1.0. INTRODUCTIONChild marriage is a global issue that should not be taken lightly, because it is a form of child abuse. According to UNICEF (2018), child marriage is a formal marriage or informal union before the age of 18. This issue happens all around the world in all races, religion and culture. According to a UNICEF report, 720 million women around the world today get married when they were children.
UNICEF intention of spreading awareness through a wedding book video is a creative way of spreading awareness to the society. However, it is quite unclear as it still shows that child marriage is still happening and it shows that even parents cannot do anything to stop it. For example, in the video it showed that people around the scene were cheering on the early marriage and only the girl that was suffering. Video ads might be a creative way in spreading awareness but instead of doing a video that just show the marriage, the producer can add a few content to the video, such as, the factors and implication of child marriage. In my opinion, other than a wedding book video about child marriage the producer can add content that will help society to understand more about child marriage, for example, the factors and implication of child marriage and the law enforcement that can be done to reduce child marriage practice.2.0.
FACTORS OF CHILD MARRIAGEThe first information or content that the producer can add to the video to make it more reliable is the factors that causes child marriage. For example, authority can explain the factors that cause child marriage and help the society to understand what actually causes child marriage and how to overcome it. The highest common factor of child marriage is gender discrimination. Girls or women are considered as their husband and fathers property and they have no right or freedom to choose their life partner (Delprato, M., et al, 2015). For example in Timor Leste, unequal gender right is the main factor of underage pregnancy and marriage.
Thus, gender discrimination is one of reason child marriage is practice until today. Moreover, poor economic condition also plays a vital role in being a factor of child marriage. This is because they have fewer choices due to a lack of opportunities and resources by giving their daughter away it will lessen the parent’s burden. Additionally, these parents will end up choosing early marriages for their daughters because they do not see any future for the girls besides marriage (Naveed, S. ; Butt, K. M, 2015). It is proven that child marriage cases happen often in a poor economic conditions country. Therefore, through this campaign society will be aware and go against the practice of child marriage.
3.0. IMPLICATIONS OF CHILD MARRIAGEOther than the factors of child marriage, the implications of child marriage also need to be emphasis. The society needs to know the implications of child marriage, how it damages children’s future and their freedom. For example, one of the implications is violations of children’s rights. According to General Recommendation 19 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), child marriage is a traditional practice that leads to the deprivation of a girl’s human rights and continuing gender violence against women (Ferdousi, 2012). This is because, a child should be allowed to live their life as a child not as grown up and the child should be given the opportunity to have a free childhood.
Therefore, through this information we can educate the society about respecting children’s right. In addition, child marriage also leads to medical consequence where it increases the health risk of a child. The International Centre for Research on Women has found that girls below 15 years of age are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s (Walker, J., 2012). Hence, this proves that child marriage will cause complication for the girls. As a result of educating society about the implications, it is more likely for society to understand why child marriage needs to be prohibited.4.0.
LAW ENFORCEMENTLast but not least, the society needs to know the law that should be enforced in order to reduce child marriage practice. For instance, legal actions need to be taken not only towards the husband but also everyone who were involved in the child marriage. This is because, each individual who was involved in child marriage were the reasons that particular child loses their voices and strength also their future. Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, a former SUHAKAM chairman, said that a child’s future must not be jeopardized by traditional child marriage practices. Instead, the child’s best interests must prevail over everything else (Tan, Y.L, 2014). Therefore, children’s right needs to be taken seriously and prioritize.
However, if the child marriage is to be occurred further measures should be taken. For example, the child’s mental and health state need to be in a positive shape. Sisters in Islam (SIS) has also objected strongly to child marriage and is greatly concerned by the practice, especially because there have been cases in which young girls were forced to marry the men who raped them.
Consequently, the state Islamic enactment needs to do further research in obligating the legal age for marriage by putting all the factors and implications in list. 5.0. CONCLUSIONIn conclusion, spreading awareness for child marriage through a creative video is not the only option we have in making the society understand more about the issue. The factors, implication and law enforcement are the content needs to be added in the video because it plays a big role in making the society clear about the issue and know what they can do to help in overcoming the problem.
Moreover, society will know who to go to if they ever faced this problem in life. Children’s are our future generation and our most precious possessions. Therefore, we need to put children’s need and rights as priority before proceeding with anything else because we are actually meddling with the children’s life and future. Hence, awareness needs to be spread regardless of any method, stopping child marriage is not only for the government to deal with but it is our responsibility together.?
