls economically, and the engagement of the largest adolescent empowerment programmes ever entire government machinery. They have met with success implemented in a developing country. The programme in two sub-districts of Dinajpur, for example, raising the experimented with life skills, financial education, and age at marriage measurably between 2010 and 2016. incentives (cooking oil) to delay marriage among 15,739 girls. An evaluation of the programme by the Poverty Action Lab found that girls eligible for the incentive 5.3 Social and economic for at least two years were 25 percent less likely to be married before the age of 18, 16 percent less likely resources and safety nets to have given birth and 24 percent more likely to be in school at the age of 22. Girls living in communities The third core are of Plan International’s Theory of which were randomized to receive a six-month Change addresses some of the drivers and root causes empowerment programme did not have lower rates of of CEFM, including financial drivers and the provision child marriage or childbearing but were 10 percent more of other safety nets. It needs to be determined whether likely to be in school (Buchmann et al, 2017). focusing on providing financial options for families can mitigate against CEFM. These interventions should be Promote rights education and social networking conducted as part of an integrated strategy, not as a standalone activity. A similar programme of Balikas or girls’ collectives in Andhra Pradesh, India, supported by UNICEF, Based on its work in India, where education, income has enabled girls to learn about their rights to avoid and caste are the key predictors of child marriage, marriage and about the dangers of early pregnancy and ICRW concluded that improving girls’ access to childbirth, and has helped girls to avoid forced marriage information, opportunities and life options through life (Chatterjee, 2011). In its multi-pronged approach, skills and livelihood training raises their aspirations UNICEF works with the government on child marriage beyond early marriage and motherhood and increases issues, builds community support among youth groups, their ability to negotiate key decisions with their women’s groups, and school children, and supports parents. Working directly with parents and particularly efforts to raise awareness of the harmful consequences fathers is crucial. Programmes must deal with the of child marriage among key actors such as marriage underlying social norms around sexuality and chastity hall owners and religious and community leaders. An and address the pervasive parental fear that daughters estimated 400 early marriages were prevented through will be sexually violated or become pregnant before such efforts in 17 districts during a recent May-June marriage. Girls are often severely constrained in their wedding season. Plan International has endorsed ability to spend time outside the home, whether to engaging, educating and mobilizing parents, and socialize or to participate in civic life. Parents may providing safe spaces and forums for girls to help them favour delaying marriage but are unwilling to go against become agents of change on their own behalf as part of community social norms. Programmes must address a comprehensive action plan to address child marriage these underlying fears, gain the trust of parents and (Davis et al, 2013). offer safe spaces for girls (ICRW, 2008). The Population Council’s “BALIKA: Bangladeshi Support income generation for girls and Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for their families Adolescents” project aimed to address the key needs of adolescent girls and provide programmatic evidence A clear recommendation emerging from the of what works to delay marriage in Bangladesh (Amin programmatic literature is to target the poorest and et al, 2016). A baseline survey found that adolescent

52 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 53 girls were socially isolated, had very few opportunities and cultural specificity of child, early and forced to earn an income or learn a skill, or to develop social marriage make ‘best practices’ difficult to distil. As networks or participate in civic life. By offering a safe yet there don’t seem to be universal ‘good practices’, place to meet other girls, socialize, and acquire desired and to the extent that there are pretty well-established skills under the supervision of supportive adults and advocacy pathways across a number of country mentors, BALIKA centres aimed to fill an important void contexts, there are no simple measures of ‘what’s in the lives of girls. effective, and why’. And of course, attribution and success in advocacy is notoriously imprecise. Empower girls to advocate on their own behalf That said, information sharing, awareness raising, The political engagement and activism of girls and citizen voice and participation can positively affect women is essential for changing the policies that the development context for local communities and affect them. In India, a 1993 law reserves leadership civil society. The utility of advocacy ranges from positions for women in randomly selected traditional communications and public opinion messaging to local village councils. Using this natural experiment, Beaman community mobilization, making it a success factor from et al (2012) found that when villages had chosen a the grassroots to the government level. Policy changes or female leader for two election cycles, the gender gap in reforms are generally essential to success in most country aspirations between male and female adolescents aged settings, and as such are an important anchor of Plan’s 11 to 15 and among parents for their male and female Theory of Change. Advocacy strategies and content children was dramatically reduced. In these settings, should be shaped by local culture, history, politics, values the gap in educational attainment between adolescent and understandings, as well as by principles such as boys and girls was wiped out and girls spent less time participation, fairness, transparency, and accountability. on domestic chores. In Bangladesh, CARE’s Adolescents’ and Women’s As Plan International considers the type of advocacy Reproductive and Sexual Health Initiative (ARSHI) it may wish to engage in, it should consider drawing project aimed to reduce maternal mortality, morbidity inspiration from other wide scale successful campaigns and disability among women and adolescents by in the region: the child labour campaign was particularly addressing gender inequality and social constructions successful in Asia. The buy-in of governments into of manhood as they directly affect a woman’s health. similar types of social work or public health campaigns is The social movement to combat violence against essential, once they have seen the proof that they work. women was successful in influencing lawmakers, thereby facilitating a greater fulfilment of rights for The challenge, of course, is that although advocacy women across Bangladesh. In evaluating the project efforts are intuitively compelling and have resulted in for scale up, Picard, (2011) shows that large-scale important policy and programme changes, success is impact can be achieved less expensively by paying difficult to replicate across contexts. The local drivers more attention to the power or influence which a tested

54 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia model has on decision-makers, potential adopters and The stipend covered a portion of the direct costs of others. Key principles include gender-transformative schooling and was given directly to female students rather than gender-sensitive or gender-neutral who withdrew the cash from their personal bank strategies, child sensitivity, safety and participation, account. Annual direct costs of secondary education and accountability – inviting feedback from programme per student were about $US54 in 1998, including participants, staff, partners, and all individuals or tuition, uniforms, textbooks, and examination fees. institutions who interact with the team, and community The total annual stipend for a girl ranged from $US12 control. The team must give greater control to the for grade 6 to $US30.25 for grade 10. community (or groups) and guard against dependency. As an example of a successful intervention, the Over a period of several years, the programme was “Dead Mother Rally” educated adolescent boys about associated with a marked increase in the enrolment maternal mortality and engaged them in protests of girls in school. An evaluation based on DHS data against the attitudes and practices that lead to the showed that eligible girls obtained a 14 to 25 percent death of young mothers. This intervention was picked increase in years of schooling. These girls also married up by many other communities in the area. later, had greater autonomy in making decisions, were more likely to work in the formal sector, had fewer Plan International Bangladesh has also engaged local children, and their children’s health outcomes improved government and young people together in the fight (Hahn, et al., (2015)). The FSSAP contributed to raising to end child marriage. They have raised awareness women’s years of education by 1.6 to 2 years while among girls and boys to understand why their friends the free tuition policy did not lead to any significant are not coming to school. If they believe that this may impact on their educational attainment. The stipend be because young people are getting married, they programme is associated with an increase in the age first try to persuade the parents not to proceed. If they of marriage of women by 1.4 to 2.3 years with some don’t succeed, they may return with local government evidence suggesting that the age of marriage of men authorities or heads of schools to convince the parents also increased. One additional year of education is not to proceed. Young people’s awareness and their associated with a 2.4 to 5.3 percent increase in the confidence in engaging with authorities are essential. labour force participation of married women, suggesting that education policies targeted towards women Leverage economic incentives to delay have not only substantially raised female education marriage while creating shifts in norms attainment but have also improved the economic and expectations about the appropriate prospects of low income families through increased age of marriage female labour force participation (Hong and Sarr, 2012). Conditional and non-conditional cash transfers have The International Center for Research on Women not been contrasted in the same setting to determine evaluated a Government of Haryana incentive programme, if one or the other has more of an effect on child Apni Beti, Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth), in marriage. However, it is possible to draw some which poor parents received a savings bond of 2,500 conclusions through a careful analysis of existing rupees on the birth of a daughter, which was to mature studies: Non-conditional cash transfers have been to 25,000 rupees when she turned 18, provided the girl shown to influence sexual behaviour among young had not married. Girls in the programme were found to women in sub-Saharan Africa who chose their own stay in school longer (Nanda et al, 2014). Beneficiary girls sexual partners. In Asia, in contrast, child marriage were more likely than non-beneficiary girls to complete is most often entered into as a result of parent’s 8th grade, but there was no impact at higher levels of decisions, meaning young people do not control the education. The programme did not shift gender norms, as arrangements; these circumstances would suggest parents often believed that the incentive was to defray the that conditional cash transfers would be more effective. cost of the girl’s marriage rather than to enhance the value However, the experience of Haryana State’s Apni Beti, of girls to their parents. In the end, beneficiaries received Apna Dhan, described above, suggests that while the considerably less money than was anticipated and the conditional cash transfer kept girls in school for longer, majority of girls spent the benefit on marriage expenses. girls married as soon as they could and used the funds Of girls who married before 18, there was no significant for their dowry rather than for any investment in income difference between girls whose families received the generation or education (Nanda et al 2014). benefit and those who did not. The lack of community engagement on the purpose of the savings bond is likely to have contributed to misunderstanding among parents Provide reproductive health information and and a failure to shift gender norms (Nanda et al, 2015; contraceptive access to help delay marriage Gaynair, 2011). among girls

