Early_Marriage_in_Nigeria__Causes,_Consequences,_and_Solutions

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TOPIC EARLY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND SOLUTIONS A TERM PAPER PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE COURSE GSP 101 BY AKPAN, ANTHONY JOSEPH 2008/162580 LECTURER: U.N OKEBALAMA (MRS.) MAY, 2010 TITLE EARLY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND SOLUTIONS DEDICATION Mr. and Mrs J. R. Akpan, the only parents I can pray and wish for and to my kid brother Anthony (Jnr.,) and nephew BoBo. You are all always in my mind. PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Throughout the world, marriage is regarded as a moment of celebration and a milestone in adult life. Sadly, as this term paper makes clear, the practice of early marriage gives no such cause for celebration. All too often, the imposition of a marriage partner upon a child means that a girl or boys childhood is cut short and their fundamental rights are compromised. Over the last years past, the phenomena of child marriage and early marriage has become rampant. While much of the impact remains hidden, it is absolutely clear that millions of children and young people particularly girls suffer negative consequences. This term paper is comprised of five chapters and is thus segmented: Chapter One handles the introductory part of the paper; definition of early marriage and an overview of it with regards to the Nigerian society. Chapter Two of this term paper looks at the reasons for the perpetuation of early marriage, and its possible increase in populations under stress. A key factor is poverty, with the marriage of children often seen as a strategy for economic survival. In addition, it is perceived as a way to protect girls and to provide some stability in situations where societies are under extreme pressure. Chapter Three also examines the harmful impact and consequences of the practice. These consequences include complications and even death in pregnancy and childbirth of wives too young to safely bear children, denial of the educational rights of “child brides” and complete excision of their social life. Finally, Chapter Four offers positive guidelines to end the practice of early marriage, change attitudes in families and in societies at large, extend opportunities education, offer appropriate support to families and children, and seek to have all children recognized as valuable members of society rather than economic burdens. Chapter Five handles the conclusion of this term paper and brings to light the intention of this write up which is to raise awareness of the situation and, where necessary, to stimulate action. Both government and civil society are encouraged to initiate research in this area where there is insufficient data.. I am indebted to Gabriel for being a source of encouragement when the going was tough, Mr. Dani Brasco for help in sourcing for materials, and to my lecturer Mrs. Okebalama for her support and understanding. Special Thanks goes to my parents Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Akpan for believing in me and being there for me. TABLE OF CONTENTS Title i Dedication ii Preface and acknowledgement iii Table of contents iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Marriage as an institution 1 2. Definition of early marriage 1 3. An overview of early marriage 2 CHAPTER TWO: CAUSES OF EARLY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA 1. Poverty and economic causes 3 2. As a means of Protecting girls 3 3. Lack of knowledge 4 4. Tradition and Cultural values 5 CHAPTER THREE: CONSEQUENCES OF EARLY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA 5 1. Instability of Marriage 5 3.2 Fistula and related problems 5 3.3 HIV/AIDS Infection 6 3.4 Inability to plan families 7 3.5 Psychological disadvantages 7 3.6 Violence and Abandonment 8 3.7 Complicated pregnancy and childbirth 9 3.8 Poor infant and childhood care 10 3.9 The denial of Education 11 CHAPTER FOUR: SOLUTIONS TO THE ISSUES OF EARLY MARRIAGE 1. Support for physical wellbeing 12 2. Education for empowerment and intellectual development 13 3. Support for psychological wellbeing and emergency assistance 13 4. Support for improved economic status 14 5. Legal change 14 6. Advocacy 14 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 15 REFERENCES CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITION OF TERMS 1.1 MARRIAGES AS AN INSTITUTION Marriage is defined in the English Dictionary as a legally recognized relationship, established by a civil or religious ceremony, between two people who intend to live together as sexual and domestic partners. A marital relationship usually involves some kind of contract, either written or specified by tradition, which defines the partners’ rights and obligations to each other, to any children they may have, and to their relatives. In most contemporary industrialized societies, marriage is certified by the government. 1.2 DEFINITION OF EARLY MARRIAGE The Inter-African Committee (IAC) on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children states that early marriage is: “Any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is physically, physiologically, and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing”. The Forum on Marriage echoes this position. 