Early marriage, life long damage

By Sabita Majid Despite years of publicity on marriage below 18 years being illegal in India, the tradition of early marriage continues in several states.

And unfortunately, the practice of marrying off girls while they are still in high school or in their first year of college, is prevalent among urban families as well.

According to the 1998-99 National Family Health Survey (NFHS), half of all women (aged 20-24) were married by the time they were 18 and a quarter by the time they were 15.

However, only six per cent boys were married as adolescents.

In the state of Rajasthan, a shocking number of child marriages still occur.

According to Delhi-based NGO Mamta's research project on 'Early Pregnancy,' in Alwar and Kathputli Colony, over 72 per cent of all marriages were of girls under 15.

Early marriages have forced several urban and rural teenage girls to drop out of school.

Even in the high-literacy state of Kerala, in Malappuram district, most parents marry their girls before they turn 15.

These girls are grandmothers by the time they reach the age of 35.

According to UNICEF, a survey in Madhya Pradesh highlighted that 14 per cent girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were married.

Early marriage prevents young girls from nurturing their talents and growing into strong and healthy women.

It makes them more vulnerable to financial, sexual and social exploitation.

"Education and awareness have just not percolated down to the masses and the law itself is ignorant of the social sanctions that have existed for early marriages for more than 500 years," says Dr Jitendra Nagpal, psychiatrist at the Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (VIMHANS).

He is also involved in adolescent health issues (every Sunday at 6.30 pm, he anchors the television show 'Meri Baat' on Doordarshan Bharti.) The NFHS also pointed out that adolescent fertility rates in India are very high - roughly 107 births take place per 1,000 girls (aged 15-19).

As most young brides have no reproductive health education, they are vulnerable to frequent pregnancies, stillbirths and abortions.

The NFHS data indicates that only seven per cent of married girls (15-19 age group) were using any method of contraception.

It is no surprise, then, that 15 per cent of births to adolescents in India are reportedly unplanned.

In India, feudal notions still compel many girls to prove their fertility early in the marriage in order to be readily accepted in the family and become economically secure.

But many of them are anaemic and not physically mature.

Maternal mortality rates are therefore much higher among adolescent mothers.

Equally disturbing is the coercive and non-consensual sexual experience of adolescent girls within marriage.

In studies in rural Uttar Pradesh and even in Mumbai, a majority of young married women described early sexual encounters with their husbands as coercive.

An average married adolescent rarely has a say in her sex life or on bearing children.

In recent years, her vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS has also increased.

A teenage wife is practically powerless in negotiating safe sex with her husband.

"About 30 to 40 per cent of the mood disorders and depression among both poor and rich women (in metros) are due to problems in adjusting to sexual behaviour," says Nagpal.

As most rural areas do not have access to mental institutes or counsellors, the problem for married teenagers is greater in the villages.

Nagpal says that while the city-bred, well-off teenagers have some access to authentic information on sexuality and health, most young girls from lower income groups and in rural India are starved of information on basic sexual health issues.

He claims that counselling on reproductive and sexual health is available only in 8 to 10 per cent of the schools in the National Capital Region (in and around Delhi).

The common justifications for early marriage continue to be: poverty of the girls' parents, their attempt to protect the girl from sexual assault or pregnancy before marriage, and also little value for girl education.

Actually, early marriage manifests the feudal instinct of keeping women subservient, maximising childbirth and preventing her independent growth.

A teenage bride is robbed of her basic rights - to regular education, to marry at will, to enjoy a happy and satisfying relationship with her husband, earn, delay childbirth and be healthy.

In recent years, several organisations have attempted (and are still attempting) to address the vulnerabilities of adolescent girls.

For instance, the livelihoods and savings programme in the slums of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, jointly run by international NGOs, Population Council and CARE India, attempts to prepare adolescent girls for the future.

In 2002, about 1,000 girls (14-19 years old) opted to take up one or more of the 21 short-term vocational courses offered by this programme.

In the beginning, the girls were ignorant about menstruation, the fertility cycle and sexual intercourse.

After the programme however, the girls became better informed, and many of them decided to postpone early marriage, study further and earn an independent income.

The programme also had a positive impact on the attitude of the parents towards their daughters.

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