An ethical analysis of the reasons for child marriage, based on the Vavuniya Omanthai area

Abstract

Background: Child marriage can be described as a rapidly growing social problem in rural Sri Lankan society. Child marriage is prominent because it violates the legal basis that one must be 18 years old for marriage. The main purpose of the research is to identify the growing trend of child marriages in the Vavuniya Omanthai area and present an ethical analysis of the reasons for it. Method: For this exploratory study, the Omanthai area in the Vavuniya District of the Northern Province was used as the research field. Under situational sampling, primary data was collected using the interview method with 10 Tamil young women under 18 who are in child marriages, their partners, and parents, based on an ethical analysis approach. Results: It was identified in the study that the social phenomenon of child marriage has created many social problems in this Tamil rural society, which is a post-war zone. According to the information obtained through the study methods, the main factors contributing to the increase in child marriages were: lack of mother or father (death, migration, separation, or divorce), drug use in the home, opposite-sex attraction in adolescence, lack of knowledge about reproductive health, and love affairs during school age. Also, factors such as marrying off girls at a young age to escape poverty were among them. Conclusion: Accordingly, it can be concluded from the study that painful childhood experiences directly affect their behavior and that the social environment they live in also internalizes norms. Thus, this study reveals that child marriage is oriented as a growing ethical problem in Sri Lanka.