A systematic analysis of the effects of Child Marriage on SRHR in times of Climate Change and COVID-19
With an increasing trend of child marriage observed in recent statistics in Bangladesh, it is not only the pandemic and its multifaceted impacts, but the impacts of climate change that have a lot to do with it. Needless to mention the consequences of child marriage on the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) on the lives of the young and adolescents.
In recent years, climate change has exacerbated poverty, social inequality as well as gender inequality. This gender inequality is deeply rooted in the roles, behaviours, attributes, and relative powers associated with being female or male in a given society (p. 113, Tanny, and Rahman, 2016). Though the country is well-known for local adaptation strategies to extreme climate events and climate change, lack of resources and security force poor people to adapt ‘unsustainable strategies’.
Thus, a research has been conducted by Anika Binte Habib and Melina Liethmann titled “Harmful Ties: A systematic analysis of the effects of child marriage on SRHR in times of climate change and COVID-19”.
In this study, it focused into one of the ‘unsustainable strategies’ where poor families marry off their daughters due to climate change. It has been discussed how climate-induced vulnerability forces girls to early and forced marriage. Therefore, it investigated the potential effects of COVID 19 on girls in Bangladesh, employing multimethod data collection approach.
Based on the findings, connections to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 5 have been made and recommendations have been offered to the Government of Bangladesh and the development partners to promote the best practice and possible adaptation to the current policies.
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