Child marriage has long been common in traditional communities from the Indonesian archipelago to India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, but numbers had been decreasing as charities made inroads by encouraging access to education and women's health services.
Child marriage is firmly rooted in gender inequality and patriarchal structures. Poverty, lack of education, and insecurity drive child marriage even in stable times. What's happened is that it's become compounded in the COVID era.
Tens of thousands of girls across Asia are being forced into marriage by desperate families plunged into poverty because of the coronavirus pandemic, as campaigners warn years of progress tackling the practice is being undone. Violence against girls and the risk of forced unions, particularly among minors, "could become more of a threat than the virus itself".
The economic pressure is part of the problem but child marriage is complex, particularly in Asia where there are fears that lockdown school closures mean idle teenagers will turn to each other and damage family reputations.
