Reducing Child Marriage in Malawi
Introduction
In 2015, 18-year-old Memory Banda escaped the grasp of child marriage in her home of Malawi. Her sister, Mercy, did not have the same fate. Kusasa Fumbi, a traditional practice in the country, is a sexual cleansing in which young girls have sex to cleanse their “childhood dust” with an older man who is paid by the community and travels from village to village. Mercy Banda became pregnant at eleven due to this tradition and was forced to marry the man who had impregnated her. Despite separating later, her education and aspiration of becoming a teacher had to be put on hold at 16 years old.
The story of Mercy Banda is not uncommon, as an estimated 640 million women today were married as children. Child marriage (described as CM from this point on) is one of the most pressing issues facing youth worldwide. The OHCHR defines child marriage as a form of forced marriage, in which one of the parties is under the age of 18, and one or both parties have not expressed full consent in marriage.
Child Marriage in a Global Context
Although CM can affect both young men and women, there are more risks for young girls. One study said that girls who marry at an early age compared to women who are 20 years or older are more likely to have birth complications, such as miscarriage, unwanted pregnancy, and stillborns. Becoming pregnant when the body is not fully developed can negatively affect a girl’s physical and emotional health, which can impact her role in participating in society. Another study stated that CM is considered a major barrier to retaining girls in school, as girls with no education are three times more likely to marry or enter a union before age 18 than those with secondary or higher education. As education can potentially offer skills for the workforce, denial of education can limit the potential of young girls worldwide. CM poses both severe health risks and restricts the aspirations of young women.
UNICEF data in 2023 regarding the global distribution of the number of girls or women married before the age of 18 revealed that the highest percentage of being married early was 45% in South Asia followed by 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa. CM is a violation of human rights in which children are not given full autonomy in a union, and lack opportunities to thrive as active members of society.
Stories like Mercy Banda’s reflect this issue that young girls face. Eastern and Southern Africa is home to 50 million child brides, with Malawi carrying the count of 2.2 million child brides in that region. The United Nations Population Fund of Malawi says 47% of women are married before the age of 18. Many young women are susceptible to major health risks that can deteriorate their advancement in society. Malawi represents a country where children are prone to CM, but both local communities and the government need to invest further in changing social norms to help young girls.
Cultural Expectations
In order to prevent CM, it is important to understand cultural norms. Traditions around the world can establish social norms and practices that influence society’s expectations of what is deemed appropriate for the youth. Cultural practices that revolve around young women using their autonomy underage like Kusasa Fumbi are not exclusive to the region. For example, in Northern Karnataka, India, the Devadasi tradition is a practice where young dedicated girls become servants at local temples, combining artistic function with sexual services to the priests. Dedicated girls often practice commercial sex without the religious overtones.
Although traditions are integral to a community, certain beliefs can harm young girls who may not have the opportunity to subvert cultural expectations. In some cases, there are few alternatives to marriage for young girls as there is a lack of opportunities for education and future employment. In the study, “Prevalence and factors associated with child marriage, a systematic review”, countries with a prevalence of child marriage show trends of the practice occurring in rural areas, with low education and poverty. Northern Karnataka and Malawi are characterized by high rates of poverty.
The relationship between economic standing and child marriage was most visible during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic may affect household finances through loss of employment/income due to lockdowns and extended economic recessions, and cultures with a “bride price tradition” may accelerate marriage because of the increased household revenue they provide. This period of economic hardship reveals that for some families, marrying their children at an early age not only upholds tradition, but financial means in which they can gain revenue from dowries. In a report on child marriage in South Asia, girls with less access to economic resources were more at risk for child marriage. However, recent research identifies that girls from higher income brackets may also be at risk, due to social pressures to join families and maintain a girl’s “honor.” Thus, while economic standing and CM are linked, there is also a backdrop in which social norms fuel ideas of “honor,” which can pressure a girl to continue traditions like CM. As young women may not have alternative opportunities to gain income or engage in society, the families orchestrate marriages to benefit financially.
In order to subvert cultural expectations, alternatives to child marriage should be implemented. Intervention and programs through legislation preventing underage marriage and education can allow the youth to obtain resources and support. Foundational research in West and Central Africa, reveals that universal secondary education could increase contraceptive use and decrease the total fertility of girls. This support for reproductive resources can mitigate the likelihood for young girls to become pregnant and affect their health at a young age. Girls who are educated about their rights and reproductive health can make decisions to hold against child marriage and prepare for their future.
However, persistent expectations in society can counteract them. Major challenges to preventing child marriage involve weak enforcement of the law, including loopholes to have informal unions, poverty, and social norms, such as patriarchal values that devalue girls’ education. Rural areas and impoverished areas may not have the money or accessibility to change their way of living. Thus, intervention with civil society and the government must provide better opportunities for a stable way of life for families so CM is not seen as a major option for family honor or financial benefit.
Marriage Law Established in Malawi
As every child deserves the right to develop to their full potential, programs and interventions worldwide have been established to end child marriage. As a teenager, Memory Banda wanted to be an advocate to end child marriage in her community, and she encountered Girls Empowerment Network, a Malawi-based NGO that had been trying for years to get lawmakers to address the issue of child marriage. The community work from this civil society contributed to a law banning CM in Malawi in 2015. Then, the Marriage Act of Malawi in 2017 was established to protect girls under the age of 18 from marriage and hold family members who force their underage children to marry accountable and liable to prosecution.
The law was a step toward preventing CM, however, research from Freedom House shows that in the assessment of individuals enjoying personal social freedoms such as choice of marriage partner received a rating of 1/4. This slow progression can be rooted in persistent social norms and a lack of local support.
Interestingly, a study that investigated whether CM changes young people’s ability to translate education into paid work in rural Malawi, stated that the relationship between education and work is not strong among young people, when students were funded to go to school. Furthermore, the authors of this study said this weak relationship can reflect poor quality of formal schooling that results in students not acquiring a strong foundation of skills. This study shows that Malawi needs to restructure its education system to be a school environment that provides useful resources for students. Malawi’s education system is largely free from political indoctrination, however, overall university enrollment numbers are among the lowest in the region. Thus, the government should promote public universities and education to provide women with stronger opportunities to succeed and benefit the economy through the workforce.
As social norms continue to pressure children to marry at an early age, UNICEF’s Child Protection Programme is partnering with traditional and religious leaders in Malawi to break norms centered around CM and the role of women in society. Additionally, they are building an evidence base around child marriage and harmful traditional practices. This intervention is a long-term investment to break a system of cultural beliefs that have continually harmed the lives of young girls. Additionally, as the education system has shown weakness in providing substantial support for young women to join the workforce, the system needs to change in order to provide educational resources that will prepare young women for the real world.
In 2019, Memory Banda founded the Foundation for Girls Leadership, a non-profit that promotes equal rights, provides education for young girls, and teaches them to advocate for their rights. These programs that are integrated within the community should instill values in which not only girls are prepared for the dangers of CM, but also the community like schools and religious leaders, who will support young women’s hopes rather than devalue their role in society to being a child bride.
The Malawi government has also increased its commitment to ending child marriage. President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi announced that the government will fuse domestic laws with the “Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already in Marriage,” after a roundtable discussion hosted by several organizations like the Clooney Foundation for Justice and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The norms of the community need to change in order to implement these laws. Malawi is a country in the process of changing the scope of child marriage, but the government needs to put an emphasis on quality education, which can become an alternative to potentially reducing CM.