Impact of Early Marriage on Women

 Early marriage is a complex subject; it affects a child mentally as well as physically and also threatens their lives. It is a significant threat to the social and economic development of the nation. The fundamental rights of human and well-being of the children are getting hampered. Child marriage violates many human rights like education, employment, reproductive rights, etc. In our society, parents force their daughters for the marriage because people think a girl becomes old for marriage if not gets married at her early age. In spite of the severe consequences, people continue this evil practice in order to maintain the family status in the communities.

Early marriage effectively blocks many young opportunities to learn life skills. According to The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006, the minimum age of female for marriage, is 18 years old and for male is 21 years old. In spite of the government rule, child marriage practice is prevalent in India. About 47% of the brides in India are under the age of 18 years. The highest child marriage rate is in the Jharkhand (14.1%).

Wedding of a girl at an early age can cause serious health problems among the child brides. There are many serious adverse impacts on the women because of the early marriage.

Instability:

About 19% in the rural and 29% in urban areas married couples get divorced because of the early marriage. In many cases, reason cited is "too young at the time of wedding" for the dissolutions of the relationship after wedding.

Ill health:

Early marriage is a devastating practice of our society which results in the ill health of a girl. At a young age, their body is neither physically nor emotionally developed to give birth to a baby. Therefore, the child brides face higher risk of death at the time of pregnancy. The married females below the age of 14 are more than 8.4%. About 60% of the mothers die at the time of pregnancy because of the underdeveloped body to conceive a baby at the early age.

Education:

When a girl married at the early age, they get less time for the education. People expect that female will take the responsibility of home and, therefore, women do not able to attend the school and colleges after getting married. About 28% women do not receive education after the marriage and reason cited is early marriage or childbearing. An uneducated woman gets less opportunity for the employment, and lack of income causes poverty. Sometimes they became the worst sufferers of poverty when their husbands die or divorce them.

Domestic violence:

When women get married at the age of 15 to 19 are at the higher risk of domestic violence. Many young brides suffer from the sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress.

In many surveys, people observed, the child brides are often from the poor families, who consider their daughter as liability, and when their daughter get married they represent as their success. In our society, Women empowerment is necessary so that women can fight for their rights in the male dominant society. A service started by the Uttar Pradesh police, Women Power Line, to provide security to the women at the time of emergency and also empower them to fight for their rights instead of ignoring them. Every day WPL members attend more than 50 calls from the teen girls because their parents forced them to get married in the early age. The women constables of the WPL counsel their family. They provide knowledge on the importance of educated women in the society and negative consequences of early marriage. The girls can immediately seek help from the Women Power Line 1090 number if their parents forced them into the early marriage.