The Effectiveness of Social Protection Program on Child Marriage

The study was conducted to assess the “Adolescent Health and Empowerment to Reduce Child Marriage” project in the Barisal region. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of social protection schemes in preventing child marriage in Bangladesh. Methodologically this study adopted a robust and novel approach. It did not use a sampling method, rather did a census of every single marriage that took place within a year in a particular Union Parishad (UP). This provided ample opportunity to understand the actual incidence of child marriage across various socio-economic categories of households (HHs). Moreover, it was also possible to compare HHs receiving single and/ multiple safety net program benefits with HHs not receiving any benefits. A mixed-method strategy was adopted for this study to understand both quantitative and qualitative issues. While HHs were covered by structured, pre-coded questionnaires, selected tools of participatory research e.g. focused group discussion, key informant interviews, case study were used to explore various dimensions of child marriage. A structured pre-coded detailed questionnaire was used for all the HHs that had a marriage even within last year (October 2014 to September 2015). Qualitative tools were used to identify, triangulate and verify all the HHs with marriage incidents and to explore various qualitative dimensions of child marriage including norms, values etc. KIIs, 8 FGD and 9 case studies were conducted to gather information about child marriage. The study found that parents thought that marrying off girls at an early age is also a ‘rational’ response to the existing insecure social environment and parents tend to lack any aspiration regarding their girls’ professional career. The study also showed limitations of existing policies and implementation failure of relevant laws. Marriage registrars are hardly penalized for their malpractices (ignoring the real age of girls to be married, doctoring with the documents etc.). In such context, the study recommended that reducing child marriage requires comprehensive program with at least four complementary components namely appropriate social safety net program with enough economic incentives to deter child marriage, governance issue of administering birth and marriage registration, strong national-level advocacy on legal age limit and the issue of the validity of marriage below the age limit, and specific awareness campaign on hotline number, punishment of this crime, and health consequence of child marriage.