Purpose

Over 14 million female children worldwide are married before attaining age 18, with nearly half of these marriages occurring in South Asia. Evidence suggests that marriage of girls as children adversely affects their growth, health, and perpetuates gender inequity in social and economic wellbeing. Most countries around the world have passed laws specifying the legal age of marriage to 18 years or over; yet child marriage persists. In this paper, the following questions will be answered using data from one country, Nepal: How prevalent is girl child marriage? What social and demographic factors predict the risk for child marriage?

Method

I analyzed data from 9783 married women using the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative comprehensive survey of women between 15 and 49 years of age. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were employed to assess the predictors of childhood marriage of women.

Results

About one-third of the women were married before they attained 16 years of age and 78% were married before they attained 20 years of age, which is the legal age for marriage in Nepal. The odds of marrying before attaining age 16 was significantly higher for Madeshi and Low Caste Hindu women compared to the High Caste Hindu women. With increase in both girls' and boys' education, the risk of marrying before age 16 declined significantly controlling for other factors.

Implications

Social workers in Nepal should target and reach out to Madeshi and Low Caste Hindu families and share the benefits of delaying their daughters' marriage until they attain the legal age. They should also inform the families, communities and local priests about the law pertaining the legal age for marriage. Additionally, they should focus on evidence based strategies to enroll and retain girls and boys in school.