Child marriage in India endangers maternal health: UNICEF

[Al-zakir]

Thu Jan 15, 7:27 am ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's high rate of child marriage is a major reason for its large number of maternal and infant deaths, said a UNICEF report released Thursday.

Child brides "become mothers long before their bodies are physically mature for pregnancy", said UNICEF's Karin Hulshof at the launch of the annual "The State of the World's Children" report in the capital New Delhi.

"The younger a girl is when she gets pregnant, the greater the health risk to her and her child," Hulshof said.

She said that child marriage prevents many girls from continuing their education, leaving them unaware of the risks and responsibilities of pregnancy and less likely to seek medical attention and immunise their babies.

More than 40 percent of the world's child marriages take place in India, a majority of them among poor, rural residents, even though the legal age to wed is 18.

In 2005 India's maternal mortality rate was 450 per 100,000 live births, compared to just 8 per 100,000 in industrialized countries in the same year.

The neonatal mortality rate was 39 per 1,000 live births in 2004, more than ten times the rate in developed countries.

Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are also five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, said Hulshof.

She said progress had been slow in reducing maternal and newborn deaths but highlighted success in government-sponsored rural health initiatives that train health workers and offer cash incentives to women who seek post-natal care.

The report suggests improving rural infrastructure so more women have access to proper health facilities and mobilising communities so that women are encouraged to continue their education and delay marriage and childbirth.

"Saving lives requires an environment that empowers women and respects their rights," Hulshof said.

UNICEF has made reducing child and maternal mortality numbers one of its Millennium Development Goals, to be reached by 2015.


Child marriage in India endangers maternal health: UNICEF - Yahoo! News

 

[shrivatsa]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/high-newborn-death-rate-linked-to-child-marriages/2009
THE large number of child marriages on the Indian subcontinent is contributing to a high rate of maternal and newborn deaths in the region, a United Nations report has found.

Despite rapid rates of economic growth recently in south Asian countries, 22 mothers die in childbirth across the region every hour and three newborns die every minute - the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world.

UNICEF's annual State Of The World Children report says the practice of child marriage was one factor behind the statistics.

South Asia has more child marriages than anywhere else in the world. Nearly half of all women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before they turned 18.

This increases the likelihood of adolescent pregnancy.

"When children themselves have children, their babies' risk of dying in the first year of life shoots up by 60 per cent compared to an infant born to a mother older than 19 years," said Dan Toole, UNICEF's regional director for south Asia.

"If that baby does survive, he or she is more likely to be undernourished and uneducated."

A study last year by World Vision found Bangladesh had the highest rate of child marriage in the world. Fifty-three per cent of girls were married before the age of 15, it said.

Adolescent wives were more susceptible to violence, abuse and exploitation, the UNICEF report says.

"Child marriage … increases the risk that adolescent girls will drop out of school - with attendant negative implications for maternal and newborn health and for income-earning capacity," it says.

"This, in turn, contributes to the vicious cycle of gender discrimination, with poorer families being more willing to permit the premature marriage of daughters out of economic necessity."

The report calls for stronger legislation to set and enforce the age of 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage, and better administration of birth and marriage registration. It also urges religious leaders to discourage child marriages.

 

[Al-zakir]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/high-newborn-death-rate-linked-to-child-marriages/2009
THE large number of child marriages on the Indian subcontinent is contributing to a high rate of maternal and newborn deaths in the region, a United Nations report has found.

Despite rapid rates of economic growth recently in south Asian countries, 22 mothers die in childbirth across the region every hour and three newborns die every minute - the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world.

UNICEF's annual State Of The World Children report says the practice of child marriage was one factor behind the statistics.

South Asia has more child marriages than anywhere else in the world. Nearly half of all women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before they turned 18.

This increases the likelihood of adolescent pregnancy.

"When children themselves have children, their babies' risk of dying in the first year of life shoots up by 60 per cent compared to an infant born to a mother older than 19 years," said Dan Toole, UNICEF's regional director for south Asia.

"If that baby does survive, he or she is more likely to be undernourished and uneducated."

A study last year by World Vision found Bangladesh had the highest rate of child marriage in the world. Fifty-three per cent of girls were married before the age of 15, it said.

Adolescent wives were more susceptible to violence, abuse and exploitation, the UNICEF report says.

"Child marriage … increases the risk that adolescent girls will drop out of school - with attendant negative implications for maternal and newborn health and for income-earning capacity," it says.

"This, in turn, contributes to the vicious cycle of gender discrimination, with poorer families being more willing to permit the premature marriage of daughters out of economic necessity."

The report calls for stronger legislation to set and enforce the age of 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage, and better administration of birth and marriage registration. It also urges religious leaders to discourage child marriages.

oh really, how come link doesn't work.

 

[Captain03]

it has nothing to do with a nation but the people's mentality
if that doesn't change the world will still be a living hell

 

[Al-zakir]

it has nothing to do with a nation but the people's mentality
if that doesn't change the world will still be a living hell

True, this kind of garbage should stop now matter where it happen. Poverty and dirty mentality are the main culprit.

 

[Captain03]

True, this kind of garbage should stop now matter where it happen. Poverty and dirty mentality are the main culprit.

dirty mentality is the cause of poverty and everything wrong with the world