In Bangladesh, a school stipend programme introduced The WHO Guidelines on Preventing Early Pregnancy in 1994 made secondary schooling free for rural and Poor Reproductive Outcomes Among Adolescents girls, covering 2 million girls each year. The Female in Developing Countries (Camacho and Chandra-Mouli, Secondary School Stipend Programme (FSSP), 2011), make the case for preventing early marriage and provided monthly stipends to female students from early pregnancy, which may lead to forced marriage, Grade 6 to Grade 10 for students aged 11 to 15. by providing legal support for adolescents to access Stipends were provided as long as the students met the contraceptives. Access to contraception must include following conditions: i) maintained at least 75 percent reducing financial and social barriers to their use attendance, ii) secured at least 45 percent marks in through free or low cost commodities, and confidential the annual examinations, and iii) remained unmarried. youth-friendly services. Educating the community

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 55 about the risks of adolescent pregnancy helps build including involving local community leaders and community support for providing contraceptive services working with men and boys to raise awareness to adolescents, and educating girls about sexuality and about girls’ and women’s rights, as strategies to coercive sex and that contraceptive use can help them eradicate women’s gendered experiences of poverty to avoid early marriage. (Jones and Presler‐Marshall, 2012). For example, as described above, in the Indian girls’ collectives A lesson drawn from West Africa (Fenn et al 2015) called Balika Sanghas, girls are ‘sensitized about their shows that making contraception available and rights and taught how to tap into various government enhancing girls’ ability to manage their reproductive and non-governmental schemes that can benefit lives before marriage, protects them from being pushed them’ (Chatterjee, 2011). With this support, girls are into marriage as a result of pregnancy. Improving access increasingly able to use their collective voice to fend to contraception as an intervention to delay marriage off arranged marriages and continue their schooling. would seemingly work better in some parts of Asia than in others. In Bihar state, India, Pathfinder’s Promoting In Guatemala, the Population Council’s Abriendo Change in Reproductive Behavior of Adolescents Oportunidades programme works with rural Mayan (PRACHAR) project had an impact on age at marriage girls aged 8 to 18 to build girls’ voice and agency and on contraceptive use among young married women through girls’ clubs and safe spaces, where girls gain without actually providing services. The project aimed practical skills; to build social networks and take on to increase girl’s age at marriage, delay the first birth leadership positions, including paid internships with after marriage until the age of 21, and to promote birth local agencies; and to mentor younger girls. Workshops spacing of at least three years between the first and conducted with girls and their mothers include sessions second births. PRACHAR information and educational on self-esteem, life skills, developing aspirations and interventions were directed at unmarried adolescents, planning for the future, sexual and reproductive health, who received a three-day reproductive health training, and the prevention of violence and HIV. An evaluation including negotiation skills for communicating with their found that 100 percent of Abriendo girls had completed parents and partners. “Infotainment” parties were held the sixth grade, compared to 81.5 percent of girls for young married couples to promote delaying the first nationally, while 97 percent of Abriendo girls had not birth and spacing the second. Community mobilization given birth during the programme cycle, compared used street theatre and posters to reach parents and with 78.2 percent nationally for comparably aged girls influential community members, and information on (Catino et al, 2011). the location of services was provided. Based on a subsample of trainees, the project was highly effective Empowerment is not static and the cumulative in increasing contraceptive use, both before and after experiences, including of unplanned or mistimed a first birth among young couples and increasing the pregnancies, shape a woman’s current empowerment age at marriage and at first birth. Age at marriage for status over the course of her lifetime (Lee-Rife trained girls was 1.5 years higher than for those girls 2010). Save the Children’s adolescent empowerment who did not receive training (20.9 years versus 19.4 programme, Kishoree Kontha, or “Adolescent Girl’s years) (Rahman and Daniel, 2010). The authors note, Voices,” included an empowerment component however, that the claimed impact seems unrealistic as in which girls could meet several days a week in age at marriage for both groups is so much higher than safe spaces to socialize and receive training on life the average for Bihar overall. skills, nutrition and reproductive health. Half of the empowerment communities also included financial The Berhane Hewan Project, in the Amhara region of literacy training. Girls in the empowerment programme Ethiopia, used a multi-pronged approach including did reach higher educational levels but, unlike the community mobilization and dialogue, group impact of the incentive programme, age at marriage mobilization of girls, house to house visits by mentors, was not affected (Poverty Action Lab, 2012). reproductive health information and services, school supplies and other incentives, to keep girls in school Provide training in life skills and delay marriage. After two years of implementation, marriage was delayed, and school attendance and Another aspect of the Kishoree Kontha (“Adolescent family planning use increased. However, it was difficult Girls’ Voices”) project implemented by Save the to determine which components had the greater Children in Bangladesh was life skills training, including influence in bringing about these changes. In-depth strengthening relationships between girls and their interviews suggested that community conversations, parents and other adults. Girls discussed with their social mobilization and school incentives were equally families what they learned and developed family disaster important (Mekbib and Molla, 2010). risk-reduction plans. According to an analysis of their Developmental Assets Profiles, girls in the programme Empowerment and voice showed significant improvements in terms of overall well-being, including support, empowerment, Girls have a voice and an agency when they can make constructive use of time, commitment to learning, decisions about their own lives and act on those positive values and positive identity. These findings decisions. The World Bank finds that constraining suggest that girls who receive training will be more girls’ voice and agency leads to a loss of productivity involved in decisions that affect their future, such as and can affect the achievement of development goals staying in school or avoiding early marriage (Scales, et (Klugman et al, 2014). Giving a voice to girls and al. 2013). In Bangladesh, in addition, life skills training, young women and promoting their collective action including gender rights negotiation, critical thinking has been identified as one of three key strategies, and decision-making, is one of three components of

