On the 31st of October 2017, a research article based on secondary data, titled “Child Marriage in the Muslim Sri Lankan Community”, was posted in my Blog. (Please see: https://bisthanbatcha.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/child-marriage-in-the-muslim-sri-lankan-community/). The objective of that article was to estimate the extent to which female child marriages existed at that time in the Muslim Community. The analysis was based on data from the 2012 Census of Population conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics.
The main finding of that article revealed that, as at the date of the 2012 Census of Population, there was a little under an estimated 7,000 Female Muslims, 12 – 17 years, whose marital statuses were reportedly as follows :
The article emphasized the point that, “as a responsible Community, the Muslims must accept that Child Marriage is very much a part of their socio-cultural patterns of behaviour. They cannot continue to be deaf, dumb and blind to the fact that at the time of the 2012 Census, nearly 6% of the estimated 117,048 Female Children, 12 – 17 years, were married / widowed / divorced / separated.”
Subsequently, some members of the Muslim Community attempted to portray the problem of ‘Child Marriage’ as being common to all ethnic / religious groups in Sri Lanka, in a bid to downplay the seriousness of this issue. For this purpose they too quoted the 2012 Census data according to which the numbers of Females in the two age-groups ‘< 15 years’ and ’15-19 years’ who were married (registered or customary) / widowed / divorced / separated at the the time of the Census were as follows :
The fact that numerically there are 6 times more child marriages among the Sinhalese than the Muslims (Moor / Malay) is used by some Muslims to decry the need for the imposition of any kind of amendment to the minimum age of marriage for Muslims. At the present moment in time, according to the Muslim Marriage & Divorce Act, there is no minimum age. As such even a new-born baby girl can legally be given in marriage to a Muslim male. This is however not the case in the Sinhalese, Tamil and other communities.
Based on the above Census data, the case is made by these Muslims that the ‘problem’ of child marriage is common to all major ethnic / religious groups and moreover exists to a greater degree among the majority community. The first contention is common knowledge in Sri Lanka and does not require Census data as proof.
However, the second contention that child marriage “exists to a greater degree among the majority community” is incorrect for the simple reason that the numbers quoted from the 2012 Census do not reflect the Prevalence of Child Marriage among the main ethnic / religious groups in Sri Lanka.
‘Prevalence’ is defined as the ‘Proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic in a given time period.’ Bear in mind that it is a ‘Proportion’ and not a ‘Number’, which will only reflect the size of the population affected by a specific characteristic – in this case ‘child marriage’. A larger number does not necessarily mean that an ethnic group is affected to a greater extent by a specific characteristic as this short article will show.
The relationship between the variables ‘Number’ and ‘Prevalence Rate’ is given by the following simple formula :
Number of persons affected by a specific characteristic in a particular group
= Total number of persons in the group X Prevalence Rate of characteristic in the group.
Given below are the estimated numbers of Females as per the 2012 Census classified by Marital Status and Ethnic Group for the two age-groups ‘12 years to below 15 years‘ and ‘15 years to below 18 years‘. These estimates, it must be reiterated, are based on the 2012 Census data. Note that the column ‘All’ includes not just the total of the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim data but also the data pertaining to the ‘Other’ communities (Burghers, Chetties, etc) which will explain any discrepancies in the cumulated numbers.
Females, 12 to less than 15 years of age, classified by Marital Status & Ethnicity
Females, 15 to less than 18 years of age, classified by Marital Status & Ethnicity
Hence cumulatively :
Females, 12 to less than 18 years of age, classified by Marital Status & Ethnicity
‘Divorce’ is the termination of marriage for whatever reasons by two individuals who are legally married to each other. It is resorted to as the last resort due to the social stigma attached to it. A striking feature in the above data is that among the ’12 to less than 18 year-old Divorcees’, a little over 52% are Muslims. This inordinate skewness could be a reflection of the fact that the Divorce process is easiest in the Muslim Community compared to the other religious groups. It could also suggest that the marital relationship between a Muslim male and his ‘child-bride’ is often tenuous and fragile, due to various dispositional and situational factors to which it may be exposed.
The data in the above tables could be summarized as follows in terms of percentages :
Females, 12 to less than 15 years of age, classified by Marital Status & Ethnicity
Females, 15 to less than 18 years of age, classified by Marital Status & Ethnicity
Females, 12 to less than 18 years of age, classified by Marital Status & Ethnicity
The category ‘Ever-Married’, expressed as a %, collectively includes those whose Marital Statuses are ‘Registered / Customary Marraige, Widow, Divorced, Legally / Not Legally Separated’.
And finally, the estimated ‘Ever-Married’ data will yield the Prevalence Rates for the two age-groups separately and for the entire group collectively as given below.
Prevalence Rates per 100,000 Females classified by Ethnic Group and Age Group
It is evident from the above table that in all three age-groups, the Prevalence Rates of ‘Child Marriage’ are highest for the Muslim Community in Sri Lanka, according to the 2012 Census data.
The Prevalence Rates are expressed as ‘per 100,000 Females’ instead of the usual ‘%’ (i.e. per 100) so that the differences between the three Ethnic Groups are emphasized more sharply.
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Bisthan Batcha 