Family development: ‘Promoting responsible fatherhood reduces domestic violence’

Promoting responsible fatherhood can help prevent child marriages and domestic violence and contribute to an environment whereby women and children have access to their basic rights.

This was the crux of a discussion held on Monday at a local hotel organised by the Rutgers World Population Foundation (WPF).

Rutgers WPF Assistant Programme Officer Natasha Sajjad said fathers were usually more responsive to children despite being less emotionally expressive with them.

They didn’t spend as much time with children due to other engagements, she added.

“These set patterns are affecting families’ overall development and are the major cause for increasing incidents of domestic violence and early child marriages,” she said.

Patterns of gender inequality were borne out of the stereotypical norms of masculinity and men’s gender identities, said Sajjad.

“This has serious implications for women’s health and social development as well as for men’s health and interpersonal relationships,” she said.

Sajjad referred to a household survey recently conducted in Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Jafferabad and Naseerabad, for which around 5,000 women were interviewed.

While 62 per cent of respondents said they had witnessed domestic violence during their childhoods, 75 per cent said their children had witnessed the physical abuse inflicted upon them by their husbands.

Exposure to such violence had a negative impact on young minds and led to aggressive streaks in their character, she said.

Rutgers WPF Assistant Programme Officer Amina Sarwar said it was critical for women to engage men in childcare activities at home if they wished to see long-term behavioural changes in children.

“Men should play their role in creating an environment which transforms their children’s behaviour so that their sons understand the meaning of gender equality and their daughters understand the concept of female empowerment,” she said.

Sajjad and Sarwar announced that Rutgers WPF would commence a yearlong ‘Green Ribbon’ campaign promoting responsible fatherhood from June 16 on Father’s Day.

Source:  http://tribune.com.pk/story/561534/family-development-promoting-responsible-fatherhood-reduces-domestic-violence/

The menace of swara

On September 10, the police arrested 10 men who are implicated in the ordering of a 13-year-old girl to marry an elderly man in Mingora, in order to settle a feud between two families. The tradition, known as swara, is a Pashtun custom of forcibly marrying girls to men of rival families to settle disputes. In this case, the girl was used to compensate for an extramarital affair her brother had with a woman from the other family, else the girl’s family would have had to pay Rs253,000 or face imprisonment.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this story is that the jirga took place at a police station, which later arrested the offenders. Hopefully, the public pressure that ensued once the story appeared in the media, changed the minds of the authorities. The police, along with the jirga, are at fault for trying to make the girl act against her will. This is highly condemnable as the police are responsible for protecting the rights of citizens.

Conversely, the girl and her family who raised their voice and reported the case to lawyers and the court should be commended for their courage because in Pakistan, often stories only get public attention after a wrong has been committed, rather than before, when someone comes forward to bring attention to an imminent tragedy. The positive outcome in this story is that attention was brought to the issue and action was taken before injustice was delivered.

Now, facing pressure from the courts, the police have formed a committee to investigate the case. While it is a welcome move, a committee should not have to be formed every time tragedy or scandals strike. Specialised teams should already be in place to investigate specific issues that plague our society, such as swara and ‘honour’ killings, domestic, child and labour abuse, youth labour and beggar gangs. Additionally, a committee should be overseeing or working collaboratively with jirgas, if they must exist at all, to ensure their rulings in all cases are just.

Source:  http://tribune.com.pk/story/439352/the-menace-of-swara/

42% of underage married girls from Pakistan

More than 60 million girls around the world were married under the age of 18 last year, out of which 24% were from rural Pakistan and 18% from urban areas, said Blue Veins Programme Coordinator Qamar Naseem at a seminar.

Civil society organizations came together on Tuesday to highlight the issue of child marriages and the role of Union Councils in this regard. The seminar was held under the umbrella of Action Aid in collaboration with Blue Veins and Citizen Rights and Sustainable Development (CRSD).

Naseem added that if child marriages continue at this rate, an additional 100 million underage girls will be married within the next decade. “That is 25,000 new child brides every day for the next 10 years,” he said.

A large number of civil society members including lawyers, government officials, teachers and members of non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations attended the seminar.

Poverty plays a central role in causing and perpetuating early marriage. “Poor families often have few resources to support healthy alternatives for girls, such as giving them proper education,” he added.

In families with limited resources, child marriage is often seen as a way to provide for a daughter’s future. However, girls who marry young have more chances of remaining poor.

Early marriage thwarts a girl’s chances of acquiring education, endangers her health and cuts short her personal growth and development, participants said.

The risk of death for pregnant girls under the age of 15 is five times higher than for women in their twenties. Taken together, the costs of this practice are too high to be ignored. Societies cannot progress when the common practice of marriage dooms them to a life of poverty,” he said.

A religious scholar Maulana Ghousul Kabir expressed his views about early marriages in light of Islam. He said that Islamic law does not sanction child marriages and urged religious clerics to come forward and clear the ‘myth’ that surrounds this issue.

