“Lost dreams…”

Envision growing up in a place where, as a child, walking down the aisle is more common than walking into a secondary school classroom. Now, imagine this scenario: A 12 year old girl arrives from school, and walks into the kitchen where her mom was working and before she could talk about her school day, her mom cuts her off to tell her she won’t be attending school tomorrow due to her engagement. This scenario can be found in daily life throughout the world’s poorest countries, and is often concentrated among the poorest households of those countries. Many believe that the cultural trend of childhood marriage provides the bride and her family with a guaranteed future, and less clash of personalities. In addition, many believe the reasoning behind childhood marriage continuing today, is the tradition that it carries, gender roles, and the security it provides to the bride in general. HOWEVER, those people fail to recognize that it is intimately connected to poverty and economic necessity is the main cause behind childhood marriage.

Money is like a river of sadness and only a few people have boats. Even though money has different values around the world, this paper can make a huge difference in someone’s daily life. Sometimes, money can drive individuals to do inhumane things without thinking about consequences at all. Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of over 500 civil society organisations, committed to ending child marriages and enabling girls to fulfil their potential. According to Girls Not Brides, “Where poverty is acute, giving a daughter in marriage allows parents to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one less person to feed, clothe and educate.” The impoverished population is so vulnerable in third world countries that it is more sensible for the parents to give their daughters away in the hope of spending less. If the daughters carried on in their education, they could’ve potentially been able to provide for their family later on. Poverty plays a huge role in determining how one’s lifestyle will be shaped. These parents have no other option but to give their daughter away in the hope of saving money for the rest of the family members in the poverty situation.

Early child marriage can be just the beginning of a cycle which often includes early pregnancy, dropping out of school, loss of their potential abilities, and much more. Poverty may lead to one having to give away their child for the good of others. ONE Campaign is an international organization that fights extreme poverty by raising public awareness. According to ONE, “Arranging for their daughters to be married early can relieve immediate financial pressures for families living in extreme poverty. Places in low-income countries have marital customs where a girl’s family receives a ‘bride price’ of money or livestock, so marriage also becomes a way of bringing much needed resources into the family.” Families that go through poverty may fail to realize what kind of catastrophe they are throwing their young daughters into, just to get relief from economic tension. Because of this extreme poverty, a family may be willing to give away their daughter in exchange for money. Families that are in poverty are using their young daughter as a source of income for a received amount of resources from the groom’s family. This payment is rarely enough to sustain the family for long, but the early marriage itself may be enough to eradicate the child’s future.

Child marriage is most common in the world’s poorest countries. Each country's individual economic situation plays a big role on the rate of child marriage as well. ICRW is an organization that empowers women, has advanced gender equality and fight poverty in today’s developing world. According to ICRW, “Countries with low gross domestic products (GDP’s) tend to have a higher prevalence of child marriage. Chad has a GDP of $1,600 per capita, and 71 percent of girls in the country are married. By contrast, South Africa has a GDP per capita of $11,100, and 8 percent of girls in the country are married.” The relation between poverty and childhood marriage is clearly distinguishable. Countries with poor economy have a higher rate of child marriage than the country with high economic status because of the extreme poverty that exists. ICRW have also stated, "More than half of the girls in Bangladesh, Mali, Mozambique and Niger are married before age 18. In these same countries, more than 75 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.” There is a clear representation behind child marriage and the poverty situation where the marriages are happening. It’s not only the families fault of giving away their daughter early in the hope of getting relieved from the poverty, but the countries as well, for allowing these kind of marriages to take place where a child’s future may be in danger.

Although child marriage may only seem important to organizations like UNICEF or families that were affected by the issue itself, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about their country's economic status, or families who plan to follow the path of child marriage. Poverty is the one of the biggest contributors to child marriage as well as less restrictions behalf the marriage. In order to stop child marriages, countries with low GDP’s need to create stronger boundaries to lower the need and popularity of child marriages.

Works Cited:

"Child Marriage Factsheets." RSS. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
"Early Marriage and Poverty: Why We Must Break the Cycle." ONE. 8 July 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
"Poverty - Girls Not Brides." Girls Not Brides. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
"Child Marriage Facts and Figures." RSS. Web. 21 Nov. 2015