Relationship between Child Marriage and Domestic Violence
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Child marriage limits young girls’ skills, resources, knowledge, social support, mobility and autonomy. Young married girls have little power in relation to their husbands and in-laws. They are therefore extremely vulnerable to domestic violence, abuse and abandonment. Violence may include physical, sexual or psychological abuse.1
Child Marriage ViOlaTeS girlS’ huMan righTS women married after 18 to talk to their husbands about the use of contraception, when they wanted to have children and how many children to have.3 When asked if they never, sometimes or usually participated in decisions about aspects of their lives, women who had married as girls were more likely than those who married later to respond “never.”4 Child Marriage iS COMMOnly aBuSiVe
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Child Marriage and
iCrW and its partners conducted a survey on the well-being of adolescents in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, india in 2004. The survey found that girls who were married before 18 were twice as likely to report being beaten, slapped or threatened by their husbands than girls who married later. They were three times as likely to report being forced to have sex without their consent in the previous six months.2 The ICRW survey also revealed that girls who were married before 18 consistently reported being less able than young
Other studies have also documented the link between child marriage and domestic violence:
• Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence than their peers who marry later.5 For example, in Peru, where more than half of women report having experienced physical or sexual Young Women’s Experience of Domestic Violence, violence, child marriage has been by Age of Marriage, in Bihar and Jharkhand, India found to increase a woman’s In the last six months, chances of being abused.6 did your husband... slap or beat you?
threaten to abandon you or throw you out?
verbally abuse you?
0
10
Child marriage limits young girls’ skills, resources, knowledge, social support, mobility and autonomy. Young married girls have little power in relation to their husbands and in-laws. They are therefore extremely vulnerable to domestic violence, abuse and abandonment. Violence may include physical, sexual or psychological abuse.1
Child Marriage ViOlaTeS girlS’ huMan righTS women married after 18 to talk to their husbands about the use of contraception, when they wanted to have children and how many children to have.3 When asked if they never, sometimes or usually participated in decisions about aspects of their lives, women who had married as girls were more likely than those who married later to respond “never.”4 Child Marriage iS COMMOnly aBuSiVe
AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
Child Marriage and
iCrW and its partners conducted a survey on the well-being of adolescents in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, india in 2004. The survey found that girls who were married before 18 were twice as likely to report being beaten, slapped or threatened by their husbands than girls who married later. They were three times as likely to report being forced to have sex without their consent in the previous six months.2 The ICRW survey also revealed that girls who were married before 18 consistently reported being less able than young
Other studies have also documented the link between child marriage and domestic violence:
• Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence than their peers who marry later.5 For example, in Peru, where more than half of women report having experienced physical or sexual Young Women’s Experience of Domestic Violence, violence, child marriage has been by Age of Marriage, in Bihar and Jharkhand, India found to increase a woman’s In the last six months, chances of being abused.6 did your husband... slap or beat you?
threaten to abandon you or throw you out?
verbally abuse you?
0
10
Links: | New Delhi – 110 003 | India | tel: 91.11.2465.4216 | fax: 91.11.2463.5142 | email: info@icrwindia.org Copyright ©2006 International Center for Research on Women. All rights reserved. Sections of this document may be reproduced without the express permission of but with acknowledgement to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).