Gender And Sex: Identity Issues- With Special Reference To Child Marriage

Abstract

Child marriage is definitely a global issue that cuts across all the countries, religions and ethnicities. According to United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund(UNICEF) report of 2021, 12 million girls marry before the age of 18 every year; 1 in 5 girls in the world are married before the age of 18; over 650 million women alive today were married as children. Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights. Child marriage negatively affects the growth of economy and can result in intergenerational cycle of poverty. As this burning problem suppresses the personality development of the younger ones, there is lot of attention needed to be eradicating this problem at the global level. The findings of the present study shows that illiteracy of the parents is the major cause of child marriage with 55%, followed by superstitious beliefs with 25%, economic hardships with 15% and lack of strict laws with 05%. Though there are many laws and several acts which restraint the child marriage, still the problem persists and the present study focuses on the causes of child marriage where the magnitude of the problem persists on a large scale. The present study focuses on the causes of child marriage that lead to personality deterioration of the children and also adverse effects on the health of children especially on girls. Lot of efforts are required from the communities, non-governmental organizations, government, legislature and strict implementation of laws in order to mitigate this problem from the society.