During the session, child marriage survivors also shared their testimonies with the participants and helped them understand how the issue reduces women empowerment.

CRSD Director Idress Kamal said that child marriage has affected many women. “The problem with early marriages is that the bride is immature herself. If she gets pregnant, she is usually underweight and malnourished. Her pregnancy causes many complications, and health risks for the babies in these cases are also high,” he said.

“If a girl is married off at an age when she herself should be playing with dolls, how can she handle a baby or go through delivery?” he questioned.

An Action Aid member, Alia Rasheed, said that gender discrimination is the main reason behind marrying daughters at an early age. “While birth of sons is celebrated, daughters are often seen as burdens.”

Source:http://tribune.com.pk/story/487659/child-marriages-42-of-underage-married-girls-from-pakistan/

Trapped after being forced to say “I do”. Ratnashri, India

Ratnashri Pandey is from Madhya Pradesh. Her family pressured her to marry soon after she passed her class nine examinations. Pandey told Human Rights Watch, “I didn’t want to be married, but a girl’s wishes are not respected. Everyone said I should get married…I got married.” Pandey never set eyes on the groom; not even his photograph. “I told my nana (mother’s father) I wanted to study after marriage.”

She described her struggle to continue her education — juggling household work, fighting with her husband and in-laws to delay pregnancy, and enduring insults and beatings because of her decisions. She separated from her husband because he started beating their young daughter, and eventually divorced him.

She completed her master’s degree and worked as a teacher. But because the income was not enough to support both her and her children, Pandey dreamed of becoming a civil servant. Leaving her children in her parents’ care, she went to another city, moved into a women’s hostel, and started preparing for the State civil services examinations. Her parents spent nearly Rs.300,000 to help. She passed the preliminary examination in 2006. But State policy stopped her in her tracks a month before she was to sit the main examination.

The Madhya Pradesh authorities informed Pandey that she was ineligible to take the exam because she was married as a child, she said. She filed a case in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which granted her permission to write the examination pending a decision on the merits of the case. She did not pass the first time. After another round of litigation, she sat the exam again in 2009. “I spent more time in courts than with my books,” she said. The Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the government rule disqualifying applicants who had married as children. She appealed to the Supreme Court, and awaits the verdict.

 

Source:  http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/girls-voices/trapped-after-being-forced-to-say-i-do-ratnashris-story-india/

The burden of being a child bride in Vietnam

“I was on my way home from school. Together with three men, this boy caught me and tied me up. They carried me to the boy’s house and locked me in a small room for three days. His parents brought alcohol and money to my brother’s house. My brother accepted the price and I became the boy’s wife.”

This is the story of 12-year-old May, a member of the Hmong ethnic group from northern Vietnam’s mountainous Ha Giang province. The colourful local culture and dramatic landscapes of the area attract tourists by the busload, but behind this vista of beauty is the little known custom of hai pu (literally “pull wife”) or bride kidnapping. May’s new husband, Pao, the boy who kidnapped her, is also 12 years old and works across the border in China as a labourer. May didn’t know him before the kidnapping.

Stolen dreams

Although illegal in Vietnam, bride kidnapping is regularly practised in Hmong communities. The process involves a boy kidnapping a girl without her or her family’s consent. Once the girl is at the hopeful husband’s home, his parents are obliged to contact the girl’s family, who can either demand her release or accept the marriage. A bride price, to be paid by the boy’s family, is then negotiated.

May is one of 10 million girls around the world each year who are forced into marriage before they are 18. One in every three girls in the developing world is married by the age of 18; one in seven by the age of 15.

Vietnamese law requires men to be at least 20 years old and women to be at least 18 before marrying. Both spouses must also give free consent. But child marriage persists in rural areas like Ha Giang.

Now I’m married, I will life a life like other married girls in the village: taking care of the family, working on the field and giving birth”
May, 12-year-old

May dearly misses her hour-long walk to school. It was on that same path, slick with mud during the rainy season, that she was kidnapped.

“If I don’t get married at this age, I can go to school and nurture my dream to be a teacher. However, if I become a teacher, no men in the village will want to marry me. They don’t like highly-educated women. They prefer the young ones who can work hard in the field,” she says. “Now I’m married, I will live a life like other married girls in the village: taking care of the family, working on the field and giving birth.”

Left on the shelf

Girls in Ha Giang are considered “left on the shelf” if they are not married by age 18, says Tanushree Soni, Plan International’s gender specialist in Asia.

“Gender is society’s expectation of the roles of men and women, boys and girls. If a society assigns high value and expectations to nurturing roles for women, then girls will be socialised and prepared to perform them.”

These nurturing roles include cooking, cleaning, planting crops and starting a family. Child marriage disproportionately affects the educational opportunities and achievements of married girls, adds Soni.

