Pandemic Encourages Many Parents To Marry Young Girls Who Lost Their Jobs

Photo illustration (Timon Studler / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in India has a bad impact on children. Kuncitara encourages an increase in child marriage and a growth in cases of child exploitation.

Rani is 13 years old. She had just overpowered her bad luck when her parents forced her to get married this summer. Good for Rani. He succeeded in asking for help. The wedding plans were canceled.

Rani - not her real name - was still in eighth grade, when the federal government suddenly imposed the lockdown last March. Starting with school closings, followed by the business sector and others.

In one month since kuncitara, Rani's father suddenly said that he found a partner for Rani. Not happy news for Rani. "I don't understand why everyone is in such a hurry to marry a girl ... They don't understand that it's important to go to school, start earning a living and be independent," Rani was quoted as saying by the BBC, Friday, September 18.

In India, marriage for girls of Rani's age is illegal. India sets the age of 18 as the legal limit for marriage for women. However, India is also the country with the largest number of child brides in the world.

UNICEF records child marriage in India at one-third the global figure. The charity estimates that at least 1.5 million girls under 18 are married in India.

Things have worsened this year, when one of the world's most populous countries was hit by a pandemic. The helpline for children, Childline reported an increase in emergency calls regarding early marriage by 17 percent. That figure is juxtaposed with Childline's findings

This year may be worse. Childline, the children's helpline, has reported a 17 percent increase - from the same month of 2019 - in emergency calls related to early marriage for girls in June and July. The life that is getting poorer is said to be driving this phenomenon.

Triggered by pressure from poverty

According to the authorities, more than ten million workers, mostly young people, returned to their hometowns during the kuncitara. The pandemic makes them lose their income in the city.

This condition makes many parents worry about their child's future prospects. So, the parents began to marry off their daughter who was banished from the city. According to most parents, marriage will save their daughters.

Another reason, parents in India usually have to pay a large fee for a wedding. But the kuncitara has obscured those things.

That's what many parents take advantage of to quickly accept marriage offers, said Manisha Biraris, assistant commissioner for Women and Child Welfare in Maharashtra state.

This condition is also experienced by Rani. Rani's father is currently battling tuberculosis. He admitted that he could not support his family and children, including Rani. It is also what drives Rani to work at an unnecessary age.

Now Rani has lost her job. And the way the parents saved Rani was by marrying her off.

Under all these conditions, children are perhaps the most unfortunate in the midst of a pandemic. "It's easier, it's cheaper and they can get away with inviting fewer people, Manisha.