56 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia the Population Council’s BALIKA project, a randomized It has been hypothesized that a mother’s controlled trial to evaluate strategies to delay marriage non-formal literacy education might delay her among girls aged 12 to 18 in areas where child marriage daughter’s age at marriage, through such avenues rates are at their highest. The other two components as improving the mother’s communication skills of the trial provide training in livelihoods and tutoring and her ability to influence family decisions and in maths, science and computers (Population Council, increasing her knowledge about women’s rights 2014). and children’s health (Smith, et al. 2012). Providing literacy education to mothers of adolescent Savings groups and livelihoods girls is a potential strategy to gain support for delaying marriage. The opportunity to receive training in financial literacy and negotiation skills and to become part of a peer-focused Singh and Vennam 2016 state that: “Secondary savings group has been a powerful experience for girls schooling is key to delaying child marriage. In light in CARE’s work around the world (CARE 2012). BRAC’s of the fact that 89 percent of the girls in our sample Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) who completed senior secondary education, remained programme, initially developed in Bangladesh, has offered single at 19 years of age, it is evident that institutions hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged adolescent girls such as elementary and secondary schools have a in Bangladesh, Uganda, Tanzania, Afghanistan, South critical role to play in giving girls more autonomy and Sudan and, most recently, Haiti and Sierra Leone the agency. Universalisation of secondary education, with opportunity for a better life through mentorship, life skills safe transport to and from schools and expansion training and microfinance. It has been rigorously tested of residential facilities at secondary and higher and its positive impact on the lives of girls has been education level, is critical to ensure that girls are demonstrated. (The model first developed in Bangladesh allowed the opportunity to continue education, was evaluated with a randomized controlled trial in particularly when the socio-economic conditions of Uganda (Bandiera et al 2012)). households pull them into child labour. Also, build agency and educational aspirations. The curriculum Expand girls’ opportunities for education in schools, as well as adolescent programmes such as Bet Bachao Beti Padhao and Rashtriya Kishori The increasing education of girls in Nepal has shown Shakti Karyakram, must be tailored to encourage the value of education to families and communities problem-solving, decision-making and critical and challenged gender norms on the role of women in thinking skills and provide support for young girls to Nepalese society. Interviews with 33 female key informants identify opportunities and pursue career pathways. highlight the importance of the support of parents and the Broader efforts are required to ensure that schools extended family to a girl’s education and revealed how their adequately serve and empower all girls at risk of success has encouraged other members of their family to child marriage and also provide opportunities to help become educated (Parker et al, 2014). married girls to continue at school or return to it.”

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 57 6. Recommendations and conclusions

Figure 6.1 Dimensions of change for ending CEFM, drawn from Plan International’s Theory of Change for ending CEFM

1. Social Norms, 2. Policy Attitudes, Frameworks and Behaviours, and Budgets Relations

3. Social and Economic Resources and Safety Nets

After the initial documentation of prevalence and The recommendations that follow are not exhaustive, trends, the report asked how child marriage in Asia but they are meant to build on or highlight some of is different from the practice in the rest of the world. the most interesting opportunities presented by the Now the question to be addressed is whether child programme review in the previous section. marriage in Asia is different from the practice in Africa or Latin America in ways that require alternative programmes and policies to prevent and address 6.1 Recommendations organized it? Even within Asia, there are differences among countries, more generally within this study between by the three domains of Plan Southeast and South Asian countries. Is it possibly to generalize about what needs to be undertaken in International’s theory of change the region to end child marriage? Laws, policies and budgets This section draws on effective programmes that have been implemented and makes recommendations As has been noted in regard to laws that could of what needs to be done. It is organized according contribute to ending child marriage, “Globally, many to the three domains of Plan International’s Theory serious obstacles to addressing child marriage remain. of Change and also presents recommendations These include: discriminatory marriage and divorce for further research. Although some programme laws; the [failure to set]…national minimum ages for responses to address the root causes of unfairness marriage below 18 years, or not at all; poor publicity may not fit perfectly within Plan International’s three and enforcement of laws; competing religious, dimensions framework, the model is meant simply customary or local laws that can undermine protective to instil a sense of the need for varied interventions national law; lack of birth certificates (to verify a to address the challenge of child marriage. Indeed, child’s age upon marriage) and marriage certificates many of the interventions in this report address (to establish officially that a marriage has taken more than one of these domains or formulate place), further impeding possibilities for dissolution what they are trying to accomplish in slightly and redress; and the assigning in some jurisdictions different language. of quasi-majority status to married children, thereby

58 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International/Patrick Kaplin

removing them from the special protections usually • Disseminate strategic communications to increase afforded to children” (Turner, 2013). How can this area public awareness and inform policymakers. be addressed? Everyone, from community members to policymakers should have complete information • Encourage laws that convey new standards on the realities of child marriage in their setting, and parameters regarding child marriage. A and the laws that exist to discourage it. useful place for this effort to begin could be to advocate for an end to disparities between • Encourage local civic participatory mechanisms the legal minimum age at marriage for girls and for women and girls so that their voices contribute boys. The majority of countries where there to improved gender policies. These mechanisms is a significant disparity in the minimum age should support women and girls in advocating for at marriage for males and females are found their interests and rights as development actors in Asia. There is a distinct concentration in and community members. the Asia region of countries where girls are permitted to marry at least one year before boys, • Encourage and adopt multi-sectoral or integrated with India and Bangladesh having laws that policies and programmes to address the disparate allow girls to marry three to four years earlier drivers of gender disparities. This requires a than boys. These laws encapsulate normative high-level perspective that governments are expectations regarding boys’ and girls’ marriage, often best positioned to provide. and to challenge them would promote national discussion without inflaming any sense that an Changes in norms outside standard was being imposed. Support the evolution of social norms that reflect • Advocate for the enforcement of existing laws gender inequality, of which there are many intended to create a framework to counter early manifestations in the lives of adolescent girls. marriage. Despite minimum age at marriage laws, it is far too easy to misrepresent girls’ • As discussed in greater detail in the programme ages, or for local authorities to look the other review, taking family and community concerns way when marriages are entered into. about girls’ sexuality into account when designing programmes is essential.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 59 © Plan International/Patrick Kaplin

60 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia • No one can be a more powerful advocate on the Research recommendations topic of child marriage than girls themselves, and they must be empowered to speak out on In keeping with this multi-sectoral emphasis, there their own behalf if this practice is to go away. is also a strong need for a unified research agenda, As they are seen expressing their preferences one that helps to align and focus the generation and appearing in public spaces, girls may come of evidence on the problem of child marriage, its to be seen as deserving of preference and of causes, consequences and what can be done about occupying more and greater roles beyond those it (Greene, 2014). of wife and mother. • The focus on child marriage among girls has • Work with families, communities and local leaders neglected boys in those places where boys also to promote community discussions and question get married at very young ages. One cause of practices and social norms at the grassroot level. this is that child marriage has often been studied from data collected by organizations interested • Work with faith communities to build community in reproductive health that focuses (overly) support in areas of shared interest such as on women. These sources of data have also education and delaying the age of marriage. tended to start collecting data among 15-19 year-olds, but there is still very little information • Work with men and boys as family and community about 10-14-year-olds, who are vulnerable to members on resetting expectations and norms changes and conditions in the period just before around age at marriage and the dynamics within marriage. These sources of data have also marriage. tended to focus on married women, providing less information on the about-to-be married or • Mobilize the media to work in a concerted fashion the not-yet-married, whose life experiences are to fight child marriage, building a communications extremely relevant for understanding the causes strategy across each country that focuses on and consequences of CEFM. context-specific customs and norms. • The complexity and cultural specificity of the Social and economic resources and safety nets problem: Understanding the root causes of child, early and forced marriage is complex • Prioritize economic stability for families at risk and can often require conducting in-depth of child marriage, including income generation ethnographic interviews; information that is not strategies for girls and their families. Leverage often collected. Much more intervention work economic support for delaying marriage while also has been conducted in some settings than in creating shifts in social norms for the appropriate others, generating rich experiences in some age of marriage. places but shedding little light on the sorts of programmes and policies that may need to be • Prioritize girls’ economic empowerment, implemented in culturally divergent countries. supporting savings groups for women and girls to boost their security, resilience and well-being. • The limited time period often given to measuring If ending child marriage is to be a reality, more programmatic impact: CEFM takes time to thought must be given to the alternatives to shift and it also takes time to measure trends. marriage for girls and their families. In some settings, CEFM has not been an area of focus for very long. In addition, donor • Create better outcomes for girls by engaging with funding tends to last for shorter periods than them more inclusively on child marriage at the can reasonably be expected to lead to social local level across gender, age and social groups. change. As a consequence, many interventions In divergent settings, boys, mothers, tentmakers, do not get the necessary follow up to measure priests and others all have important roles to their ultimate impact on child marriage, and play in challenging child marriage. The more instead capture data on intermediate factors in different types of people that are mobilized to their evaluations. This limited funding horizon eliminate CEFM, the more saturated a population tends to drive a focus on shorter-term change will become so that any person who leads in rather than long-term change in the lives of girls. countering the practice will have backup. It leaves the question unanswered as to what real difference it makes to girls lives whether • Provide training in life skills to enable girls and they marry or don’t marry before the age 18. women to better engage and operate on their own. When a girls’ marriage is being considered, • More needs to be learnt about men and she is the only predictably present individual. To boys and they should be the target of more the extent possible, girls must be prepared to interventions. A huge gap in the gender question, discuss, request, negotiate, plead and inequality literature concerns the role of men in bargain with the adults in their lives who wish to marriage and early marriage in particular. It is move them onto this new life stage. men who are marrying girls, yet there is almost no research on this. What are their motivations • And the well-worn but ever powerful: Expand girls’ and attractions? opportunities for education.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 61 Four research reviews of programmes for girls around the world provide inspiration for programme design. 6.2 Discussion and conclusions

