Child marriage: the harsh reality of the millions of men who marry when they are minors...

Pedro_P

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

... And which are the countries in Latin America where there are more cases.


▼  Upon hearing the expression "child marriage" the image that comes to the mind of many people is that of an almost girl teenager married to an older man.
However, this problem is not exclusive to girls, according to a report released Friday by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
Although it affects women much more frequently than men (1 in 5 versus 1 in 30), the study suggests that this scourge also has strong consequences for men.
"Althoughboys and girls who marry during childhood do not face the same risks and consequencesdue to biological and social differences, this practice is a violation of the rights of minors of both sexes," said Colleen Murray Gastón, Christina Misunas and Claudia Cappa, authors of this study about men who get married being minors.
The study points to other harsh consequences of this problem.
"Like girlfriends,boyfriends are forced to assume adult responsibilities for which they may not be prepared."
"The union can lead to early parenthood and lead to additional economic pressure in the form of the need to maintain a home, it can also limit the child's access to education and opportunities for professional advancement," says the report.
A widespread phenomenon
According to Unicef, around the world the number of child marriages of both sexes is about 765 million, a figure that includes about115 million men who were married as children.
The countries of Latin America with the highest incidence of male child marriages
Nicaragua19.4%
Honduras12.2%
Cuba10.7%
Guatemala9.6%
Bolivia8.4%
Dominican Republic8%
Colombia6.7%
The research used comparable data from 82 countries, representing 51% of the world's male population, and found that on average 4.5% of men between 20 and 24 years of age had married or had a marital relationship before the age of 18
The report found that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean included in the study have the highest prevalence levels of male marriage for boys (8.3%), followed by the nations of East Asia-Pacific (5.9%). .While in the Middle East nations it is a very uncommon phenomenon (less than 2%).
The three states in the world where this phenomenon occurs most frequently are: the Central African Republic (27.9%), Nicaragua (19.4%) and Madagascar (12.9%).
It also highlights that7 of the 20 countries where this problem occurs most frequently are Latin American.
The regional list is headed by Nicaragua, followed by Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
Machismo, poverty and lack of education
Beyond being the Latin American country with the highest rate of child marriages among men, Nicaragua ranked second among the 82 states included in the study.
What are the causes that have led him to have such a high incidence of this scourge?
"This has multidimensional causes, we have social norms and a deep-rooted culture of gender roles that make teenagers think about establishing a life at a very young age as the next step in their life plan," says María Lily Rodríguez, specialist in child protection from UNICEF in Nicaragua, to BBC Mundo.
The expert also indicates that the prevailing machismo in that society leads children to believe that they soon have to prove their manhood by having a girlfriend or by pregnant a woman.
"This is something that alsopushes adolescents from very early on to start having unprotected sexand without any analysis of the consequences," he says.
Poverty
The lack of adequate training is another determining factor.
"We know that the greater the schooling, the less likely that the children will join at an early age," says Rodríguez, who points out that in Nicaragua, education does not include training in sexual and reproductive rights in an integral manner, which leaves important gaps that they are not filled at home either, where, he assures, it is a taboo subject.
A third element that affects this problem is poverty, as it increases the risk of early unions.
"We know that these are more frequent in families that have lower per capita consumption,and children see the establishment of a relationship as a formula to have some independencealthough we know that this accentuates the conditions of poverty," he says.
Thus, these different factors, in many cases, end up reinforcing each other and affecting not only the development of the family but the entire country.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC News World.Download the latest version of our app and activate them to not miss our best content.

► Literal translation (via google) of the article originally published here:: Source
.
.
.
► Take a look at Unicef ​​Reports.