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Child Marriage in Mexico Requires Immediate Attention

Child Marriage in Mexico
Child marriage in Mexico is more common than most people realize. In comparison to Mexico’s regional counterparts — specifically the United States and Canada — child marriage is a large problem that contributes to, and is caused by, Mexico’s poverty crisis.

Ages of Consent

In comparison to other NAFTA countries, the rate of child marriage in the United States — a much more densely populated country — is highest in West Virginia. Between 2000 and 2010, 248,000 children were married in the United States.

Canada’s data on this topic is not comprehensive; however, the government of Canada has taken massive steps to mitigate the problem of child marriage; in fact, most said marriages actually take place and are moved to other countries.

In Mexico, one out of every four girls is married before the age of 18. This is permitted by Mexican law, as the age of consent in Mexico is 14 years old (with parental consent). This is a striking difference compared to the U.S. and Canada, where the age of consent is averaged at 18 years in most parts of both countries.

Child Marriage in Mexico

Child marriage in Mexico is directly related to the pervasive poverty levels in Mexico, both in that the socioeconomic status causes child marriage, and child marriage, in turn, contributes to poverty levels.

The high levels of child marriage in Mexico are highly correlated with teenage pregnancy. Teen pregnancy is a large driver of negative economics and individual poverty.

Teenage pregnancy is highly correlated with not finishing education (which creates a lower likelihood of finding a stable career), a higher likelihood of ending up impoverished and increased healthcare costs.

Poverty’s Power

The main driver of child marriage in Mexico is poverty. The poverty in Mexico has caused unprecedented levels of violence, and many see marriage as a way of fleeing such brutality. Such behavior applies to the girls within the 20 million impoverished children of Mexico, as they often fall into the peculiar consent and marriage laws as a means to flee poverty.

Lack of job stability, education and political omission are all factors that drive the high levels of child marriage in Mexico.

Such a complex topic, which derives from various socioeconomic and cultural baggage, requires complex problem solving, of which the lack thereof perpetuates the moral crisis. Making recommendations to Mexican policymakers cannot just involve raising the age of consent, as various cultural factors also drive the state of affairs.

Methods of Mitigation

Actions to mitigate the problem of child marriage in Mexico started with the Mexican government outlawing the practice in 2014. This alone will not help; women’s empowerment must also go hand-in-hand when such legislation. Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education has joined with the Mexican Academy of Science and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development to promote STEM in girls’ education in Mexico.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is working with Mexican Universities to teach various concepts of STEM. The U.S. Mexico foundation has also taken up a program called “Mujeres en STEM” to encourage more women to be involved in the STEM fields.

Girls’ education in Mexico is improving slowly, and will ultimately lead to women’s empowerment and slow down the prevalence of child marriage in Mexico. Women are increasingly enrolling in universities, even with the current levels of insufficient gender equality.

Improvement in Female Education and Employment

Women are also seeking paid employment, and the fact that about 20 percent of senators have been female since 2006 suggests the influence of women in politics is also increasing. If such development continues, these efforts will work to help eliminate child marriage in Mexico.

Policymakers need to also take geography into consideration — poverty occurs in mostly rural areas, therefore most of the resources designed to mitigate the problem must be litigated toward these communities. As the late Christopher Hitchens once said: “The cure for poverty has a name: it’s called the empowerment of women.”

Mexico lacks sufficient women’s empowerment — women are told to drop out of school to assume household duties; rates of violence against women are high; and indeed many of these early marriages are forced. Promoting women’s empowerment will work for, as Hitchens also said: “it works everywhere it has been implemented”.

– Daniel Lehewych
Photo: Flickr

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How FGM/C and Poverty Are Clearly Connected

FGM/C and Poverty
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) is a practice that has occurred for generations — a female, often in childhood, is subjected to some form of cutting to her genitalia in the promotion of religious following and the detraction of desire for sexual interaction. Its purpose is to reduce sexual desire in women, thereby making them less likely to be interested in intercourse outside of marriage. It is also highly symbolic to many groups of people who practice it as a religious necessity; however, there is no known religion that demands this practice.

FGM/C and Poverty

FGM/C and poverty are connected in developing countries as the girls who undergo FGM/C are often from poor families who are then married as children, never continue their education and subsequently repeat the cycle of poverty. Recently, there has been a decline in FGM/C practitioners, which should lead to lower levels of extreme poverty on an individual basis.

Countries such as Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia and Togo have experienced a decline in FGM/C prevalence, with Egypt reducing prevalence from 69 percent to 55 percent between ages of 2005 and 2014. As the correlation with lower education becomes more well-known, it can be inferred that the decline in FGM/C victims has led to a higher attendance rate for girls at school, which can, in turn, affect the poverty in the region.

