Penn –UNICEF Summer Programme on Advances in Social Norms and
Social Change
Conceptualisation of the Child and the Implications on
Child Rights Acquisition- A Case Study on Early
Marriage in Bangladesh
Sarah Graham
UNICEF – Bangladesh
July 16, 2010
1
Background
The child protection programme of UNICEF Bangladesh aims to create a culture of respect
for and the realisation of children’s’ protection rights. This is achieved through the
development of child rights and gender based appropriate policies, advocacy initiatives,
programmes addressing societal attitudes and norms, and strengthened capacity in
government and civil society to respond to protection issues and to establish protective
mechanisms.
The status of children in Bangladesh is deeply rooted in social norms, attitudes and practices.
While many of these support the healthy development of the child, there are also many that
negatively affect a child’s realisation of rights. Steps to initiate change have been taken and
are reflected in domestic legislation and policy as well as Bangladesh’s ratification of the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) but the resulting action is
minimal. This helps illustrate how universal rights are recognised in theory and even through
proscriptive legal norms but remain variable in practice; a key reason being the empirical and
normative expectations which contradict the acceptance of children as subjects of unique
rights inalienable to them based on age. (Empirical expectations refer to how an individual
believes that the other members of her community will behave in specific situations.
Normative expectations refer to an individual’s beliefs about how the other members of her
community expect her to behave in those specific situations.)
Child Marriage in Bangladesh and the Kishori Abhijan Project
Legally, the minimum age of marriage in Bangladesh is 21 years for boys, and 18 years for
girls. However, in practice, the average age of marriage for girls is much younger. The 2004
Bangladesh Demographic health Survey (BDHS) report indicates that more than half the
2
women between the ages of 20-49 entered marriage before their 15 birthday. The median age
at marriage for women between the ages of 20-49 is 14.8 years.1
Reasons for early marriage vary according to context, and may include both social and
economic dimensions. Some girls are forced into marriage at a very early age. Others may
have given what passes for ‘consent’ in the eyes of custom or the law, but in reality, consent
to their binding union has been made by others on their behalf.2 Many Bangladeshi girls are
married soon after puberty, partly to free their parents from an economic burden and partly to
protect the girls’ sexual purity. Where a girl’s family is very poor or she has lost her parents,
she may be married as a third or fourth wife to a much older man, to fulfill the role of sexual
and domestic servant.3
The consequences of such a practice from a human rights perspective are far-reaching.
Marriage, in almost all cases, demands the withdrawal of the girl from school.4 This may be
because of preparation for marriage or as a direct result of marriage. Once married, the
young bride in her husband’s household is subject to relationships of marked inequities in
power. Isolated from her natal family, with a husband who may be seven to ten years her
senior, the adolescent bride most often has no negotiating position, and no control over
decision-making. She often becomes pregnant at an early age. According to the BDHS
2004, one-third of adolescents age 15-19 have begun childbearing. Twenty-eight percent of
these adolescents in Bangladesh have given birth, and another 5 percent are pregnant with
their first child.5
This examination of child marriage in 2000 led to the Kishori Abhijan project, which was
further refined in 2006 based on the evaluation carried out by the Population Council. One of
1
National Institute for Population Research and Training (NIPORT), Mitra and Associates, and ORC Macro
(2005) Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey 2004. Dhaka, Bangladesh and Calverton, MD (USA)
2
Innocenti Digest Vol 7 2001Early Marriage Child Spouses p. 2
3
Ibid
4
Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey
5
Ibid
3
the project’s findings was that early marriage is the outcome of a lack of participation of girls
in decisions that affect their lives (empowerment). The lack of participation has many causes
among which are prevailing social norms. When norms are involved, the empirical (Do girls
in my community participate? In what situations? To what degree? How?) and normative
expectations (Do people think that girls should or should not participate? In what situations?
To what degree? How? And, consequently, should I as a community member encourage or
discourage girls from participating?) guide individual practice within a social environment.
Kishori Abhijan’s response was to provide opportunities for girls, and later boys, to gain
awareness on their rights through topical Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) and improved
access to livelihood opportunities supported through community based interventions to raise
appreciation amongst community members (parents and community influentials) on topical
areas such as child rights, the harmful effects of child marriage and dowry, reproductive
health, gender, violence against women etc. The community based interventions were further
strengthened by the Interactive Popular Theatre (IPT) and Sports for Development (S4D)
components.