1.3 AN OVERVIEW OF EARLY MARRIAGE The right to exercise a choice in marriage was recognized as a principle of law even in Roman times and has long been established in international human rights instruments. Yet many girls, and a smaller number of boys, enter marriage without any chance of exercising their right to choose Early marriage usually refers to two separate social phenomena which are practiced in some societies. The first and more widespread practice is that of marrying a young child (generally defined as below the age of fifteen) to an adult. In practice, it is almost always a young girl married to a man. The second practice is a form of arranged marriage in which the parents of two children from different families arrange a future marriage. In this practice, the individuals who become betrothed often do not meet one another until the wedding ceremony, which occurs when they are both considered to be of a marriageable age Child marriages may have many purposes. The aristocracy of some cultures tends to use child marriage among different factions as a method to secure political ties between them. In the lower classes,families could use child marriages as means to gain financial ties with wealthier people, ensuring their successions. CHAPTER TWO CAUSE OF EARLY MARRIAGE 2.1 POVERTY/ECONOMIC CAUSES Some analysts explain early marriage in Nigeria as a way to improve the economic status of the family, arguing that poverty forces families to marry their daughters at a young age. Where poverty is acute, a young girl may be regarded as an economic burden and her marriage and her marriage to a much older-sometimes even elderly-man, is a family survival strategy, and may even be seen as in her interests. 2.2 PROTECTING GIRLS Early marriage is one way to ensure that a wife is ‘protected’, or placed firmly under male control; that she is submissive to her husband and works hard for her in-laws’ household; that the children she bears are ‘legitimate’; and that bonds of affection between couples do not undermine the family unit. One important impetus for marrying girls at an early age is that it helps prevent premarital sex and unwanted pregnancy and for many societies that prize virginity before marriage this can manifest itself in a number of practices designed to ‘protect’ a girl from unsanctioned sexual activity. 2.3 LACK OF KNOWLEDGE It may also be thought that parents approve and practice early marriage because they are ignorant of its negative consequences upon their daughters. Another important reason for the continuity of the practice of early marriage in spite of the legal provisions is the impression among parents that the laws and their consequences pose little real threat because lack of awareness of the newly adopted criminal code which criminalizes and penalizes the practice. 2.4 TRADITION/CULTURAL VALUES The major reported explanations for the approval and actual practice of early marriage include the desire or need to maintain the family’s good name and social standing since an older unmarried daughter can become a disgrace to her family, prompting community rejection of the family and victimization of the girl through verbal attacks and gossip. There is also a personal interest - mostly among fathers - to create bonds or relationships with families of choice. These customs, combined with a fear that the girl might become unmarriageable later in life and the need to ensure virginity of the girls at the time of marriage, are the driving causes of early marriage. . CHAPTER THREE CONSEQUENCES OF EARLY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA 3.1 INSTABILITY OF MARRIAGE Family is the fundamental unit of any society, and the welfare of a society directly affects the well being of families that constitute it. The stability of marriage has important direct effects on the well being of a family. A major negative consequence of early marriage is instability, (disagreements and eventual divorce or separation). Marriage without consent is widely thought to be the major cause for most of the divorces, and many of the early marriages are conducted without the consent of the girls. 3.2 FISTULA AND RELATED PROBLEMS The problem of fistula is foremost among the health impacts of early marriage. Prolonged and obstructed labor in most cases results in obstetric fistulas. High rates of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) are clearly identified with marriage and childbearing in the 10-15 year old age group; in one study in Niger, 88 percent of women with fistula were in this age group at marriage. Unless the mother receives emergency obstetric care, relentless pressure from the baby's skull can damage the birth canal, causing breakages in the wall, allowing uncontrollable leakage from the bladder into the vagina. The same problem may also occur in relation to the rectum, with leakage of faeces (rectovaginal fistulas, or RVF). In Nigeria, where the condition affects around 150,000 women, 80-90 percent of wives with VVF are divorced by their husbands. It is important here to note that problems with fistulas are generally kept secret and rarely publicized; only those who are very close to the concerned individual know about it. 3.3 HIV/AIDS INFECTION Although the risk increase to HIV/AIDS infection is not directly related to youth, instability is very common in early marriages, since the women enter the union by force and lack commitment and love to maintain the marriage. They run away back to their parents or to towns in search of a better livelihood, getting employed as housemaids or sex workers. This increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and other STIs. Young girls are more susceptible than mature women to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. This is the result of both biological factors, such as hormonal fluctuations and the permeability of vaginal tissue, and social factors, such as skewed power relations between women and men that make it difficult for girls and young women to negotiate safe sex. 3.4 INABILITY TO PLAN FAMILIES Early marriage increases the span of a woman’s reproductive period, and those who marry earlier are more likely to have a greater number of children than others. Due to age differences, economic dependency, lack of education, and many other associated factors, early-married women have and exercise lower sexual and reproductive rights than those who marry at appropriate ages. They have less ability to make decisions on matters related to reproductive health, such as the use of contraceptives and rights over sexuality (the ability to say “No” when asked for sex by husbands). Thus, early marrying women have less chance of spacing and/or avoiding unwanted pregnancy. 