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How the pandemic is having a dark impact on child marriage

March 23, 2021
Workers on tea estates in Assam, India.
Photo credit: UNICEF
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Dr Yasmin Ali Haque

Editor's note: This piece was written by Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, Representative, UNICEF India

A recent UNICEF report suggests ten million additional child marriages may occur globally before the end of the decade, threatening years of progress in reducing this harmful practice. School closures, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy and parental deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic has put the most vulnerable girls at increased risk of child marriage.

Even before the pandemic, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage in the next decade, despite significant reductions in several countries in recent years. Girls who marry in childhood face immediate and lifelong consequences. They are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school.

They face an increased risk of early and unplanned pregnancy, in turn increasing the risk of maternal complications and mortality. The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends, exclude them from participating in their communities, and take a heavy toll on their mental health and wellbeing.

In tea estates in Assam, India, UNICEF is working with the Ethical Tea Partnership to prevent child marriage, as part of the wider scope of our Improving Lives programme, which aims to address a wealth of issues facing children living in tea communities. Adolescent Girls Groups have been formed to educate girls about their rights, and to encourage them to share experiences and to speak up when they feel their rights are being compromised - especially when it comes to child marriage.

The 361 Adolescent Girls Groups established across 205 tea estates in Assam are working to educate girls between the ages of 14 – 18, to empower them and to ensure sustainable change. The Groups provide the girls with support from their peers and group leaders, encouraging conversations about child marriage and how to deal with these decisions within their own families.

Tara's story highlights the positive impact the Adolescent Groups can have. After attending her local Group and learning about her rights, Tara was bold enough to question and reject the marriage proposal that was made when she was 14. Now, at the age of 20, she is one step closer to achieving her dream of becoming a teacher, upon graduating from college.

Child marriage within the U.S. is a frightening reality

Child marriage within the U.S. is a frightening realityconversations.indy100.com

She said of her experience: "The marriage proposal came for me when I was 14 and I knew it was illegal. I was very worried about how my father would react to my resistance. Then, I knew he would eventually come around".

It's amazing to see girls stand up for themselves, and even more so to see young girls use their newfound knowledge and confidence to support their peers on the important issues affecting their lives. I heard of another girl, Esmita, who did just this when she helped to prevent the marriage of her friend, by persuading her friend's parents not to go ahead with the marriage. Her friend is now following her dream of continuing her education.

Empowering girls to speak up for themselves is a step in the right direction, and it will take a continued and collective effort to bring about real sustainable change. In tea garden households, it is typically the men who take decisions on such matters, which means that boys too need to be educated on the negative impacts of child marriage.

This is where our newly established Adolescent Boys Groups will have a role. With 156 currently in place across the 205 tea estates in Assam, the Boys Groups will have the same aim as the Girls Groups – to educate children on their rights and empower them to become change makers. A key focus of these groups will be to teach boys about a range of issues which impact girls, such as child marriage and menstruation.

With long-held perceptions of child marriage as a societal norm, it is also vital that our programmatic work reaches the older generations living in tea estates so they can begin to appreciate the negative impacts of child marriage, and take action against it. Mediums such as folklore performances and community radio raise awareness and change perceptions around girls' rights, among this group of decision makers.

They have power to mobilize communities around the value of educating girls and ending child marriage.

The pandemic has indeed made our work within tea communities more challenging, but it certainly did not deter us. We've adapted to the situation, and by utilizing WhatsApp and other mobile communication services, we have been able to keep the Adolescent Groups running, ensuring a constant flow of informative content, working to reach and protect the most vulnerable girls living in tea communities.

Since the first phase of the program started in 2016, 68% of adolescent boys and girls now perceive the issue of child marriage in their community to be on the decline. This shows that a collective effort is helping to bring about a positive change, which is more important than ever. There has been good progress, and much more remains to be done.

The Improving Lives program is supported by an international collective of funding partners, and sustained funding is crucial to young people living in tea estates in Assam, who are realizing their right to survive, thrive and fulfill their full potential.

To find out more about the work being carried out in Assam, India, please visit: https://www.unicef.org.uk/corporate-partners/etp/

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
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Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.