Africa Knowledge Hub for Children

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref4 Oct 2026

Child Loss among Adolescent Mothers in India: Associations with Consanguineous Marriage, Child Marriage and Teenage Childbirth

Introduction: Teenage childbearing increases the risk of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. According to NFHS-5, 7% of women aged 15–19 in India have begun childbearing, including 5% who have had a live birth and 2% who are pregnant with their first child. Child marriage remains common in several northern Indian states and is a major driver of early and high-risk fertility. Consanguineous marriage, prevalent in parts of India, may further increase reproductive risks. This study examines the individual and combined effects of consanguineous marriage, child marriage, and teenage pregnancy on child loss among adolescent women in India.Method: Data were drawn from NFHS-5 for women aged 15–19 years. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests assessed associations between key predictors and child loss. Univariate and bivariate analyses, followed by binary logistic regression, estimated the independent and combined effects of consanguinity, age at marriage, and teenage pregnancy.Results: Consanguineous marriage and child marriage were associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, while their combined effect further increased the probability of first-child death. The overall model was statistically significant (χ²(5,5462) = 25.278, p < 0.01). Women who married at age 18 or older had 1.2 times higher odds of having a living child than women who experienced child marriage.Conclusion: Consanguineous marriage and child marriage significantly increase the risk of child loss among adolescent mothers in India. Interventions should focus on improving education, reducing poverty, delaying marriage, and increasing awareness of the reproductive risks associated with consanguinity and early pregnancy.

S Radhakrishnan

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref30 Sept 2020

Are Indonesian Girls Okay? An Examination of The Discourse of Child Marriage, Victimization, and Humanitarian Visuality of Global South Girls

The discourse of child marriage in relation to the lives of the girls in Indonesia specifically and the Global South generally is often limited to describing their vulnerability and position as victims. Practices of child marriage are inseparable from its exploitative and harmful nature. This paper, however, shows that the discourse of child marriage produced in humanitarian projects and interventions often avoids the complexity and diversity of the practices and the lives of the girls and reduces the problem into monolithic narrative of their communities’ traditions, backwardness, and inherent gender inequality. This paper asks: How has the discourse of child marriage in relation to Indonesian girls developed historically? How have international NGOs depicted the issue of child marriage? We show that child marriage discourse is historically rooted in colonial ideas surrounding modernity, childhood, and marriage, and that documents published by international NGOs tend to flatten the complex experiences and lives of Indonesian girls.

Annisa R Beta, Ryan Febrianto

ProtectionParticipationIDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref4 Jun 2026

Examining the Consequences of School Bans on the Self-esteem of Afghan Adolescent Girls in Kabul, Afghanistan

Abstract Following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, they systematically banned Afghan girls from formal education beyond the sixth grade across the country, forcibly depriving millions of girls of educational opportunities in Afghanistan. This qualitative study explores the consequences of school bans on the psychological well-being and self-esteem of Afghan adolescent girls by examining how prolonged adversity following abrupt school bans, conceptualised as a potentially traumatic life experience, has affected Afghan adolescent girls’ daily routines, educational goals, and aspirations. The study employs semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The participants comprise 10 Afghan girls aged between 13 and 18 residing in Kabul. Data collection was conducted online from 17 August to 4 September, approximately three years after the imposition of school bans. Most participants had been experiencing school exclusion for three years. The findings indicate significant shifts in participants’ daily routines and psychological well-being, particularly among those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Participants who experienced abrupt school exclusion reported lower psychological well-being, including increased social isolation, compared to those with prior awareness. In addition to the loss of agency experienced by the participants, the data analysis reveals stress-related somatic symptoms, including headaches, among a small number of participants. These findings emphasise the pressing need for psychological support and educational opportunities to mitigate the effects of prolonged adversity.

