Zaki Wahhaj: Community Surveillance and Child Marriage

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Author: Zaki Wahhaj (King’s College London)

Abstract:  Legislation is a critical instrument employed by governments to address the issue of female early marriage. But, in poorer countries, child marriage laws are often ignored due to limited enforcement capacity. We address the question whether strengthening local legal enforcement capacity can increase the effectiveness of child marriage law. We conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial in northern Bangladesh, assigning 240 rural communities to interventions comprising of financial support to create or rectify digital birth registration records for adolescent girls, and information campaigns about a government helpline for tackling child marriage. The interventions generated significant increases in helpline awareness and usage and completed birth registrations. Girls in the birth registration arm were also more likely to maintain regular school attendance, less likely to drop out of school and less likely to experience early marriage. But no comparable effects were obtained for girls in the helpline information campaign arm. The findings suggest that, in contexts with weak legal enforcement, efforts to ensure universal birth registration can effectively reduce early marriage rates and improve outcomes for adolescent girls.

Co-author: Abu Shonchoy (Florida International University)