As this project has been on-going for 10 years, we are at a stage where we can ask ourselves,
has it been successful in initiating the sustainable change identified as the desired outcome
result in the project’s design. Specific components on personal attitudinal and behavioural
change have been successful especially in relation to knowledge acquisition (awareness) and
communication on key topical areas affecting or influencing the lives of adolescents. This is
supported in the findings of the Behavioural Monitoring study which looks at knowledge,
communication and action for the key target groups (adolescents, parents and community
influentials). A shift in practice can also be assumed on early marriage occurrence and birth
registration in specific subsets of communities and will be verified in the final endline
4
research taking place this year6. I believe it fair to say however, that the project has had a
more limited (assumed) impact on shifting social norms in relation to child marriage; we stop
the practice in specific cases but not the norms perpetuating the practice.
This means
awareness has been raised at a personal level but has not been taken on by the community as
a needed change in affairs.
Formation of Socially Accepted Practices
A social context is visible as the empirical situation. How people collectively act within a
social context creates an empirical ‘picture’. This picture is made up of data (cues) which is
individually interpreted and categorised. The process of categorisation triggers a script and
initiates personal and empirical expectations and in some situations, moral and normative
expectations.7 The strength of the normative expectations, while somewhat individual based
on their conceptualisation (interpretation) through a shared identity within an ‘imagined’
community, are in actual fact, a preconditioned response (to varying degees). An individual
response acts to contribute towards an approved collective response known individually
through normative expectations and therefore acts as an incentive to behave, or respond in a
certain way when certain scripts are triggered.
This process is spiral. Understanding and interpretation builds on previous experience and
guides future actions which allows for a degree of prediction.8 If we can understand the
empirical and normative expectations which influence and initiate motivators and behaviour,
we can better predict the outcome. Therefore, if we can identify individual expectations on
child marriage which are socially driven, recognising that there are economic and political
6
UNICEF, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, A House of Survey Research (SURCH), CMES
and BRAC (April 2010) Report on Behavioral Change Monitoring through Kishori Abhijan Project – Round 4.
UNICEF Bangladesh
7
Cristina Bicchieri
8
Cristina Bicchieri
5
reasons as well, there is a stronger likelihood that we can shift social norms; this will shift the
wind driving the spiral and will create a new condition.9
It is important to note that child marriage, unlike Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGMC),
is not guaranteed to be predominantly practiced given the normative expectations of a
community, but is viewed favourably in many communities and, when it is practiced, it is
communally accepted, or even praised. How strongly it is accepted and practiced depends on
the individual interpretation of cues. By considering this bundle of cues, an individual is able
to categorise, which helps them to call on a script that identifies the relevant empirical and (if
applicable) normative expectations.
In this case, some relevant scripts are the scripts for “girl child,” “parent,” “guardian,” and
“marriage”. For instance, in the script for a young girl there is a strong concern that her
honour might be compromised if she doesn’t marry soon after puberty. This is because
marriage is seen as a preventive mechanism against sexual promiscuity as well as sexual
abuse. As honour refers not only to that of the girl and family, but also community, the union
also supports familial obligations under guardianship. This brings in a script for parents and
guardian. The force of the scripts vary along many dimensions including the social and
economic class of the reference group. This makes cues and categorisation very important;
the marriage of a middle income 11 year old girl to a man 25 years her senior who already
has 4 wives will not be as accepted as the marriage of a very poor 14 year old girl to a man 15
years her senior. Acceptability is influenced by the economic reality of the family involved,
the role of a girl child in family and the community’s interpretation of the ‘child’s’
readability to take on the adult responsibility of marriage. As stated earlier, the voice of the
adolescent girl is very rarely considered and the decision is made on her behalf so her ideas
9
It is recognized that shifting social norms is only ONE component of the change process and must be
complimented with economic and political action. This is because the ‘situation’ can initiate more than one
script.
