Across the developing world, ten million girls are married off each
year before the age of eighteen, usually against their will. One in
seven of those girls is younger than fifteen. In some places this
problem is well known; in India, the efforts of both international and
domestic rights groups have started conversations and enabled laws that
try to curb this longstanding disturbing practice. But elsewhere, the
tradition of child marriage holds firm. The challenges faced by a female
child bride are profound: the dwindling of opportunities for education,
the loss of any hope for economic independence, the threat of infant
mortality—the total narrowing of the girl’s life. And while child
marriage is technically illegal in much of the world, laws in many
jursidictions are rarely enforced. Years go by and more girls are added
to the ranks of those who forfeit their futures to live the life of a
child bride.
The Ford Foundation released an interactive world map on child marriage
this week that collates and threads together the research of dozens of
NGOs across the world. Their project aims to make it easier for both
people at home to better grasp the global challenge that child marriage
presents and for disparate advocacy groups to see themselves as part of a
larger movement. Although the final and long-lasting efforts must be
made by national governments themselves, the Ford Foundation feels there
is also a place for international groups to provide ties and support.
“We believe very strongly that if you’re looking at long term change,
there is absolutely a role for outside partners who may bring in certain
expertise…[and] help connect groups to resources,” says Margaret
Hempel, the director of the organization’s Sexuality, and Reproductive
Health and Rights program, “but in the end the lasting solutions will
come from the people who are most directly effected.”
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