1. Child Marriage Why We Should Care
Presented by Kristin Koblis and Ela Pandya

2. Sustainable Development Goal 5
“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”

3. Sustainable Development Goal 5
Target #3:
Eliminate all harmful practices, such as early and forced child marriages and genital mutilation, by 2030.

4. Effects of Child Marriage
Isolates young girls, making them dependent and helpless
Deprives them of fundamental rights to education and safety
Affects reproductive health
Higher risk of poor health- complications of child-birth, HIV, etc.
Higher risk of facing domestic violence, sexual abuse, economic dependence, poverty, divorce (with no resources after it)
Next generation also gets stuck in same cycle

5. Causes of Child Marriage
A way to ease economic hardship by transferring the ‘burden’ to her husband’s family
Traditions, cultural expectations, or right of passage
Belief that marriage will provide a secure and better future
A coping mechanism in the face of poverty and violence

6. Status of Child Marriage in 12 Countries

7. ZI’s Strategies for Ending Child Marriage
Build skills and knowledge of girls that are at risk for child marriage.
Support households in demonstrating positive attitude towards adolescent girls.
Strengthen systems that deliver services to adolescent girls.
Ensure laws and policies that protect and promote adolescent girls.
Generate and use robust data to inform programs and policies related to adolescent girls.

8. Status of Child Marriage in the U.S.
Individual states have jurisdictions over the marriage laws that are inconsistent.
Although each state has set a minimum age, there are many loopholes to go around this requirement.
Between 2000 and 2010, over 248,000 children under age 18 were married.
Including minors as young as 12 years old
77% of them were girls married to adult men
Immigration law has no minimum age requirement for spouse/fiance visa.
Source: Unchained At Last

9. Loopholes In Marriage Laws in U.S.
Source: Tahirih Justice Center – Falling Through the Cracks, How Laws Allow Child Marriage to Happen in Today’s America August 2017

10. Youngest Ages to get Married in the U.S.
Source: Tahirih Justice Center

11. What can we do? Support ZI’s End Child Marriage Project
Spread awareness about the issue of Child Marriage through social media, flyers, programs
Research Child Marriage Laws in your State
Contact your elected officials to have them introduce bills to eliminate loopholes, or support bills that are already on the floor
Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper

12. Don’t Let the Next Generation Get Stuck in the Same Cycle

13. To Child Marriage!
Thank you for your dedication to Zonta