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a program designed to create social equality throughout the world, works to end poverty in developing countries. A primary focus of the organization is to work to end FGM/C and poverty because the list of side effects and results of the practice leave women often unable to contribute in their society because they are traumatized, physically incapacitated, unable to maintain strength and nutrition, and in some cases, do not survive the procedure.

When injuries or death result, the cost of caring for these women or paying for their funeral causes strain on family members and communities. Such a responsibility can, in turn, increase the poverty issues already at play. Disability due to the trauma from FGM/C can also lead to a woman’s decreased productivity level, thereby bringing in less money for the family and continuing the cycle of poverty.

The Beginning of the End

The decline of the practice is increasing in developing countries, with more people wanting FGM/C to end. In 2010, a Burkina Faso survey determined that 90.6 percent of women wanted FGM/C to end, a staggering increase from 75.1 percent in 1999. With such a trend beginning, countries should encourage education, discourage FGM/C and lower the poverty levels by introducing a new way of thinking.

FGM/C and poverty are both declining, but it can be agreed that the decline is not occurring quickly enough. More must be done to protect young girls from the sexual alterations that are often completed without consent.

By not cutting into perfectly healthy and innocent girls, developing nations can promote a stronger and healthier workforce. FGM/C and poverty are connected, and one cannot be reduced in isolation — it is imperative that both be tackled to end the other.

– Kayleigh Mattoon
Photo: Flickr

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A New App is Working to End Child Marriage

end child marriage

It is entirely possible to end child marriage in the coming decades. Ending child marriage will also lead to more prosperous and responsible communities that are capable of overcoming global challenges, such as poverty.

Adolescence is a critical time that should allow girls opportunities to learn, grow, and decide their futures. However, that will not be the fate of more than 700 million girls who are alive today that were forced into marriage before they were 18.

For these girls, their marriage effectively ended their potential to contribute to their community, interrupted their schooling, and placed them at increased risk of severe domestic violence.

Every day, 37,000 girls under the age of 18 are forced into child marriage worldwide. One in three are in India. There have been many efforts to end child marriage in India, and the country has seen quality achievements. Government programs have been able to reduce child marriage from 47% in 2006 to 27% in 2016. This number is still alarmingly high.

The national and state governments, along with United Nations agencies and civil society organizations, are implementing new initiatives to right the social evils of child marriage and gender inequality. In Bihar, the chief minister himself is steering the launch of a statewide campaign against the deep-rooted harmful practices of child marriage.

In support of Bihar’s upcoming campaign, Gender Alliance — a network of 234 like-minded civil society organizations in the state —launched a high-tech tool to end child marriage in the form of a mobile application called Bandhan Tod, which means “break your shackles.”

Bandhan Tod launched in September 2017 and is available on the Google Playstore. The app has many unique features that will help girls stand up against child marriage. Bandhan Tod is a holistic solution for addressing the interlinked issues that perpetuate child marriage. The app offers free education on child marriage and the laws against it, inspirational messages to boost confidence and information on government programs that provide support and opportunities for gender empowerment.

The app also features an SOS button that instantly notifies the entire network of Gender Alliance members when a girl needs urgent help to stop a child marriage.

In order to evaluate the app’s success, Bandhan Tod’s design includes features to measure outreach, impact and changes in knowledge through automatic mapping of geographical location, age, and gender. This feature does not compromise confidentiality and will ultimately advance the ability of the app to contribute in large part to the programs working to end child marriage.

Bandhan Tod received a little over 1,000 downloads in the first week after its launch. Engagement within the app is also a huge success: “the average time spent on the app from people is generally around 7 minutes per session with an average of 100 sessions daily,” Nadeem Noor, head of United Nations Population Fund in Bihar, told The Borgen Project. “The data from the initial few days indicate that the app can be used successfully to reach end users and spread the required message.”

This app has the potential to be an indispensable tool in the struggle for gender equality and in ending all forms of discrimination against women. As part of a larger initiative, the Gender Alliance will “embark upon taking this app to front line functionaries of government departments who have a primary role in addressing the issue” Noor said.

Additionally, the Gender Alliance is working to connect the SOS function directly to the Women Police set-up in Bihar to increase their capacities on counseling the families and implementing the laws against child marriage.

Bandhan Tod was created with the needs of adolescent girls in mind. Providing young girls with basic awareness on women issues and the effects of child marriage is absolutely imperative.

In addition to offering rational, effective and quick systems that are responsive to citizens in their times of need, the initiative is working to make institutions of governance more responsive and accountable. The strides that Bandhan Tod has made thus far towards the fight to end child marriage is astounding.

– Jamie Enright

Photo: Flickr