Peer-reviewed article
Child marriage in South Asian countries
Rasika Karunarathne Karunarathne ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This article examines child marriage in South Asian countries, including Sri Lanka. It discusses how marriage is considered important in society but notes that early marriage for girls creates serious problems. The article highlights that while most countries have set legal minimum marriage ages to protect children, child marriage cases continue to be reported globally. The document emphasizes that girls who marry young lose access to education and other fundamental rights.
Key points
- Child marriage is a widespread issue in developing countries including South Asia despite legal restrictions
- Early marriage prevents girls from completing education and accessing other child rights
- Biological and psychological maturity is considered necessary before marriage can be successful
- Many countries have introduced legal actions to stop child marriage
- Child marriage cases continue to be reported worldwide despite legal constraints
Limitations
This document is primarily descriptive and provides a general overview of child marriage in South Asia without presenting specific data, statistics, or detailed analysis of individual country contexts. It does not evaluate any intervention or provide evidence of effectiveness of specific prevention strategies.
Abstract
Marriage is an important incidencein any society since it helpsthe existence of society. Sociologically marriage is an important factor because it obviously makesmany relationships in society. Mature age is considered the most suitable age for marriage in the world but there is no exact age to enter marriage a girl in World, and it differs from country to country. When it is discussed early marriage, the attention always focuses on child girls because they absolutely become destitute with marriage. Having considered the issues related to child marriage, most countries have determined the marriage age to maintain the social security and protection of children. Mature age is highly considered for marriage because it is believed that he/she should be able to adapt the marriage life in both a biological and psychological manner. Especially one girl who become mature, will get an opportunity to enter marriage life thereby the girl should be able to take responsibility in marriage life otherwise the marriage life would be unpleasant, therefore, it is highly considered that marriage should not happen at an early age because it makes many difficulties for child aged girl. The majority of all over the world believe that marriage should occur when a girl becomes mature. Whenever a young girl enters marriage she has to relinquish education and other child rights vested by universal. Child marriage which occurs everywhere in the world even today has become a tremendous issue in developing countries like South Asia. And it has also brought many issues to the girls who entered early marriages. Understanding the negative impact of child marriage many countries have decided to stop by introducing legal actions. Although child marriage is constrained by law in many countries, there are many child marriage cases are reported worldwide. It is vitally important to understand the situation of child marriage in the world and Asian countries to solve this issue. This article aimsto examine child marriage in South Asian countries and its nature.