Breaking the Cycle: Tackling Child Marriage, Social Injustice, and Gender Disparities in the Workforce

Abstract

While "Gender Equality" is specified by SDG 5 and must be promoted by 2030, "Decent work for all," "sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth," and "full and productive employment" are those of SDG 8. Suppose we concentrate on the labor market, where participation in the workforce by men is 80% globally percentage of women participation hardly exceeds 50%. The female participation rate in the workforce was 34.1 percentage in 1999–2000. This rate of participation decreased to 27.2 percentage in 2011–2012 (ILO report). Supply-side and demand-side factors can analyse the reasons for the low participation rate in the workforce. We get several supply-side problems for which women are unable to participate in labour market, among them, one of the most important reason is early-marriage. Marriage is the most crucial institution for the Individual and the society at large. For the Individual, it is a significant and memorable event in one’s life as well as the most important foundation in the family formation process. However, “Early age marriage is one of the most prevalent forms of sexual abuse and exploitation especially among the adolescent girls. It serves as a means of perpetuating power imbalances between men and women, both in the home and outside” (Ghosh, Jan-Dec., 2011). Early age marriage has adversely influenced Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in underdeveloped countries including India. Moreover, child marriage has five domains of impacts on adolescent girls: (i) fertility rate and population growth; (ii) health, nutrition level, and violence; (iii) level of educational attainment (iv) labor force participation, earnings, and productivity; and (v) power of decision-making and other areas (Wodon, et al., 2017).