6
would not have a strong influence on interpretation of normative behaviour. This has to do
with the gender roles, her participation and her decision making power and is directly related
to her place in family and community. All of these attitudes are influenced by how a
community conceptualises childhood.
Let us consider child marriage and frame it within a community’s perception of childhood.
This will help us understand the scripts that play out in different contexts in which child
marriage takes place.
This will help us understand the circumstances under which the
practice has been manifested and sustained. In other words, we must nest the social practice
of child marriage within a broader understanding of how childhood is conceptualised in
Bangladesh and how this conceptualisation might be at odds with theories on child
development which provide the backbone for a human rights based approach to child
programming.
Conceptualisation of Childhood in Bangladesh
Bangladesh society does not consider “every human being below the age of 18” as a child.10
This in turn denies each child of being recognized as a human being with special rights to
ensure survival, full development and participation.11 This has contributed enormously to the
lack of meaningful recognition of children as individual subjects of rights in Bangladesh and
calls for a shift in perception which can lead to the re-categorisation of children as rights
holders. How do we do this? First, we have to understand the contextual reality.
In is important to understand that there is no one word in Bangla to represent a child from
birth to the age of eighteen. The word ‘child’ translated into Bangla is usually ‘shishu’. This
term refers to a young child who is still in need of milk. In this stage, a child is unknowing
10
Blanchet, Terese (4th edition 2008) Lost Innocence, Stolen Childhood. The University Press Limited, Dhaka
Bangladesh
11
UNICEF Document
7
and ‘need only follow the decisions taken by elders for their own good’. 12 As a stage in life,
the term ‘shishukal’ is used and categorise children falling within the age bracket of birth and
age five but is not stagnant. This is because children within this age range can shift out of the
category depending on their circumstances. For example, the eldest child within a family has
the responsibility to take care of his or her younger siblings. This responsibility shortens that
particular child’s stay in shishukal. Likewise, if a young child is made to work or ‘fend for
him/herself’ they are no longer considered a shishu.13 On the other side, a child who is well
cared for and receives the treatment categorised under shishu may remain a shishu up to the
age of 12 but given that shishu implies unknowing and dependent and therefore in need of
protection, there is a common understanding that a person of 12 years of age should no longer
be a shishu. Blanchet (2008) states that outside of the official texts and discourse, the word
shishu is never used for youth beyond puberty.
The Bangla terms used to describe the next phase of childhood are gendering.
The term balok/baloka and kishor/kishori indicate sex reflecting the increasingly
gender-specific roles which girls and boys are expected to play. The use of a gender
neutral world to describe youth up to the age of 18, reifies childhood in a way that is
meaningless in Bengali culture.14
The stage of balok/baloka and kishor/kishori marks the movement of a child to the stage of
‘understanding’. What it is one ‘should’ understand and what one should know is morally
good and right should now guide the practice and behaviour of individuals to carry out their
duty (dhormo) in life.15 This stage of understanding, as exemplified earlier to illustrate how a
child shifts from a stage of shishu by his or her circumstances is very relevant as it is a social
construct. It helps explain why adolescents, children from the age of 10 to 19, are not viewed
12
Blanchet, Therese (4th edition 2008) Lost Innocence, Stolen Childhood. The University Press Limited, Dhaka
Bangladesh, p. 38
13
Ibid
14
Ibid
15
Ibid p. 48
8
as a distinct phase in life.16 In Bangladesh, it is the onset of puberty which clearly delineates
a normative shift from childhood to adulthood. Puberty is defined by role and responsibility
as well as biological change. The more adult responsibilities a child takes, such as marriage
and work, the more recognised that child is as an ‘adult’, or maybe better put, no longer a
child.
This socially constructed idea of stages within childhood is further compounded by
perceptions and expectations related to factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, social class,
disability etc.17 In other words, ideas of what children should do and are capable to do at
different ages, depends on normative beliefs related to the unique circumstances of a child.
This perception influences the role and responsibilities of caregivers and society towards a
child. This is very important in the Bangladeshi context as a child’s place in family and
community is derived through their relationship with someone else; the most important
relationship, as also recognised in the UNCRC, being that of the child to his or her parents.
This makes a child’s place in community conditional and therefore the rights obligated to that
child are also conditional.