1. The Young Lives project’s excellent review points A few points unite what has been learned from this to a number of important domains that affirm Plan review of interventions. First, while the field is starting International’s Theory of Change, and the specific to obtain a sense of the weight of individual strategies recommendations are integrated and referenced and their merits, there is considerable consensus below (Singh and Vennam 2016). around the need to attack child marriage from multiple angles. Even when a single-sector intervention has 2. A review by ICRW evaluated 23 child marriage been successful, there is agreement on the importance prevention programmes, including seven in of implementing integrated prevention strategies to Bangladesh, five in India and one each in end this deeply rooted practice. Organizations working Indonesia and Nepal (Lee-Rife et al, 2012). to end child marriage must promote multi-sectoral or Among these, the most successful in preventing integrated development policies and programmes to child marriage were programmes providing address the complexity and scope of the child marriage incentive schemes to improve the enrolment issue. A broad set of combined and mutually reinforcing and retention of girls in school, and programmes interventions that work at different levels are required to empowering girls with information, skills and end child marriage. support networks. To sustain such efforts, it is suggested that there is advocacy for an Secondly, the field needs to strengthen its focus on integrated, multi-pronged approach that clearly the “depth” of child marriage, i.e., measuring at exactly addresses deeply entrenched community and what age it is taking place, not simply assessing social norms as well as provides opportunities whether it occurs before or after the age of 18 (Nguyen for girls to be educated, employed and for them and Wodon, 2012). It is acutely important to eliminate to participate. The potential for large-scale and child marriage occurring at the earliest ages; and sustainable impact is enhanced if the intervention interventions must be adapted to the needs of girls – fosters structural change, e.g., working with and sometimes boys – at the specific ages at which government schools and other institutions to they are vulnerable. The factors that drive child marriage educate girls and increase their opportunities, and in the 10 to 14 age range differ from those driving incorporates large-scale information, education marriage at slightly older ages and this variability needs and communication campaigns to reach parents, to be taken into account in programmes. community members and religious leaders. Programmes that focused primarily on national Thirdly, it is critical to remember married girls advocacy and legislative reform were less (e.g., Bruce, 2012; Greene et al, 2014). As has been successful in preventing child marriage. seen, girls married as children experience many negative consequences to their health, both physical 3. Lemmon and ElHarake (2014) examine a number and mental, their human capital, their social networks of programme strategies, including Plan’s work and their future opportunities. It is incumbent upon with the Government of Bangladesh to prevent those concerned with the well-being of girls, therefore, marriage under the age of 18 by implementing to separate out the impacts of child marriage from online birth registration to circumvent parents the marriage itself and to the extent possible, delay from later falsifying a girl’s age. ICRW’s Apni Beti childbearing, continue girls’ schooling, reinforce their Apna Dhan (ABAD), “Our Daughter, Our Wealth”, social networks, and build their skills. It is essential incentive scheme in Haryana, India had a positive that married girls be supported and that any stigma effect on girls’ education although incentives they might face in institutions be overcome. were not required to be used for school fees. While the recommendations in this review are Finally, this report draws from numerous other studies specifically aimed at United States government and lays out an exhaustive set of root causes for child, actions, some are relevant to Plan International, early and forced marriage. Assuming these are relevant e.g., supporting efforts to address the root causes to a specific country context, it makes sense to organize of child marriage, targeting funding to countries programmes around addressing these root causes with the highest prevalence by proportion and when possible rather than treating symptoms. Holding absolute numbers of girls affected, and focusing a programmatic agenda up to these root causes may on improved evaluation. be a good way to cross-check the extent to which programmes address child marriage as vigorously as 4. A review of all published articles on child marriage they can. interventions up until 2015, for those with statistical evidence of impact, was undertaken by Kalamar et al, 2016. It found that most of the seven interventions, with statistically measurable positive impact in raising the age of marriage or reducing the proportion married as children, provided an economic incentive to keep girls in school, while one, implemented by the ICRW in India, involved a life skills curriculum to improve the reproductive health of both married and unmarried youth.

62 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia © Plan International/Patrick Kaplin

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 63 © Plan International/Rawjendra KC

64 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 7. Bibliography

The bibliography was not produced as an integral part of this Phase One report but is included here to provide references to the comprehensive literature review that was undertaken.

Research Question 1: Prevalence of CEFM

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Desai S, Andrist L. (2010). Gender scripts and age at marriage in India. Demography. Aug 1;47(3):667–87. Hervish, A. and Feldman-Jacobs, C. (2011). Who Speaks for Me? Ending Child Marriage. Population Reference Bureau, pp. 1-8.

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Hunter, Isabel, (2016). Just married at 13: Inside the child marriages that are on the rise in rural China after nation abandons one-child rule, Daily Mail. MailOnline. April 14, 2016. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3540754/ Just-married-13-Inside-child-marriages-rise-rural-China-nation-abandons-one-child-rule.html#ixzz4kwMdGZbA Photo essay.

Jiang, Q, Feldman, M and Li, Shuzhuo, (2012). Marriage squeeze, never-married proportion and mean age at first marriage in China. Population Research and Policy Review April 2014, Volume 33, Issue 2, pp 189–204.

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Lester, A., Banerji, M., and Desai, S., Negotiating Marriage: Examining the Gap between Marriage and Cohabitation in India, India Human Development Survey, Working Paper No. 9, NCAER and University of Maryland, 2011.

Nirantar Trust, Sadbhavana Trust and American Jewish World Service (2014). Landscape analysis of early marriage in India.

Plan International Cambodia and Breoghan Consulting. 2017. Draft Report – ECCD in Ratanakiri.

Raj, A., McDougal, L. and Rusch, M.L.A. (2012). Changes in Prevalence of Girl Child Marriage in South Asia. American Medical Association, vol. 307(19), pp. 2027-2029.

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Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 65 Saxena, P, (2012). Prevalence, Patterns and Preferences of Consanguineous Marriages in India: Similarities and Contrasts with Some Islamic Countries. Paper prepared for the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population Scientific panel on nuptiality, Madrid, Spain.

Sedgh, G, LB Finer, A Bankole, MA Eilers, and S Singh. 2015. Adolescent Pregnancy, Birth, and Abortion Rates Across Countries: Levels and Recent Trends. Journal of Adolescent Health 56(2): 223-230.

Shimbo, A. (2017) The lifestyle transformation of Hui Muslim women in China: A comparison of modern and Islamic education, Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies, 6:1, 42-61.

Srinivasan, P, Khan, N, Verma, R., et al, (2015). District-level study on child marriage in India: What do we know about the prevalence, trends and patterns? New Delhi, India: International Center for Research on Women.

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WHO. Report by the Secretariat. (2012). Early marriages, adolescent and young pregnancies. Sixty-Fifth World Health Assembly, pp. 1-4.

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Research Question 2: Causes of child marriage

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Banerjee, A., Duflo, E., Ghatak, M., et al. (2013). Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, vol. 5, 2:33-72.

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Field, E., and Ambrus, A. (2008). “Early marriage, age of menarche, and female schooling attainment in Bangladesh.” Journal of Political Economy 116(5): 881- 930.

Goonesekere, S., and Amarasuriya, H, (2013). Emerging concerns and case studies on child marriage in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka: UNICEF.

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66 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Human Rights Watch (2015). Marry before your house is swept away: Child marriage in Bangladesh. New York: Human Rights Watch.

