A law intended to stamp out child marriage may have lead to an increase in rural Bangladesh.
A law intended to stamp out child marriage may have had the opposite effect and lead to an increase, new research by King's College London shows.
Underage marriages increased during the period between news of impending harsher punishments and the legal implementation in rural Bangladesh.
Teenage girls living in households where male elders were informed about a new law being introduced were four times more likely to experience early marriage, compared to those where the older relatives were not informed.
Lead researcher Professor Zaki Wahhaj, Professor of Development Economics at King's College London, said that providing parents and guardians (and in particular male relatives) with information about the law had created a 'backlash' against it.
These perverse effects are absent in households where only the mother of the adolescent girl receives the information but are very evident when the information is received by both the mother and by other members of the extended family"
Professor Zaki Wahhaj, Professor of Development Economics at King's College London
The Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017 increased the punishment to two years' imprisonment, and/or a fine of 100,000 taka (£890 at that time), for any adult who arranges a marriage for a minor under the age of 18in Bangladesh. Previously, the punishment stood at one month imprisonment and/or a fine of 1,000 taka (£8.90).
However, an exception clause was also introduced to enable parents or guardians to marry off children before they reach the legal minimum age if a court rules that it is "in the best interests of the minor".
Professor Wahhaj worked alongside researchers from the University of Kent (which is also where he was based while undertaking the study) and North South University in Bangladesh, to understand what impact the more severe punishments of the new law was having on attitudes and behaviour.
A sample of adult men and women living in rural households across 80 villages in Bangladesh were shown a video about the forthcoming child marriage law which emphasised the harsher punishments.
Some participants also received information about the 'exception clause'.
Surveys conducted immediately after the video intervention documented changes in respondents' attitudes, while follow-up surveys conducted several months later documented an increase in early marriage among households if the father or family elders also received the information.
Researchers believe the patterns could be explained by two sets of behaviours.
Firstly, that a rush to marry off young girls came from anticipation of a future increase in punishment or enforcement of the new law. And secondly, that family elders - who have primary responsibility within the extended family for ensuring adherence to marriage customs - reverted to a more traditional position in response to a legal reform that was too far from their own views on child marriage.
Equally, information about the special clause aimed at moderating the legal reform, did not produce a positive shift in attitude and behaviour. Rather, it led to an increase in the marriage risk after the implementation of the new law, as elders presumably thought the clause would provide them with 'legal cover'.
These unanticipated effects were, however, limited to households in which the previous generation had experienced early marriage.
Professor Wahhaj said it is important to highlight this 'backlash' in a bid to warn policymakers and to prevent similar outcomes from future legal reforms and interventions.
"Our findings carry an important message for the design of future interventions and programmes that make use of formal laws to bring about social change on issues where tradition and custom have previously played a dominant role," he said.
"If the laws are perceived as being contradictory to the custom, then the population may respond to a significant reform in ways that aim to defy them, with unintended consequences for the intended beneficiaries."
Co-author Dr Amrit Amirapu, University of Kent, added: "There was draft legislation on increasing the minimum age of marriage being debated in the Indian parliament. Our research in Bangladesh suggests new laws could have unintended and harmful effects for adolescent girls and young women in India."
Another co-author, Professor Niaz Asadullah of University of Reading, added: "The experience offers important lessons for policymakers. In South Asian settings where laws are weakly implemented and marriage decisions are characterised by various forms of informality, legal reforms have limited potential to shift attitudes and practices. We have to look beyond legal reforms and innovate new solutions."