This helps demonstrate how there are many scripts related to the perceptions of childhood
and each context calls for a
different script that takes into consideration empirical
expectations, what do I see, and normative expectations, how do I think people expect me to
act in this situation given those involved. Normative expectations are very strong and are
seen in the empirical reality as guardianship is a responsibility borne on behalf of the
community.18 This sense of guardianship within what Benedict Anderson (2000) refers to as
the imagined community, perpetuates actions based on normative expectations as how people
16
The WHO defines an adolescent as any person between the age of 10 and 19.
Please note that there might be, and most likely are, developmental/biological factors that helped define
shishu but this was not detailed in the readings so only can be assumed
18
White, Sarah (2007) Children’s Rights and the Imagination of Community in Bangladesh. SAGE
Publications, London http://chd.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract114/4/505
17
9
situate themselves in the community, governs the terms on which different people choose
what to do.19
This idea of guardianship must also be considered in relationship to the conceptualisation of
childhood in relation to gender. This is very important as the responsibility of guardianship
involves what is referred to in Bangla as ‘manush koreno’. Manush koreno refers to ‘making
a person’.20 This process involves a social obligation for the provision of care, and ensuring a
child develops appropriate skills and abilities which are deemed as socially supportive and
acceptable.
Given this, the strongest determinants of characteristics of childhood are not biological but
social constructs based on a traditional socialisation theory that states that socialising agents
teach, serve as models and invite participation. Through their ability to offer gratification or
deprivation, they induce cooperation. This is a reproduction model of social order and holds
children of little account as they are passive representatives of the future generation.
Transgression from approved behaviour however, will place children in a new set of
categories such as failure, deviant or neglected child and will directly influence their right to
access benefits and in many cases, will only bring on deprivation. This is why it is so
important to re-categorise the child.
Conception of Childhood Supported by the UNCRC
Following a child development and human rights approach, a child is any person under the
age of 18. This definition makes the assumption that children are dependent whatever their
age and is the basis for which childhood tends to be viewed as an undifferentiated category of
those under 18.21 This stage is recognised as being period in life with increased vulnerability
due to the physical and emotional immaturity of a child and therefore supports the
19
Anderson, Benedict (10th ed. 2000) Imagined Communities. Verso, London
White, Sarah pp. 513
21
Ibid p. 31
20
10
conceptualisation of childhood as a period of dependency.22 From a purely developmental
point of view, conceptualising childhood as a period of dependency and therefore
vulnerability justifies paternalistic action carried out in the best interest of the child. To
minimise the opportunity for abuse of power, appropriate paternalistic action is to be guided
by the articles within the UNCRC to promote the best interests of the child.
This idea of childhood as solely a developmental or biological construct, ignores the factors
which provide the context for childhood; this context being the interplay of the individual
child with their cultural, social and economic reality.23 Therefore, from a human rights
perspective, we must consider the universal acceptance of childhood as a person below 18
given their developmental vulnerability within the contextual reality that influences the
behaviour of the child and the behaviour of others towards the child in specific situations.
This is very important and if we don’t consider the social construct of childhood and we only
place children in a single category with stages, we are not going to be able to understand or
recognise the cues that lead to scripts which help determine and sustain desirable and
undesirable behaviour in different contexts.
Therefore while emphasis within the human rights approach is placed on the biological
construct, or biological facts of life, it recognises the role of social function. This function
should go beyond the connection of biological and social developments (language, play,
social interaction etc) and look at the role of the child’s environment and social norms in the
determination of behaviour.
To allow children to navigate social norms children must be recognised as ACTING ON, as
well as being acted upon, by the social world. This posits that they are ‘possessed of
22
Mason, Jan; Steadman, Bronwyn (No. 46 Autumn 1997) The Significance of the Conceptualisation of
Childhood for Child Protection. Family Matters, Australian Institute of Family Studies. p. 33
23
Ibid p. 34
11
individual agency, as competent social actors and interpreters of the world.’
24
This places
children as subjects rather than objects of rights and having the ability to contribute actively
to decisions within the specific context and takes into account variables such as age and
ability.