“Child marriage is closely associated with lower education and economic status of girls. Child brides are less able than older or unmarried girls to access schooling and income-generating opportunities.”

Research by Plan International found that 33 per cent of married boys in Ha Giang have never enrolled in school, compared with 67 per cent of married girls, while only 17 per cent of married girls complete their secondary education compared with 48 per cent of married boys.

Despite opportunities for girls to complete primary and secondary education in Ha Giang, traditional gender roles and expectations are holding girls like May back.

“I’m not happy, but because I am a girl, I cannot do anything to change this,” she says.

Source: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/girls-voices/the-burden-of-being-a-child-bride-in-vietnam/

A mother too soon: Isabel, East Timor

I left school because I was four months pregnant,” says Isabel, a 17-year-old girl who lives in the suburbs of Dili, capital of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Her daughter, Klarisa, is now seven months old and her husband, Joao, is 20 and works as a plumber. The couple married soon after Isabel fell pregnant.

In Timor-Leste, girls can legally be married at 15, boys at 18.

Almost 19 per cent of girls in Timor-Leste are married by the time they are 19. The fertility rate is one of the highest in the region with women having, on average, six children. Marriage, and child marriage in particular, is often a consequence of pregnancy for girls in Timor-Leste.

Isabel dropped out of high school in Grade 10 because she “felt embarrassed” and because it’s a violation of school rules to be pregnant and enrolled as a student.

Girls and boys in Timor-Leste have limited access to family planning services, which are only available to married couples, and little knowledge of sexual education.

“Young people don’t know how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy,” says Isabel.

Child marriage is a plague in Southeast Asia, deeply rooted in poverty, gender inequality and traditional practices. May, Nuan and Isabel have to live with the consequences, forced to drop out of school and risk their lives.

“I still want to enjoy my life and study like my other friends,” says Isabel, “but I can’t because I am a mother and have to stay at home to look after my baby.”

Source:  http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/girls-voices/

Is this a real U-turn? World Bank president speaks at WHA

In an inspiring speech at the 66^th World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation, the President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim said: “Anyone who has provided health care to poor people knows that even tiny out-of-pocket charges can drastically reduce their use of needed services.  This is both unjust and unnecessary.”

Twenty years after the infamous World Bank “Investing in Health” report that set the path towards implementation of user fees and privatisation of health care, no less than the President of the World Bank dares to criticise user fees. The evidence is now very clear that health user fees punish poor people and prevent them from accessing life-saving treatment, especially women and marginalised groups. It is about time to abolish user fees globally. Yet to do so successfully, countries need financial and technical support from the WHO and the World Bank as well as from other donors. The World Bank’s advice and technical assistance at a country level will continue to be a decisive factor in supporting countries to move towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and determining whether or not the World Bank meets its commitments.

And it is not just poor people who face problems with payment for health care. People living above the poverty line and the so-called lower middle class are also badly affected.  According to WHO estimates, every year 100 million people are pushed into poverty and 150 million more suffer economic hardship due to the cost of health care.

For me personally these are not just dry statistics. The numbers represent people that I know very well: family, friends, and neighbours – many of whom have chronic illnesses that require life-long health care which drain the family income and assets

In his speech Jim Kim outlined five specific ways in which the World Bank will support countries to realise UHC: enhancing analytic work and support for strengthening health systems; helping countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 on maternal and child mortality; developing a monitoring framework for UHC coverage in collaboration with the WHO; intensifying work on the science of delivery; and stepping up efforts to improve health through action in other sectors that impact on health.

These are welcome commitments. However, as the English say: “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, which means you have to eat the pudding to know what is inside it. The challenge for the President and his team is now to translate these words into practical measures that bring real benefit to poor people. Still, Jim Kim and the health team behind him represent a breath of fresh air at the World Bank.

Evidence  from countries which have achieved or are on their way to achieving UHC, shows that universal coverage cannot happen without major, scaled up public investments in health. Jim Kim highlighted the case of Thailand where the state financed health care expansion against World Bank advice. It is not surprising that the Thai delegate at WHA said that UHC is possible to achieve. Evidence also shows that to reach the poorest and most vulnerable people, governments should expand public delivery of health services. This is clearly the message from the successes in Ethiopia where 30,000 health workers were trained in just 3 years – against the advice of donors!

One important lesson from countries such as Thailand and Ethiopia is that policies to achieve UHC should not be defined by the existing low government health budgets. Such approaches will automatically lead to designing financial systems that place the burden of payment on patients. Countries need help to reform their tax systems to build a fair and progressive system where not only well-off people pay their share but also foreign companies pay their tax duties.

I was inspired by Jim Kim’s speech and his personal commitments to UHC and poverty eradication. Now I am watching to see what it means for my family, friends and neighbours who so desperately need access to free, quality health care.

Source:  http://www.globalhealthcheck.org/?p=1452