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Johnson, V., (2010). Are children’s perspectives valued in changing contexts? Revisiting a rights-based evaluation in Nepal. Journal of International Development. 22:1076-1089.

Kamal SMM, Hassan CH, Alam GM, et al. (2015). Child marriage in Bangladesh: Trends and Determinants. J Biosoc Sci. 2015 Jan;47(1):120–39.

Karim, N, ME Greene and Mary Picard. 2016. The Cultural Context of Child Marriage in Nepal and Bangladesh: Findings from CARE’s Tipping Point Project Community Participatory Analysis. Washington, DC: CARE.

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Plan International and Coram Children’s Legal Centre, (2015). Research Report. Getting the evidence. Asia Child Marriage Initiative, London: Coram International.

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Research Question 3: Consequences of child marriage

Amin, S. and Bajracharya A. 2011. “Costs of marriage—Marriage transactions in the developing world”. Transitions to Adulthood. Brief no. 35. March 2011.

Anand, S., Desmond Marques, NC, and Fuje, H. (2012). The cost of inaction: Case studies from Rwanda and Angola. François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Asadullah MN, Alim A, Khatoon F, (2016). Maternal early marriage and cognitive skills development: An intergenerational analysis. Helsinki: Finland: The World Bank; 2016.

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Cai, Yong. (2010). “China’s Below-Replacement Fertility: Government Policy or Socioeconomic Development?” Population and Development Review 36/3: 419–440.

Chaaban, J. and Cunningham, W., (2011). Measuring the economic gain of investing in girls: The girl effect dividend. Policy Research Working Paper. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

Corsi DJ, Mejía-Guevara I, Subramanian SV. (2016). Risk factors for chronic undernutrition among children in India: Estimating relative importance, population attributable risk and fractions. Soc Sci Med. May;157:165–85.

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Dixon-Mueller, R., (2011). The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Younger Adolescents: Research Issues in Developing Countries. Geneva: World Health Organization.

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Erulkar, A. (2013). Early Marriage, Marital Relations and Intimate Partner Violence in Ethiopia. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol. 39(1), pp. 6-13.

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Ferrai, A et al. (2013). Burden of Depressive Disorders by Country, Sex, Age, and Year: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. PLoS Med 10(11): e1001547. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001547

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Singh, L, Kumar, R and Singh, PK, (2012). Assessing the ulitilization of maternal and child health care among married adolescent women: Evidence from India. J. Biosoc. Sci. 44:1–26.

Singh PK, Rai RK, Alagarajan M, et al. (2012). Determinants of Maternity Care Services Utilization among Married Adolescents in Rural India. PLoS ONE. 2012; 7(2): e31666.

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Smith, L., and Haddan, L., (2015). Reducing child under-nutrition: Past drivers and priorities for the Post-MDG era. World Development 68:180-204.

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Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 71 UNESCO, (2012). Youth and skills: putting education to work. Paris: UNESCO.

UNFPA, (2012). Marrying too young: Ending child marriage. New York: UNFPA.

UNFPA (2013). State of the World Population, 2013. Motherhood in Childhood: Facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy. New York: UNFPA.

UNICEF (2014). Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children: New York: UNICEF.

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Research Question 4: Responses

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Beaman, L, Duflo, E, Rande, R et. Al., (2012). Female leadership raises aspirations and educational attainment for girls: A policy experiment in India. Science 335(6068):582-586.

Bouman, M. Lubjuhn, S and Hollemans, H, (2017). Entertainment-education and child marriage: A scoping study for Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. Report. Center for Media and Health.

Bruce, J, (2012). Reaching married girls/youngest first time parents: Strategic value, policy considerations and program experiences’ – presentation, Workshop on Married Adolescent Girls, Jan, Girl Hub.

Camacho, A. V. and Chandra-Mouli, V. (2011). WHO Guidelines on Preventing Early Pregnancy and Poor Reproductive Outcomes Among Adolescents in Developing Countries. World Health Organization (WHO), pp. 1 -208.

CARE (2017). Applying theory to practice: CARE’s Journey Piloting Social Norms Measures for Gender Programming. Atlanta, Georgia, CARE.

CARE, Nepal (2011) Addressing child marriage in Nepal through behavior change communication and social mobilization: Chunauti. Project Final Report to USAID. Kathmandu: Care, Nepal.

CARE USA (2012). Girls’ Leadership Development in Action: CARE’s Experience from the Field.

Catino, J., Colom, A., & Ruiz, M.J. (2011). Equipping Mayan girls to improve their lives. Promoting healthy, safe and productive transitions to adulthood, No. 5. New York, NY: Population Council.

Chandra-Mouli, V., M.B.B.S., M.Sc., Camacho, A.M., M.D. and Michaud, P-A,. M.D. (2013). WHO Guidelines on Preventing Early Pregnancy and Poor Reproductive Outcomes Among Adolescents in Developing Countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 52, pp. 517-522.

Chatterjee, P, (2011). India grapples with its child marriage challenge. Lancet, 378:1987-88.

72 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Cousins, S., (2016) Nepal hopes anti-child-marriage plan will make a difference. Lancet 87:2279.

Davis, A., Postles, C. and Rosa G. (2013). A Girl’s Right to Say No to Marriage: Working to End Child Marriage and Keep Girls in School. Plan International, pp. 1-60.

Edmeades, J, Hayes, R and Gaynair, G, (2014). Improving the Lives of Married Adolescent Girls in Amhara, Ethiopia: A Summary of the Evidence. Washington D.C.: ICRW.

Freij, L, (2012). Safe age of marriage” in Yemen: Fostering change in social norms. Washington D.C. Expanding Service Delivery and USAID.

Gaynair, G, (2011). Cash Incentive Program Aims to Delay When Indian Girls Marry. Available at: http://www.icrw.org/media/news/motivation-prevent-child-marriage.

Gemignani, R and Wodon, Q. (2015). Child marriage and faith affiliation in sub-Saharan Africa: Stylized facts and heterogeneity. The Review of Faith and International Affairs. 13(3):14-47. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.

Girls Not Brides (2013). Ending child, early and forced marriage: Proposal for a UN General Assembly Resolution. Policy brief.

Greene, Margaret E. (2014). Ending Child Marriage in A Generation: What Research is Needed? New York: Ford Foundation and GreeneWorks.

Greene, ME, J Gay with G Morgan, R Benevides, F Fikree. (2014). Literature Review: Reaching Young and First-Time Parents for the Healthy Spacing of Second and Subsequent Pregnancies. Washington, DC: Pathfinder International.

Greene, ME, SM Perlson, AW Taylor and G. Lauro. (2015). Engaging Men and Boys to End the Practice of Child Marriage. Child Marriage Research Network working paper #1. Washington, DC: GreeneWorks.

Greene, ME, SM Perlson, J Hart. (2017). The centrality of sexuality for understanding child, early and forced marriage. Working paper. Washington, DC: GreeneWorks & AJWS.

Hahn, Y., Islam, A., Nuzhat, K et al., (2015). Education, marriage and fertility: Long-term evidence from a female stipend program in Bangladesh. Melbourne: Monash University.

Hervish, A, Despite Challenges, Ending Early Marriage in Ethiopia Is Possible. 2011, Population Reference Bureau: Washington, DC.

Hong, S.Y, and Sarr, L.R., (2102). Long-term impacts of the free tuition and female stipend programs on education attainment, age of marriage, and married women’s labor market participation in Bangladesh. Washington D.C.: World Bank Working Paper 81061.

Human Rights Watch, (2015). Epidemic of child marriage in Bangladesh, video, June 8, 2015.

Human Rights Watch, (2016). Our time to sing and play: Child marriage in Nepal. New York.

ICRW and Plan Asia Regional Office. (2013). Asia child marriage initiative: Summary of research in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Washington DC: USA: ICRW.

Institute for Reproductive Health. (2012). GREAT Project, Northern Uganda. Washington D.C.: Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) Georgetown University.

