South Asia is home to the highest number of child brides in the world as increased financial pressures and school closures due to Covid-19 forced families to marry off their young daughters, according to new estimates released by UNICEF.

There are at least 290 million child brides in the region, accounting for 45 percent of the global total. 

A new child marriage study by UNICEF South Asia included over 260 interviews and 120 focus group discussions across 16 locations in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.

The study found that despite remarkable headway in reducing child marriage in recent decades, progress remains slow and has been further hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic shocks, and conflict. 

“Despite commendable progress, much more needs to be done to end child marriage. The fact that South Asia has the highest child marriage burden in the world is nothing short of tragic,” said Noala Skinner, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia. 

“Child marriage locks girls out of learning, puts their health and wellbeing at risk and compromises their future. Every girl who gets married as a child is one girl too many,” she said in a statement.

The UNICEF study found that increased financial pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced families to arrange marriages for their young daughters and reduce costs at home. 

Despite efforts to involve children in remote learning, girls being out of school during the pandemic was one of the most prominent drivers of child marriage, according to the study. 

The legal age of marriage for females is 20 in Nepal, 18 in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, and 16 in Afghanistan. It is 16 in Pakistan, except for Sindh province, where the minimum age is 18.

Meanwhile, more than 100 government and civil society representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, along with experts and young people, called for renewed efforts to end child marriage at a regional forum organized by UNICEF, UNFPA, the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), Plan International, and World Vision. 

The forum, held in Kathmandu between April 17-19, reviewed the implementation of the Regional Action Plan to End Child Marriage, first adopted in 2014 by SAIEVAC, and noted the need to accelerate progress. 

At the conference, Plan International, an independent development and humanitarian organisation, launched a report titled ‘Storming the Norms’.

The report identified some of the most significant drivers of child marriage, including poverty, parents’ concerns over their daughters’ safety as it relates to honour, lack of access to education for girls, lack of alternatives for girls outside of marriage, humanitarian crises, and adolescent pregnancy. 

It also highlighted the existing social norms that devalue and restrict girls and women making decisions, as well as perpetuate Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (CEFM). 

Participants at the forum called for stricter actions to reduce CEFM practice in countries where it is most prevalent. 

“Child marriage remains widespread in many countries, with harmful consequences for girls and the entire society,” said Mr. Björn Andersson, UNFPA Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. 

“We must do more and strengthen partnerships to empower girls through education, including comprehensive sexuality education, and equip them with skills, while supporting communities to come together to end this deeply rooted practice.” 

At the forum, participants identified key actions to accelerate to achieve the targets of the Regional Action Plan to End Child Marriage.

They called for countering poverty -- one of the drivers of child marriage -- by enacting comprehensive social protection measures with a focus on the poorest, most disadvantaged households. 

Other suggestions include safeguarding children’s rights to attend and complete primary and secondary education, ensuring adequate protective legal and policy frameworks to tackle CEFM, and accelerating action to address social norms and promote positive behaviours among families, with a focus on men and boys.