- The study shows that one in five girls is married before the age of 18.
- In lower- and middle-income countries that number rises to 40 percent.
Image: GEORGE MURAGE
A new study has linked increased early child marriages in Kenya to droughts, floods and other extreme weather events.
The study indicated that increased child marriages are a coping mechanism for droughts and other extreme weather events.
Researchers at the Ohio State University conducted a systematic review of 20 studies connecting droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events to increases in child, early, and forced marriages in low- and middle-income countries.
The study was published recently in the journal International Social Work.
Kenya has experienced severe drought for five consecutive years. The drought has left over four million people in dire need of support and resulted in the death of over 2.4 million livestock according to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA).
“It’s not that extreme weather has a direct effect on child marriages. What these disasters do is exacerbate existing problems of gender inequality and poverty that lead families to child marriage as a coping mechanism,” said Fiona Doherty, lead author of the study.
She noted that globally, one in five girls is married before the age of 18, and in lower- and middle-income countries that number rises to 40 percent.
Co-author Smitha Rao said those numbers may grow as climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events around the world.
“The complexities surrounding child marriage and extreme weather will worsen amid climate change,” Rao said.
The researchers examined 20 studies published between 1990 and 2022 that examined how extreme weather was related to marriages involving children, mostly girls, who were below the age of 18.
Most of the studies were done in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia, including Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Vietnam
Droughts and floods were the most common disasters, but other studies looked at the impact of cyclones and high-temperature shocks, among other weather events.
Doherty said the studies revealed the impacts of disasters on child marriage in a variety of contexts. One study in Bangladesh found that in years with heat waves lasting more than 30 days, 11 to 14-year-old girls were 50 percent more likely to marry and girls aged 15-17 were 30 percent more likely.
The major reason is simply economics.
“Child marriage is often seen as a coping strategy to reduce economic vulnerability and food insecurity that a family is facing because of a disaster,” Doherty said.
For example, one study found that daughters were married early in Bangladesh after Cyclone Aila to curtail the economic and food burden on households.
Early marriage was also sometimes encouraged to provide needed workers for families.
When a drought threatened water sources and livestock in Kenya, one study found that young brides were sought to help with increased labor demands, such as walking long distances to find food and water.
Regional customs such as bride price and dowry were found to be key factors in the link between child marriage and extreme weather.
“In areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and Vietnam that practice bride price (the groom’s family pays the bride’s family) girls had an increased probability of being forced to marry during droughts and periods of heavy rainfall,” the study showed.
In contrast, research found that in regions like India where dowry is common, where the bride’s family pays the groom’s family, girls were less likely to get married during a drought year, likely because the bride’s family could not afford dowry payment.
The study further showed that communities that were displaced by floods, cyclones, and other disasters often ended up in camps where young girls were targeted for sexual harassment and violence.
“Families sometimes made the choice to get their young daughters married off in these situations to protect them from harassment and sexual violence,” Rao said.
But there was one key factor that helped protect children from being forced to get married.
“We found that education played a significant role in protecting girls,” Doherty said.
Girls who were educated were less likely to be married off early, the research found. In addition, studies showed that as parental education increased, they were less likely to marry off their daughters.
While education is one way to help protect against child marriage, Doherty and Rao said more needs to be done.
“One obvious choice would be laws against child marriage. Another factor is helping families with the economic difficulties that often lead to them marrying off daughters. But we found the main driver of child marriage is gender inequality,” Doherty said.
“We need to find ways to empower women and girls with education and financial control that will allow them to make their own decisions,” she said.
The researchers noted that all of the studies they analyzed were done in low- and middle-income countries – only because they could not find any studies done in high-income countries.
But weather disasters could also be increasing child marriage in high-income countries, including the United States, they said.
“We need more research to understand the differences and additional factors that may be affecting the link between extreme weather events and child marriage in other parts of the world, including high-income countries,” Rao said.