Jones, N and Presler‐Marshall, E. (2012). “Governance and Poverty Eradication: Applying a Gender and Social Institutions Perspective” Public Administration and Development. 32: 371–384. Published online wileyonlinelibrary. com DOI: 10.1002/pad.1618.

Kabeer, N., with Assaad, R., Darkwah, A., Mahmud, S., Sholkamy, H., Tasneem, S. and Tsikata, D. and statistical support from Sulaiman, M. (2013) ‘Paid Work, Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Growth: Transforming the Structures of Constraint’. New York: UN Women.

Kalamar AM, Lee-Rife S, Hindin MJ. (2016). Interventions to prevent child marriage among young people in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of the published and gray literature. What Works Syst Assess Sex Reprod Interv Young People Low- Middle-Income Ctries. Sep;59(3, Supplement):S16–21.

Karam, A., (2015). Faith inspired initiatives to tackle the social determinants of child marriage. The Review of Faith and International Affairs 13 (3):59-68.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 73 Khan, S., et al. (2013). Accountability for Child Marriage: Key U.N. Recommendations to Governments in South-Asia on Reproductive Health and Sexual Violence. Center for Reproductive Rights, pp. 1-11.

Khanna T, Verma R, and Weiss E. (2013). Child Marriage in South Asia: Realities, Responses and the Way Forward. Bangkok: Thailand: ICRW.

Kidman R. Child marriage and intimate partner violence: A comparative study of 34 countries. Int J Epidemiology Oct 12;dyw225.

Klasen, S., and Pieters, J. (2012). Push or Pull? Drivers of female labor force participation during India’s economic boom. IZA Discussion Paper.

Klugman, J, Hanmer, L Twigg, S et. al. (2014) Voice and agency: Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity. Washington D.C. The Word Bank.

Lane, C, Joof, Y, Hassan, A et al. (2012). Promoting healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy with young married women in Northern Nigeria: A Short Report. African Journal of Reproductive Health, June 2012 (Special Edition); 16(2): 263-69.

Le Strat, Y, Dubertret, C., and Le Foll, B. (2011). Child marriage in the United States and its association with mental health in women. Paediatrics. Published online. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/08/24/ peds.2011-0961.

Lee-Rife SM. (2010). Women’s empowerment and reproductive experiences over the lifecourse. Soc Sci Med Aug;71(3):634–42.

Lee-Rife, S., Malhotra, A., Warner, A., McGonagle Glinkski, A. (2012). What Works to Prevent Child Marriage: A Review of the Evidence. Studies in Family Planning, vol. 43(4), pp. 287-303.

Lemmon, GT, and ElHarake, LS. (2014). Child brides, Global consequences. How to end child marriage. Washington DC: USA: Council on Foreign Affairs.

Lemmon, GT, and ElHarake LS. (2014). High stakes for young lives: Examining strategies to stop child marriage. Washington DC: USA: Council on Foreign Affairs.

Let Girls Lead (2014). Ending Child Marriage in Malawi: Malawian girl leaders participating in a GENET-sponsored march. Girls Empowerment Network & Let Girls Lead. Policy brief.

Machel, G., Pires, E., Carlsson, G. (2013). The world we want: An end to child marriage. www.thelancet.com, vol. 382, pp. 1005-1006.

Malhotra A. (2012). Remobilizing the Gender and Fertility Connection: The Case for examining the Impact of Fertility Control and Fertility Declines on Gender Equality. Washington DC: USA: ICRW; Report No.: 001–2012–ICRW–FE.

Malhotra, A., Warner, A., McGonagle, A., Lee-Rife,S. (2011). Solutions to End Child Marriage: What evidence shows. International Center for Research on Women. 1-36.

Marcus, R. (2015). Changing gender norms: Monitoring and evaluating programmes and projects. London: Overseas Development Institute.

Marcus, R, E Page, with R Calder and C Foley. 2014. Drivers of Change in Gender Norms: An Annotated Bibliography. London: Overseas Development Institute.

Mekbib, T., Bekele, S., Kassie, A., Evaluation of the Developmental Bible: A program to integrate HIV and other reproductive health information in the teachings of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Ethiopian eJournal for Research and innovation Foresight 4, No 2: 58-72.

Mekbib, Tekle-Ab and Mitike Molla. (2010). Community based reproductive health (RH) intervention resulted in increasing age at marriage: The case of Berhane Hewan Project, in East Gojam zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of Reproductive Health 4(1): 16-25.

Nanda, P., Das P, Datta N, et al. (2015). Making change with cash? Evaluation of a conditional cash transfer program to improve the status of girls in Northern India. Washington DC: USA: ICRW.

Nanda, P., Datta, N. and Das, P (2014). Impact of conditional cash transfers on girl’s education, Washington D.C.: ICRW, March, 2014.

74 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Nguyen, MC and Wodon, Q. (2012). Global Trends in Child marriage. Washington D.C.: World Bank.

Nguyen, MC and Wodon, Q. (2012). Measuring Child marriage. Economics Bulletin 21 (1):398-411.

Parker, S. Standing, K and Shrestha, BK, (2014). ‘My grandfather broke all traditional norms by sending both his daughters to school’: Lessons from ‘inspirational’ women in Nepal, Gender & Development, 22:1, 91-108.

Parsons J, Edmeades J, Kes A, et al. (2015). Economic Impacts of Child Marriage: A Review of the Literature. Rev Faith Int Aff Jul 3;13(3):12–22.

Paski, P., (2014). Addressing early marriage and adolescent pregnancy as a barrier to gender parity and equality in education. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, 2015. UNESCO: ED/EFA/ MRT/2015/23.

Picard, M. (2011). “Scaling Up Impact in a Program Approach: Model Development and the Use of Social Movements: Case Study: ARSHI Report.” Dhaka: CARE. Bangladesh.

Population Council (2014). BALKIA (Bangladeshi Association for life skills, income and knowledge for adolescents).

Poverty Action Lab. (2012). Empowering Girls in Rural Bangladesh. Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

Prost A, Colbourn T, Seward N, Azad K, et al. (2013). Women’s groups practising participatory learning and action to improve maternal and newborn health in low-resource settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet. 2013;381(9879):1736–46.

Rahman, M. & Daniel, E. (2010). A Reproductive Health Communication Model That Helps Improve Young Women’s Reproductive Life and Reduce Population Growth: The Case of PRACHAR from Bihar, India. Research and Evaluation Working Paper. Watertown, MA: Pathfinder.

Redner, J, Collaborating Internationally to End Child Marriage. 2011.

Samuels, F and Ghimire, A. (2015). Girls’ clubs and radio programmes: Addressing discriminatory social norms in Nepal. London: Overseas Development Institute.

Santhya, K.G., and A. Erulkar, Supporting married girls: Calling attention to a neglected group. 2011, Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief (No. 3). Population Council: New York.

Save the Children International (2011). Choices: A curriculum for 10 to 14 year olds in Nepal. London: Save the Children.

Save the Children International (2011). Promises: Influencing parents’ behaviours to increase gender equality for children. A communication approach targeting parents and community members in Nepal. London: Save the Children.

Save the Children International (2013). Promises: Engaging communities in gender equity for girls and boys: the Promises approach. Westport, CT: Save the Children US.

Save the Children, (2013). An evaluation of the Promises approach in Nepal. Westport, CT: Save the Children US.

Scales, P, Benson, P, Dershem, L. et al. (2013). Building developmental assets to empower adolescent girls in rural Bangladesh: Evaluation of Project Kishoree Kontha. Journal of Research on Adolescence 223 (1):171-184.

Shah, P. et al. (2013). Child Marriage in South-Asia: International and Constitutional Legal Standards and Jurisprudence for Promoting Accountability and Change. Center for Reproductive Rights: 1-75.

Shah, R. (2012). Ending Child Marriage and Meeting the Needs of Married Children: The USAID Vision for Action. U.S. Agency for International Development, pp. 1-20.

Singh K, Verma P, and Singh A. (2016). Female age at marriage and associated factors in EAG States of India. Appl Math Stat 1(2):53–9.

Smith, C ,Stone, R.and Kahando, S. (2012). A model of women’s educational factors related to delaying girls’ marriage. Int Rev Educ (2012) 58:533–55.