Fahima Sediqi

DevelopmentProtectionAFRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref26 Jul 2025

Impact of education in preventing child marriage among girls in South Asia: A qualitative study

Background: Child marriage is a serious human rights violation that disproportionately affects girls, harming their health, rights, and future opportunities. This study focuses on five South Asian countries Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives to explore the link between education and the prevention of child marriage. It aims to analyze current trends in child marriage and the challenges girls face in accessing education in the region. Method: Based on quantitative methodology, using secondary data from UNICEF, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and the World Bank data from 2006-2023, the study conducted descriptive and comparative analyses of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. This identifies trends, patterns, and correlations between the female child marriage rate as the dependent variable and the female lower secondary education completion rate as the independent variable. Results: Between 2006 and 2023, a declining trend in child marriage rates was observed across five selected South Asian countries: Bangladesh (65% to 51%), India (45% to 22%), Nepal (50% to 35%), Sri Lanka (13% to 10%), and the Maldives (4% to 2%) respectively. In this region, Bangladesh continues to report the highest child marriage rate, while the Maldives reports the lowest, Sri Lanka ranked as the second-lowest. During the same period, female lower secondary education completion rates increased in all five countries. However, negative relationship identified between education levels and child marriage. Moreover, in Maldives, the highest female education completion rate identified (100.9%), and the lowest child marriage rate was (2%). In contrast, Bangladesh (91%) and Nepal (103%) show higher education rates but still report high child marriage rates (51% and 35%). This indicated that factors beyond education, such as socio-cultural influences, may contribute to early marriage. Conclusion: The findings revealed that education plays a crucial role in reducing child marriage. However, addressing socio-cultural barriers, especially in countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, is crucial. Key obstacles to girls' education in the region include poverty, inadequate infrastructure, gender inequality, political instability, and unsafe school environments.

K. N. Isurika, S. S. Ramanayake

ProtectionDevelopmentBDINNPLKRead at source

OtherCrossref17 Mar 2026

Child Marriage (Girls) in Bangladesh and its Remedies from Islamic Perspective

Child marriage under the age of 18 is considered as a criminal offence and a violation of the state’s constitutional law. Most of the time child marriage occurs in Bangladesh due to poverty and lack of awareness of its consequence. In Islam, it is strongly discouraged to arrange the marriage of girls without taking their full consent. However, this paper explores the present scenario of cultural practices of child marriage occurring in Bangladesh. The study will also focus on highlighting the major causes that led to child marriage under the age of puberty. The paper will also highlight the states’ constitutional law on child marriage and their jurisdiction over the issue. The current study adopts qualitative methods to meet its objectives through investigating existing available literature related to the issue concerned. The study finds that child marriage often occurs due to high-rate poverty, normative thoughts about the position of girls, high rate of uneducated parents and lack of strict implementation of constitutional law on those who are involved such kind of act in the family and in society. The study also finds through its discussion that due to early marriage young couples go through certain serious issues which affect their life crucially, i.e., psychological trauma, reproductive health issues, increasing domestic violence and increasing illiteracy rates in the family and in society. Finally, the present study will analyze how to prevent child marriage based on the Islamic teachings set by the Qur’an and Sunnah

Muhammad Faizul Haque, Sumaiya Islam, Mst. Rikta Banu

ProtectionDevelopmentSurvivalBDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref5 Jun 2026