Harmonising the Bangladeshi Concept of Childhood and the Human Rights Approach
Dencik (1989) states that in the examination of childhood literature, childhood emerges as a
social construct. “This examination indicates that while childhood as a concept may be
defined and bound by age, it is otherwise nebulous, changing over time and across cultures
and also according to ideological perspectives.”25
This builds on La Fontaire’s (1974)
conclusion that “the immaturity of children is a biological fact of life but the ways in which
this immaturity is understood and made meaningful is a fact of culture.” 26 It is these ‘facts of
culture’ in contrast to facts of biology which may vary and which can be said to make
childhood a social institution.27
It is important to have greater understanding within Bangladesh on the influence of biological
factors, outlined in the developmental stages of childhood, which influence how a child can
respond to situations they face in everyday life and account for developmental markers. This
must be done alongside the awareness and recognition on the value of human rights, and
more specifically child rights, as relevant and supportive of cultural values. This will help
situate the debate on how far the interpretation of rights should reflect diverse cultures and
how far rights can reflect prevailing norms without compromising their fundamental
principles. This is because if one takes an issue, in our case child marriage, down to the social
norms which upholds the practice, people can begin to see how fundamental principles
24
Ibid
Ibid p. 35
26
James, A; Prout, A (eds) (1990) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood. London: Falmer Press pp. 56
27
Mason, Jan; Steadman, Bronwyn p. 35
25
12
upheld in human rights support culturally determined values. Through a bottom-up social
norm change process which has community’s redefine childhood within an accepted human
rights framework, the communities themselves can identify alternative practices, in turn, new
social norms.
Conclusion
If we look at child marriage from a global perspective, we will see that practices vary across
factors such as geographic, ethnic, racial and socio-economic lines. What we need to ask
ourselves is do we account for this ‘as part of the social/cultural variability of childhood or do
we accept that at some point, biological factors constrain the argument and compel us to
invoke human rights categories such as abuse and exploitation.28
If you believe biological factors compel us to invoke human rights categories, we are
compelled as practitioners to understand childhood as a social construct within communities
and how these constructs undermine or support the concept of childhood as a stage of
biological growth and maturity within a human rights framework. This framework, to be
relevant, must be translated in local vernacular and fused to local values.29 This is why the
Kishori Abhijan project must go beyond its current interventions and compliment it with a
concrete strategy to change understanding related to childhood development using a
community participation approach. By doing this, we can initiate a process to re-categorise
children, girls and boys. This in turn will influence collective empirical expectations to shift
social norm change related to child marriage. The foundation is there as communities already
working within the Kishori Abhijan project are cognisant of the issues and have started the
shift from understanding to application. Even more so, we can build on the network of
Kishori Abhijan communities to support organised diffusion.
28
29
Ibid p. 73
Gerry!
13
Recognition of the status and rights of all children – and corresponding obligations of duty
bearers – implies not only a need for a different perception of childhood but also a change in
the concept of guardianship. To change the societal role of guardians involves understanding
the complex web of relationships that exert influence. As these relationships are multifaceted
within a network structure and strongly embedded in social practice, the change process is
complex. I believe a first step is to identify the social relationships, who exerts influence, of
guardians as well as the social relationships of the children themselves. This involves
understanding networks related to influence and could be supported by an ethnographic
study. By carrying out this research using a participatory approach, we, as practitioners, will
better understand how to move forward.
By fostering the required social perceptions and expectations to demonstrate societal
acceptance and appreciation for children (0 to 18) as subjects of unique rights, we are in a
better position to initiate community buy-in and appreciation for ending harmful practices
perpetuated through the acceptance of unsupportive categorisations of children. In relation to
child marriage, this would involve a deliberative approach to help communities identify the
existence of alternatives and provide transparency on the individual and community’s desire
to change and how the change is framed within their value system. This action is identified
through what Appadurai describes as “The capacity to aspire!”
30
By allowing communities
to imagine where they can and want to go and collectively determine that gaps, both in
knowledge and practice, allows for collective learning based on co-investigation; identifying
gaps through a deliberative process of collective learning. This new knowledge can lead to
community organisation and social action.31 This process must involve everyone in the
reference group and provide an equitable approach so that the voice and interests of all are
considered. This is an important step to empowerment!
30
31
Reading
Ibid p 2
14
15