When one talks about widowhood, the underlying assumption is that we are discussing adult women of at least marriageable age. In truth, however, widows in India are of all ages. Some are young mothers, and some are girls as young as eight or ten years old.
In India, child widows – young girls who have suffered both child marriage and widowhood before the age of eighteen – have been a neglected group of vulnerable children historically. —- years post independence, the country still has lakhs of child widows, and unfortunately, no champions.
From premature and unlawful marriage to the compounded effects of poverty, lack of education and widowhood, these children experience multiple violations of human rights throughout their life. Invisible in statistics, they are often denied their inheritance rights, evicted from their homes and in absence of any social security, exploited by others, usually their own family members or gangs.
According to experts, child widows are the most vulnerable of all widows, since they are often ordered with adult responsibilities they are ill equipped to handle, unlike adult widows. What’s more, these children experience an accelerated journey through childhood, wifehood, motherhood and widowhood, while still being children themselves.
“They suffer a triple disadvantage of gender – due to the low status of women and girls, marital status as a widow (they are often looked down upon), and immaturity – due to their young age, they lack the necessary psychological maturity, life experience and knowledge to survive in an adult world,” says Mohinder Watson, Founder, Action on Child, Early and Forced Marriage.
What Data Says
Worldwide, there is little reliable data available on child widows, but some estimates say that there are at least 1.36 million child widows globally, with South Asia and parts of Africa having the highest population of child widows.
Data on child widows is limited in India too, but we know that India has a high incidence of widowhood amongst young women under 18 years of age, because of the continued prevalence of child marriage. As per Census 2011, there were nearly three and a half lakh widows under the age of 21 years in the country, with over 50 percent of them under the legal age of marriage. The country still had 1.94 lakh child widows in 2011, despite the existence of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
Experts say that these estimates are conservative and the true number of these children is likely to be much higher not only due to under-reporting of illegal child marriages in India, but also because of availability of limited data on child widows who remarry, and destitute child widows without a permanent residence at the time of a census.
We, however, know that in India nearly 12 million Indian children were married before 10 years of age with 7.84 million (65%) married children being female, as per census data. Nearly 84 percent of these children were Hindu and 11 percent muslim. To put it in context, this number is equivalent to Jammu & Kashmir’s population.
We also know that India has also one of the highest rates of child marriage which is the biggest cause of child widowhood, in the world. 1.5 million underage girls in India are married off by their parents before they turn 18. Over 50 percent of Indian women are married off as children in northern states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
Scholars say that it is highly likely that the absolute number of child widows in India has increased significantly over the last two decades since child marriage is still practiced in in many Indian states and on account of the invisibilization of these children, even though India’s child marriage rates have witnessed improvement over the last few years.
Child marriage was banned in India during the British colonial rule in 1929, with marriageable age for girls fixed at 14 and for boys at 18. After Independence, the age for marriage was raised to 15 for girls in 1949. The current age for marriage — 18 for women and 21 for men — was fixed in 1978.
What Drives Widowhood Amongst Girls
Child widowhood is a consequence of child marriage. If girls are not married off by their parents before they turn 18, studies suggest there would be fewer child widows.
Child marriage, in turn, is mainly driven by poverty, social customs, the desire for large families – especially the desire for sons – and the need for parents to reduce the number of children to feed. In patriarchal societies, where family honor needs to be protected at all costs, early marriage also ensures virginity, and any ‘transgression’ to family honor.
Status of women as well as their empowerment were found to be significantly associated with child marriage across districts, data from the District Level Household Survey (DLHS) from 2007- 2008 and Census 2011 shows.
Among individual characteristics, the level of education of females has the most profound impact on the age they marry, irrespective of household wealth, locality and other characteristics. It is no coincidence that 5.4 million (44%) married children under ten were illiterate, 80% of them female, indicating how lower levels of education correlate with early marriage.
Another reason for girls becoming widows at a young age is because many girls are married to much older men, with the men’s passing away leading to children becoming widows. Girls who marry older men at a young age also risk domestic violence, as per The World’s Women report 2015.
Why Child Widows Require More Legal Protection
Even though child widows constitute a small section of the population when compared with adult or elderly widows, it doesn’t justify excluding them from dialogue on childrens’ and womens’ rights.
In fact, it is the cause to undertake more research on this section of the population. To do this, it is imperative to gather data, disaggregated by sex, age and marital status so that appropriate policies can be designed to meet their needs.
We shouldn’t forget that many older widows today, must have been child widows decades ago, making it vital to consider any policies we design around widows from a life course perspective. For example, it is important to recognize that child widows are of all ages – from birth to 18 years of age, and therefore, the life circumstances and needs of a 6 year old will be vastly different from that of a 16 year old widow with two children.
Child widows should also be granted greater legal protection under all relevant human rights instruments and government policies. Specific laws and policies should be made for child widows and these should be implemented and harmonized with international standards to protect child widows’ rights including their inheritance rights, protection against violence and discrimination and access to education. Compulsory birth and marriage registration systems must be introduced and there is an urgent need to gather reliable data disaggregated by sex, age and marital status in peacetime and conflict settings.
The consequences of widowhood on children makes it necessary to address the multiple forms of discrimination faced by these children, and to empower them to be agents of change in their own communities.
For too long child widows have remained hidden and absent from international statistics. The narrative on widows should also be reframed to reflect their important and changing role in society as mothers, caregivers, heads of households and independent career women as well as their role during conflict, and not just as recipients of benefits.