Svanemyr, J., Chandra-Mouli, V., Christiansen, C.S. and Mbizvo, M. (2012). Preventing child marriages: First international day of the girl child “my life, my right, end child marriage”. Reproductive Health Journal, vol. 9:31.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia UNICEF (2014a). Ending Child marriage: Progress and prospects. New York: UNICEF.

Verma, R. K., and Srinivasan, P., (2014). Theory of Change: Ending Child Marriage in Bangladesh, New Delhi: International Center for Research on Women.

Vogelstein, R. (2013). Ending child marriage: How elevating the status of girls advances U.S. foreign policy objectives. New York: Council on Foreign Relations.

Walker, J. A. (2012). Early Marriage in Africa – Trends, Harmful Effects and Interventions. African Journal of Reproductive Health June (Special Edition), vol. 16(2): 231.

Walker, J.A., (2015), Engaging Islamic opinion leaders on child marriage: Preliminary results from pilot projects in Nigeria. The Review of Faith and International Affairs 13 (3):48-58.

Warner, A, Glinksi A,Thompson L et al. (2013). Ending child marriage. What will it take? Policy brief. Girls Not Brides.

WHO, (2013). Guidelines on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive health outcomes among adolescents in developing countries. Journal of Adolescent Health 52:517-522.

Williamson, N. (2013). Motherhood in Childhood: Facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy. The Information and External Relations Division of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA): 1-132.

Wodon Q. (2016). Early childhood development in the context of the family: The case of child marriage. J Hum Dev Capab Oct 1;17(4):590–8. 134.

World Policy Analysis Center. (2015). Assessing national action on protection from child marriage. Fact Sheet. World Policy Analysis Center.

Zia-ur-Rahman, M. (2014) Pakistan's slow but steady progress on ending child marriage.

Multidimensional Research Reports

Buchmann, N., Field, E, Glennerster, R, Nazneen, S., Pimkina, S and Sen, I. (2017). Power vs Money: Alternative approaches to reducing child marriage in Bangladesh, a randomized control trial. JPAL. http://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/empowering-girls-rural-bangladesh

Fenn, NS, Edmeades, J, Lantos, H and Onovo, O. (2015). Child marriage, Adolescent pregnancy and Family formation in West and Central Africa. Dakar, Senegal: UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office.

Guttmacher and IPPF, (2010). Facts on the Sexual and reproductive health of adolescent women in the developing world. New York: Guttmacher Institute.

Loaiza, E. and Wong, S. (2012). Marrying too Young: End Child Marriage. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), pp. 1-76.

Plan Asia Regional Office and ICRW (2013), Asia Child Marriage Initiative: Summery of research in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, New Delhi: Plan Asia Regional Office.

Plan Australia, (2014). Just Married, Just A Child. Child marriage in the Indo-Pacific region. Melbourne, Australia: Plan Australia.

Plan Bangladesh. (2013) Child marriage in Bangladesh. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Plan Bangladesh.

Plan India. (2013). Child marriage in India. New Delhi, India: Plan India.

Plan International. (2014). Hear our voices. Do adolescent girls’ issues really matter? Technical Report. Surrey, London, Plan UK.

Plan International. (2016). Counting the invisible. Girls’ rights and realities. Pakistan. Technical Report. United Kingdom: Plan International.

Plan International and Coram International, (2015). Research Report. Getting the Evidence: Asia Child Marriage Initiative. Summary Report.

Plan International and Ipsos MORI, (2015). Girls speak out: A four-country survey of young women’s attitudes and recommendations for action. London: Plan International and Ipsos MORI.

76 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia Plan Nepal, Save the Children, and World Vision International (2012) Child Marriage in Nepal: Research Report. Kathmandu, Nepal. Plan International. http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/library/child-marriage-nepal- research-report

Plan United Kingdom. (2011). Breaking vows. Early and forced marriage and girls’ education. United Kingdom: Plan UK.

Steinhaus, M., Gregowski, A., Stevanovic Fenn, N., Petroni, S. (2016). “She cannot just sit around waiting to turn twenty”: Understanding why child marriage persists in Kenya and Zambia. Washington D.C.: International Center for Research on Women.

Sun, W., Gordon, J. and Pacey, A. (2016) From one to two: the effect of women and the economy on China’s One Child Policy, Human Fertility, 19:1, 1-2, DOI:10.3109/14647273.2016.1168980.

Walker, J. (2013). Mapping early marriage in West Africa – a scan of trends, interventions, what works, best practices and the way forward. Study submitted to the Ford Foundation, West Africa Office.

Zheng, Y., Yuan, J., Xu, T et al., (2016). Socioeconomic status and fertility intentions among Chinese women with one child. Human Fertility, 19, 43–47. doi.org/10.3109/14647273.2016.1154988.

Policy Statements and Commitments

African Union, (2012?) Campaign to end child marriage in Africa. Mimeo.

Regional convening on using law to promote accountability to end child marriage in South Asia. (2014). Kathmandu call for action to end child marriage in South Asia. Kathmandu, Nepal.

US Department of State, (2016). USAID Adolescent Girl Strategy Implementation Plan, Building an evidence base to delay child marriage program, (See 3 country study in SSA). March 15, 2016.

UNICEF, (2014). “Nepal Commits to End Child Marriage,” July 22, 2014, http://unicef.org.np/media-centre/press- releases/2014/08/11/nepal-commits-to-end-child-marriage

UNICEF, (2016). “Nepal hosts its first Girl Summit to end Child, Early and Forced Marriage,” March 23, 2016.

Human Rights and Laws

Abbas, MZ and Ria, S., (no date but post 2012). Legal protections provided under Pakistani law against anti-women practices: Implementation gaps between theory and practice. The Dialogue, VIII (2):172-185.

Abbas, MZ and Ria, S. The Asia Foundation.( 2016). Understanding Violence against Women and Children In Timor- Leste: Findings from the Nabilan Baseline Study – Main Report. The Asia Foundation: Dili.

Arthur, M. et al, (2015). Legal protection against child marriage around the world. World Policy Analysis Center and MACHEquity.

Blomgren, L, (2013). Child Marriage in Bangladesh: Impact of Discriminatory Personal Laws, Memorandum to Hon. Justice M Imman Ali, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, from Leigh Blomgren, Women and Justice Fellow, Avon Global Center for Women and Justice. New York: Cornell Law School, August 28, 2013.

Bunting, A, Lawrance, B and Roberts, R., (Eds). (2016). Marriage by Force? Contestation over Consent and Coercion in Africa. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio University Press, Swallow Press.

Center for Reproductive Rights, (2013). Child Marriage in South Asia, International and Constitutional Standards and Jurisprudence for Promoting Accountability and Change. Briefing Paper, at http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/ChildMarriage_BriefingPaper_Web.pdf

Center for Reproductive Rights, (2015). “Nepal Acknowledges Urgent Need to Eliminate Child Marriage and Violence Against Women and Girls at the Human Rights Council,” November 9, 2015.

Center for Reproductive Rights, JuRI-Nepal and UNFPA. (2016). Ending impunity for child marriage in Nepal. A review of normative and implementation gaps. Kathmandu, Nepal: Center for Reproductive Rights.

Economist (2017). Doom and Groom, June 17.

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Free the Slaves Expose. (2013). Wives in Slavery: Forced Marriage in the Congo. Washington, DC: Free the Slaves.

Garg, A, (2012). The Bangladeshi practice of child marriage continues to disregard domestic law and UN Conventions. Human Rights Briefs: The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Gender and Development Network (2013) Harmful traditional practices. Your questions. Our answers. London: Gender and Development Network.

Girls Not Brides. (2017). Bangladesh votes for child marriage restraint act 2016: Girls not Brides Bangladesh reacts.

Gupta, P, (2012). Child marriages and the Law: Contemporary concerns. Economic & Political Weekly October 27.

Hamilton, V., (2012). The age of marital capacity: Reconsidering civil recognition of adolescent marriage. Boston University Law Review 92:1817-1862.

