Child brides make Shravasti India’s ‘most fertile’ district

Fatima was just 4 when she was married to a 10-year-old. When she was 8, her in-laws started pressing for ‘gauna’ but her mother refused saying that the girl had not even attained menarche. The dilly dallying made Fatima possibly the youngest divorcee in the world. Eleven years later, the girl who is now 18 has been married again. But against her wish.
Asma Beghum is 40 and has been a mother eight times. Youngest of her three daughters, 15-year-old Sabrun got married on May 6. Asma’s daughter-in-law Noor Bano is 19 is expecting her second child. Asma, who was eight when she was married off, feels that it is every girl’s duty to get married and produce babies.
Jamunaha (Shravasti): The story of these two women explain why a girl in UP’s Shravasti district is likely to produce at least five kids in her reproductive life span, twice the number an average Indian woman does. Its total fertility rate (TFR) is a major challenge before UP health authorities who have pledged to implement Mission Parivar Vikas in this one of the most backward districts of UP.
An assessment of the census data by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights showed that 25.5% of all girls in 10-17 years in Shravasti were married. “This suggests that one in four girls in Shravasti district is getting married before the legal age,” said Jitendra Chaturvedi, founder of Dehat, a child rights organization.
But Shravasti’s rate of child marriages is not highest in India. Rajasthan’s Bhilwara tops the list with 36% of minor married girls. “Shravasti holds the dubious distinction because most of these girls get pregnant in the first or second year of marriage,” Chaturvedi explains.
Annual Health Survey Data proves the fact. Against Shravasti’s TFR of 5.5 — which is highest in India — Bhilwara’s TFR is 2.7, close to the national average of 2.3. Saumya Khandelwal, a National Foundation of India fellow studying child brides of Shravasti, attributes the problem to the mindset. “The people feel that marriage is way to save daughters from controversies like love affairs and sexual attacks,” she said.
Candid interactions with families in Fatima or Asma’s village suggest the same. “Most boys in Shravasti grow up with the desire to work in Delhi or Mumbai. In a few years, they come back with flashy phones and fashionable clothes. This attracts young girls, who feel that life in the city is picture perfect. The conducive condition for hook ups is a threat to social norm of having sex before marriage. Marrying off girls is the handy solution for most,” said Mangre, Fatima’s father who took a stand for his daughter.
Reshma Aziz, a community level worker in Dehat, however, feels that mindset barrier alone should not be blamed. “The mindset barrier is further fortified with absence of family planning communication in the region,” she said. Manju Devi, an ASHA worker in Shravasti says: “No matter how much you try, families don’t pay attention. A point blank no is rare, but fake promises are quite common.”
Poor female literacy and abject poverty also contribute to the situation. Only 37% women in Shravasti are literate, according to Census 2011, sixth lowest in India. Shravasti’s per capita income is close to Rs 8,000 per annum against the state average of Rs 40,500 as per UP Statistical Diary 2011.
Health activist Neelam Singh said that Mission Parivar Vikas cannot be implemented till the issue of under-age marriage is addressed. “Shravasti accounts for the highest infant mortality rate (of 93) in India and that’s because of teenage pregnancies,” she said.
In an article, “Why ending Child Marriages in UP will not be easy”, policy commentator Nayana Chowdhury (director, IKEA foundation) wrote, that two million adolescent girls are married in UP each year. “And even more alarming figure is that around one million children, highest in India in absolute terms, were born to these adolescent girls in Uttar Pradesh and 10.1% of those babies died.”
Mission director, National Health Mission, UP, Alok Kumar said, “Shravasti is already a high priority district in mission parivar vikas. We are trying to address the issue in totality.”