3.5 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISADVANTAGE The loss of adolescence, the forced sexual relations, and the denial of freedom and personal development attendant on early marriage have profound psychosocial and emotional consequences. The impact can be subtle and insidious and the damage hard to assess. It includes such intangible factors as the effect of a girl’s loss of mobility and her confinement to the home and to household roles. Obviously there is a marked lack of data in these areas, and social researchers have failed to examine the impacts of early marriage in this context. The child bride who is widowed very young can suffer additional discrimination. Widows suffer loss of status and they, along with their children, are often denied property rights, and a range of other human rights. Child widows with little education and no means of earning are especially powerless. 3.6 VIOLENCE AND ABANDONMENT The UK working group on forced marriage found that many of the victims of this practice suffered from prolonged domestic violence, but felt unable to leave the marriage because of economic pressures, lack of family support and other social circumstances. If this is happening in a society where forced marriage is not the norm, it is safe to assume that such a challenge is far less likely from a girl in an environment where early and forced marriages are commonplace. Research shows that over 29 percent of married adolescents have been beaten by their husband (or husband and others), and of these 41 per cent have been beaten during pregnancy. A study in Nigeria, published in 2000 found that 26 per cent of reported cases of domestic violence were committed against wives under 18. Early marriage is often linked to wife abandonment, as shown by its association with divorce and separation. Violent behavior towards a wife, including coercive sex, plays a major role in marital breakdown. In general, it has been found that girls who marry early are three times more likely to be divorced than those married later. 3.7 COMPLICATED PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH The risks of early pregnancy and childbirth are well documented: increased risk of dying, increased risk of premature labor, complications during delivery, low birth-weight, and a higher chance that the newborn will not survive. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for 15-19 year-old girls (married and unmarried) worldwide. Mothers in this age group face a 20 to 200 per cent greater chance of dying in pregnancy than women aged 20 to 24. Those under age 15 are five times as likely to die as women in their twenties. The main causes are hemorrhage, sepsis, preeclampsia/eclampsia and obstructed labor. Some specific local studies show worse outcomes for the very young mother: in Zaria, Nigeria, maternal mortality among women younger than 16 was found to be six times higher than for women aged 20-24, and similar findings have been reported from Cameroon and Ethiopia. For every woman who dies in childbirth, 30 more suffer injuries, infections and disabilities, which usually go untreated and some of which are lifelong. Part of this heavy toll has more to do with poor socio-economic status and lack of ante-natal and obstetric care than physical maturity alone. 3.8 INFANT AND EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE The health problems linked to early marriage not only affect the pregnant mother and the foetus, but also continue after childbirth. Evidence shows that infant mortality among the children of very young mothers is higher – sometimes two times higher – than among those of older peers. A stronger likelihood of low birth-weight in the infant has been recorded among adolescent mothers than among older peers. This is mainly associated with poor maternal nutrition, reinforcing the point that adolescents are ‘unready’ for childbirth. Low birth-weight babies are 5-30 times more likely to die than babies of normal weight. If a mother is under 18, her baby’s chance of dying in the first year of life is 60 per cent higher than that of a baby born to a mother older than 19. A 1993 survey among women married young in Nigeria found that 63 per cent of their children under four were severely malnourished. The immaturity and lack of education of a young mother undermines her capacity for nurture. Even children are able to work this out: it was one reason given by Nepali children for avoiding early marriage, as shown by Save the Children research. Apart from a young woman’s education, early marriage has a negative impact on her children because a very young mother may be unable to give the required care and protection to her children because she herself is a child, and in many instances has not developed the skills such as patience and tolerance needed to raise children. 