Holtmaat, R. and Naber, J. (2011). Women’s Human Rights and Culture: From Deadlock to Dialogue 1. Intersentia.

Inter-Parliamentary Union, WHO. (2016). Child, early and forced marriage legislation in 37 Asia-Pacific countries. Geneva: Switzerland: WHO.

International Development Law Organization (IDLO), (2010). Strengthening the Legal Protection Framework for Girls in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Liberia Bangladesh Country Report, 70 (2010).

Kim M, Longhofer W, Boyle EH, et al. (2013). When do laws matter? National minimum-age-of-marriage laws, child rights, and adolescent fertility, 1989–2007. Law Soc Rev Sep 1;47(3):589–619.

Maswikwa,B, Richter, L, Kaufman J. et al. (2015). Minimum Marriage Age Laws and the Prevalence Of Child Marriage and Adolescent Birth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 41 (2):58-68.

Melchiorre A. (2013). A minimum common denominator? Minimum ages for marriage reported under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Submission on child, early and forced marriage to Women’s Human Rights and Gender Section, OHCHR.

Mubangizi, JC. (2012). A South African perspective on the clash between culture and human rights, with particular reference to gender-related cultural practices and traditions. Journal of International Women’s Studies 13 (3):33-48.

Parikh, S. “They arrested me for loving a schoolgirl”: Ethnography, HIV, and a feminist assessment of the age of consent law as a gender-based structural intervention in Uganda. Social Science and Medicine, 2011.

Qudder, F., (2014). Dowry system in Bangladesh: A socio-legal perspective. International Journal of Innovative Research Development 3(7):133-139.

Right to Education Project. (2012). At what age? Early marriage and the right to education. London: Action Aid International.

Scolaro E, Blagojevic A, Filion B, et al. (2015). Child marriage legislation in the Asia-Pacific region. Rev Faith Int Aff. 2015;13(3):23–31.

Sexual Rights Initiative. (2013). Analysis of the language of child marriage and force marriages. Sexual Rights Initiative.

Shelley, C. (2013). Beating children is wrong, isn't it? Resolving conflicts in the encounter between religious worldviews and child protection. Ecclesiastical Law Journal 15 (2):130-143.

Simmons, F and Burn, F, (2013) Without consent: Forced marriage in Australia. Melbourne University Law Review 36:971-993.

Turner, C. (2013). Out of the Shadows: Child marriage and slavery. London: Anti-Slavery International.

UN General Assembly, (2012). Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. A/67/287. New York, UN General Assembly, August 10, 2012.

78 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia UN General Assembly (2013. Preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage. Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/26/22.

UN General Assembly (2013). Strengthening efforts to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage: challenges, achievements, best practices and implementation gaps. A/HRC/24L.34 Rev 1.

UN General Assembly. (2014). Resolution on Early, Child and Forced Marriage. New York: USA: UN General Assembly; 2014 Nov. Report No.: 68/148.

UN Human Rights Council (2011). Resolution 16/3, “Promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms through a better understanding of traditional values of humankind,” A/HRC/RES/16/3, April 8.

UN Human Rights Council (2012). Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences. Gulnara Shahinian. Thematic report on servile marriage. A/HRC/21/41.

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U.S. Department of State (2016). Human Rights Reports: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam. Washington D.C.: Dept of State.

Wodon, Quentin (2015). Child marriage, family law, and religion: An Introduction to the Fall 2015 Issue. The Review of Faith & International Affairs 13 (3), p. 1-5.

Wodon, Quentin (2015). Islamic law, women’s rights and state law: The cases of female genital cutting and child marriage. The Review of Faith & International Affairs 13 (3): 81.

Zwart, T., (2012). Using Local Culture to Further the Implementation of International Human Rights: The Receptor Approach. Human Rights Quarterly 34 (2012) 546–569. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Data Sources

Badan Pusat Statistik - (BPS), National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN), and Kementerian Kesehatan (Kemenkes—MOH), and ICF International. (2013). Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey 2012. Jakarta, Indonesia: BPS, BKKBN, Kemenkes, and ICF International.

Badan Pusat Statistik and UNICEF, (2016). Child Marriage in Indonesia 2013-2105. Jakarta, Indonesia, Badan Pusat Statistik.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF Bangladesh 2014, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Bureau of Statistics Punjab, Planning & Development Department, Government of the Punjab and UNICEF Punjab. (2016). Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, Punjab 2014, Final Report. Lahore, Pakistan. Bureau of Statistics Punjab, Planning & Development Department, Government of the Punjab and UNICEF Punjab.

Dept of Census and Statistics. Ministry of Finance and Planning (2013). Sri Lanka Demographic and Health Survey 2000.

Dept of Women and Child Development, Government of India and UNICEF, (2001). India Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey 2000. New Delhi, India: Government of India.

General Statistics Office and UNICEF, (2015). Viet Nam Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014, Final Report. Ha Noi, Viet Nam.

Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, (2017). National Family Health Survey-4, 2015-16. India Fact Sheet, Mumbai.

Government of Nepal, Central Bureau of Statistics/The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), (2015) Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal.

Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia 79 Guo, W, Wu, Z , Qui, Y et al, (2012). The timing of sexual debut among Chinese youth. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 38(4):196-204.

Karachi, Pakistan: UNICEF and Sindh Bureau of Statistics.

Lao Statistics Bureau (2016). Results of the Population and Housing Census 2015. Vientiane, Laos: Lao Statistics Bureau.

MacQuarrie, K, Mallick, L, and Allen, C. (2017). Sexual and Reproductive Health in Early and Later Adolescence: DHS Data on Youth Age 10-19. DHS Comparative Reports No. 45. Rockville, Maryland, USA: ICF.

Macro (2010). Timor-Leste Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10. Dili, Timor-Leste: NSD [Timor-Leste] and ICF Macro.

McGill University, (2017). Child Marriage Database. MACHEquity, What is MACHEquity, http://machequity.com

Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Planning and Investment (Laos). (2013). Laos Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2011-2012. New York, United States: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS, Myanmar) and ICF. (2017). 2015-16 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey Key Findings. Rockville, MD: MOHS and ICF.

Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development and Ministry of Health, Myanmar, (2011) Myanmar Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2009 - 2010 Final Report. Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar: Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development and Ministry of Health, Myanmar.

National Bureau of Statistics of China, (2012). Women and Men in China, Facts and Figures, 2012. Beijing, China: National Bureau of Statistics.

National Institute of Statistics, Directorate General for Health, and ICF International, (2015). Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey 2014. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Rockville, Maryland, USA: National Institute of Statistics, Directorate General for Health, and ICF International.

National Statistical Office and United Nations Children’s Fund, (2016). Thailand Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2015-2016, Final Report, NSO and UNICEF, Bangkok, 2016.

National Statistics Directorate (NSD) [Timor-Leste], Ministry of Finance [Timor-Leste], and ICF

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and ICF International, (2014). Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey 2013. Manila, Philippines and Rockville, Maryland: PSA and ICF International

Progotir Pathey (2015). Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2012-2013, Key Findings.

UNICEF. (2016). Progress on Pause: An Analysis of Child Marriage Data in Indonesia. New York: UNICEF.

UNICEF and Sindh Bureau of Statistics. (2014). Sindh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014, Key Findings.

United Nations Statistical Division. (2017 Online). Minimum legal age for marriage without consent.

Research Agendas

Greene, M., (2014). Ending child marriage in a generation. What research is needed? New York: The Ford Foundation.

WHO, (2010). The sexual and reproductive health of young adolescents in developing countries: Reviewing the evidence, identifying research gaps, and moving the agenda. Report of a WHO technical consultation. Geneva: WHO.

WHO, (2011). The sexual and reproductive health of younger adolescents. Research issues in developing countries. Geneva: WHO.

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Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia PlaninAsia

PlanAsia

www.plan-international.org/asia/their-time-is-now

Plan International Asia Regional Office 14th Floor, 253 Asoke Building, Sukhumvit 21, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Tel: +66 2 204 2630-4 Fax: +66 2 204 2629

84 Their Time is Now | Eliminating Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Asia