A Descriptive Analysis of Adolescent Girls Affected by Child Marriage

Pernikahan anak secara luas diakui sebagai pelanggaran hak anak, namun remaja di banyak daerah pedesaan tetap sangat rentan. Data dari Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) Indonesia dalam “Laporan Statistik Pemuda Indonesia” 2024 menunjukkan bahwa 21,49% anak muda di Indonesia menikah pada usia 18 tahun atau lebih muda, 18,55% menikah dalam kelompok usia 16-18 tahun, sedangkan 2,39% menikah sebelum usia 16 tahun. Meskipun penelitian global telah dilakukan secara ekstensif, bukti empiris tentang pengalaman hidup remaja putri di pedesaan Indonesia, khususnya di Jawa Barat, masih terbatas. Studi ini mengeksplorasi pengalaman remaja putri yang terdampak pernikahan anak di Desa Sukaharja, Sariwangi, Tasikmalaya, Indonesia. Dengan menggunakan desain deskriptif kualitatif, data dikumpulkan melalui wawancara mendalam, observasi partisipan, dan tinjauan dokumen. Lima remaja putri yang dipilih secara purposif, yang semuanya telah menjalani pernikahan agama yang tidak terdaftar, berperan sebagai informan kunci. Data dianalisis secara tematik untuk mengidentifikasi pola dan wawasan utama. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa perkawinan anak terkait dengan kerentanan sosial ekonomi dan rendahnya pencapaian pendidikan, yang dipicu oleh kehamilan di luar nikah, rasa malu sosial, dan sanksi adat. Konsekuensinya meliputi putus sekolah, kurangnya sertifikasi formal, pengucilan sosial, dan masa depan yang tidak pasti. Persepsi masyarakat bervariasi, dipengaruhi oleh adat istiadat setempat, media sosial, dan pendidikan kesehatan reproduksi yang terbatas. Temuan ini menyoroti perlunya intervensi terkoordinasi, termasuk penyebaran Undang-Undang No. 16/2019, pembentukan forum perlindungan anak, dan pengembangan inisiatif desa ramah anak, yang menyediakan strategi berbasis bukti untuk melindungi remaja di pedesaan Indonesia.

Bambang Rustanto, Tuti Kartika, Aryohaji Istyawan et al.

ProtectionDevelopmentIDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref6 Oct 2021

Knowledge and viewpoint of adolescent girls regarding child marriage, its causes and consequences

Abstract Background Child marriage is a violation of children’s rights and it exposes them to social isolation and psychological damages. These negative effects are not limited to them and expands to the family and society as well. The present research aimed at determining the knowledge and viewpoint of adolescent girls regarding child marriage, its causes and consequences in the city of Tabriz-Iran, in 2020–2021. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out on 300 adolescent girls who had records in the health centers in the city of Tabriz. The data were collected using the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, questionnaire of knowledge, and view of adolescent girls regarding child marriage, and its causes and consequences. The multivariate logistic regression model with adjusting the sociodemographic characteristics was used to determine the relationship between the viewpoint of adolescent girls about child marriage and their knowledge in this regard. Results The mean (SD) knowledge about child marriage was 6.70 (3.09) (score range: 0–11). The majority of the girls (85.4%) were against marriage before the age of 18 and only 16 girls (5.1%) of them agreed with marriage before the age of 18. Investigating the viewpoint of adolescent girls regarding the causes of child marriage revealed that the important issue leading to reduction of child marriage can be “intellectual, emotional, social, and economic maturity of girls plus their physical puberty (92.4% agree), increase in the girls’ education (79% agree) and increasing girls’ awareness regarding the consequences of early marriage in schools and media (69.6% agree). Illiteracy or lack of education of parents (64% agree), meeting the emotional needs (59.3% agree), family problems and conflicts (59.6% agree), and lack of exhilaration in daily life, especially in the rural regions and suburbs (58.3% agree) were among the reasons of increase of child marriage. The most important consequence of child marriage from the viewpoint of the girls is deprivation from the chance of education. The results of multivariate logistic regression model by adjusting the possible confounding variables, showed that girls who believed the appropriate age for marriage is under 20 were almost 13 times more likely to agree with child marriage than girls who believed the appropriate age for marriage is over 20 years (aOR = 13.82; 95% Cl 2.61–71.16 p = 0.002) and girls who opposed their parents’ decision to marry under the age of 18 were less likely to agree with the child marriage than girls who did not oppose their decision (aOR = 0.09; 95% Cl 0.01–0.63 p = 0.016). Conclusions The results revealed a good level of knowledge and negative attitude to child marriage among the girls. The girls who disagreed with child marriage were more knowledgeable than the girls who agreed with child marriage. Thus, the increase of the level of knowledge of girls and their families regarding the consequences of early marriage and developing the culture for correcting the cultural beliefs and wrong social beliefs to prevent child marriage can decrease this damage to a great extent.

Somayyeh Naghizadeh, Mojgan Mirghafourvand, Azam Mohammadi et al.

ProtectionParticipationDevelopmentIRRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleCrossref29 Jan 2026

Implementing Indonesia’s marriage-age reform: Child marriage dispensation and girls’ health rights

In Indonesia, marriage age reform has been implemented by raising the minimum age limit to 19 years as an effort to prevent child marriage. However, in practice, this reform faces dispensations that were initially designed as emergency exceptions but have instead become the primary mechanism of implementation, normalising exceptions and shifting the logic of protection to procedural compliance. This article analyses the transformation of these dispensations and their implications for girls' reproductive health rights at the grassroots level. Using a qualitative juridical-empirical approach with a case study in Nyawangan Village, Tulungagung, data were collected through interviews with KUA officers, health workers, and village officials, as well as observations and document reviews. Framed by the Effectiveness of Law theory, the article reveals that dispensations operate as the practical face of reform through routine administrative processes, driven by social, economic, and institutional pressures, with minimal substantive intervention. As a result, considerations of reproductive health and the psychosocial readiness of girls are often overlooked, creating a gap between procedural legality and substantive protection. This article recommends reinstating dispensations as high-threshold exceptions, subject to strict evidentiary standards, standardised health assessments, and cross-institutional coordination focused on delaying marriage. The implication is that marriage-age reform must be firmly embedded at the normative level and supported by governance that truly centres on the best interests of girls.

Khofifah Indah Imas Syuroya, Nilna Husnayain

ProtectionSurvivalIDRead at source

OtherCrossref1 Jan 2025

Girls Education and Challenges of Child Marriage-An Impact on the Society

Education is the fundamental concept in order to attain human potential, to develop an equitable and just society, thereby providing universal access to quality education and also in promoting national development. The global education development agenda reflected in the Goal 4 (SDG4) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by our nation in 2015 itself seeks to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality of education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" by 2030. NEP 2020 provides for setting up a Gender Inclusion Fund (GIF) to build the nation's capability to provide equitable quality education for all girls. But Girls education is a big challenge to India and it is also very difficult to develop the girls socially and economically as child marriage is one of the biggest obstacle. Though NEP offers an equity model in giving education, most of the girls are forced to marry at an early age which results in a plethora of problems such as health issues, personality development, and empowerment of women and so on. If we look into the dominant factors that lead to child marriage we can list out the issues of poverty, unemployment, economic backwardness, and superstitious beliefs among the lead factors. We can also notice the typical stereotypical issue of gender-based violence in imparting education to young girls. Poor and uneducated families usually favor boys when they deviate their mind in investing for education. In some places, schools do not meet the safety, hygiene or sanitation needs of girls. This paper focuses on analyzing the New Education Policy 2020 in addressing the girls education and the challenges of the child marriage which is one of the barrier to achieve the goal being set up by SDG4.

Dr. Akshatha Paranjyothi Kumar

DevelopmentProtectionINRead at source

Evaluation reportCrossref1 Jan 2023

Results from the Basmeh & Zeitooneh (B&Z) intervention to empower adolescent girls and young women at risk of child marriage and poor reproductive health among the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon

This report presents results from the final evaluation of a social, health, and economic asset-building program implemented by the Lebanon-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Basmeh & Zeitooneh (B&Z) and aimed at reducing the social isolation of vulnerable adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 10–21 years old living in the Shatila and Burj al Barajneh refugee camps in South Beirut. The program sought to help girls gain the skills and knowledge they need to avoid child marriage and adolescent pregnancy and to make a healthy transition to adulthood despite the numerous challenges they face. The program focused on two sub-populations of girls at heightened risk of poor health and social outcomes: 10–15- year-old girls who are out of school and 13–21 year-old girls who are married. The report presents findings from the most recent iteration of this program, which took place in two phases—Round 2 between May and September 2022 and Round 3 between November 2022 and March 2023—and built upon a previous round of the program—Round 1—which was also conducted in partnership with Population Council (between May and September 2021).

Rima Mourtada

ProtectionDevelopmentPractitionerLBRead at source

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