3.9 THE DENIAL OF EDUCATION Early marriage inevitably denies children of school age their right to the education they need for their personal development, their preparation for adulthood, and their effective contribution to the future wellbeing of their family and society. Early marriage limits a girl’s opportunities to develop her intellect. She also loses out on socializing, making friends outside her family circle, and many other useful skills. Lack of schooling also means that those girls and women who must work to earn a living have no qualifications or skills. Illiterate women who are abandoned, widowed or divorced, or who are victims of growing urban poverty, are forced into commercialized versions of their work as wives: cleaning, cooking, child-minding CHAPTER FOUR SOLUTIONS TO THE ISSUES OF EARLY MARRIAGE A range of policy and programmatic actions are needed to reduce early marriage and its impact. Actions to fulfill or restore the rights of those already married should go hand in hand with preventive actions aimed at wider society. The role of government and civil society institutions is to develop and implement suitable systems to prevent or discourage the practice. 4.1 SUPPORT FOR PHYSICAL WELLBEING This is primarily intended to maintain sexual and reproductive health, starting by ensuring that both girls and boys learn about sex, reproduction and the related risks at an early age. Information should replace ‘ignorance plus early marriage’ as the child sexual protection strategy. There is an urgent need to transform attitudes and approaches towards adolescent health care and provide services that are accessible to married and unmarried youngsters of both sexes. Life skills education for sexual health and negotiation needs to be provided in the classroom, in youth clubs and through newsletters and radio programmes. 4.2 EDUCATION FOR EMPOWERMENT AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT The key to girls’ progress is education and learning. Giving high priority to education for women as well as men will change the way men and women perceive their roles and potential, and will lead to greater support for the rights of women than is found in many other parts of Nigeria. Girls who attend school become educated women and, in turn, contribute in human and economic terms to society in a way that goes far beyond their capacity for child bearing and domestic work. 4.3 SUPPORT FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AND EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE Very often, the only option for girls and women in situations of extreme marital stress is to run away. Many runaways end up in poor urban communities, including brothel communities. Community-based and women’s groups provide the best services, but they often lack support from traditional institutions, are poorly funded, and may have to operate in secrecy – attacked for undermining cultural values. NGOs and government can help to provide counseling, temporary refuge, employment support and help such women establish their own independence. Many girls, of course, do not run away. 4.4 SUPPORTS FOR IMPROVED ECONOMIC STATUS Some interventions on behalf of adolescent girls have focused on improving their economic situation as a means of granting them higher status and more control over their lives – including their options in marriage. Approaches may include training in livelihood skills and support for girls in the labor market. 4.5 LEGAL CHANGE Apply checks and monitor the extent to which courts are implementing the existing relevant laws (on birth registration, marriage age and marriage rights) regularly. 4.6 ADVOCACY Creating the circumstances in which such subjects can be addressed, especially in traditional rural societies and ethnic groups where early marriage is common, is a vital pre-condition for hastening its end. Advocacy is needed at all levels of society, but particularly at household and community level, to influence attitudes. Governments should be encouraged to create a policy climate that supports later marriage, through scholarship provision, legal reform, and affirmative policies and programmes on behalf of women. CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION In my own country, Nigeria, girls still get married early and many start having children while they are still in their teens. This is a threat to their health and their lives; maternal mortality is unacceptably high and the greatest danger is to the youngest women. Early marriage is a powerful disincentive to their educational opportunities; it is a threat to their reproductive health; and it is highly risky for both mother and child, for adolescent girls are physically, mentally and emotionally unprepared for childbirth. Our common aim should be to make it unacceptable in a social as well as a legal sense, to men as well as to women; and to promote actions that will enhance the physical and mental development of young girls and boys and their human rights as a whole. We want to promote an atmosphere in which couples are free to make choices, firmly grounded in maturity, and to wait until they are ready for marriage. Working together to change attitudes and legislation, improve data collection and promote education, we can achieve this. REFERENCES Amhara Region Women’s Affairs Office. Information Bulletin, July 2003. Ayers K. Lauren, “Teenage Girls”. 1996. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) “Nigerian Girl Sues Over Forced Marriage” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hilafrica/2242842 Accessed 14 May, 2010. Central Statistical Agency and Macro Orc. 2006. Ethiopia: Demographic and Health Survey, 2005. Cochran W. G. 1963. Cochran, W. G. (1977). Sampling Techniques, 3rd Edition. Wiley Eastern Limited, Delhi. Danmbaezue, Mbaezue Okonkwu “Psychometric Family Counselling”. 2009. Encyclopedia de L’ Agora, N.d. “Nigeria” http://agora.qc.calmot.nsf/Dossiers/Nigeria Accessed 14 May, 2010. Encyclopedia of the third world. 1992. 4th Edition. 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