你所不知道的:印度童婚大揭祕(圖)

(Reuters) - A large proportion of women in India were married when they were still children, a study has found, and researchers warned that such unions carried higher risks of unwanted pregnancies and female sterilization.

香港（路透社）——一項研究發現，大部分印度女子結婚時尚屬兒童。研究者警告說，這種結合伴有更高的意外懷孕和女性絕育的危險

Nearly all the women who were married before they reached the legal age of 18 reported that they used no contraception before they had their first child, according to the study, which was published in The Lancet.

在達到18歲法定年齡之前結婚的女子，幾無例外地告稱她們在生育第一胎之前都沒有采用避孕手段。這是根據發表於《柳葉刀》上的此項研究所述。

UNICEF defines child marriage as marriage before 18 years of age and such a practice has been increasingly viewed as a violation of human rights.

聯合國兒童基金會把童婚定義爲18歲前結婚。人們越來越傾向於把這種做法看作是對人權的侵犯。

Marriage at a very young age carries grave health consequences for both the girl and her children and it is well documented that adolescent mothers are more likely to experience complications such as obstetric fistula.

歲數很小就結婚會給女孩本人及其子女帶來嚴重健康後果。很多文獻表明，少年媽媽更易罹患產科瘻等併發症。

Researchers analyzed data from a national family health survey that was conducted from 2005 to 2006 in India. The survey involved 22,807 Indian women who were aged between 20 and 24 at the time of the survey.

Of these, 22.6 percent were married before they were 16, 44.5 percent were married when they were between 16 and 17, and 2.6 percent were married before they turned 13.

2005到2006年間，在印度進行了一次全國性的家庭健康調查。研究者分析了調查的數據：調查對象包括22,807名當時年齡在20到24歲之間的印度婦女。其中22.6%在16歲前結婚，44.5%在16歲到17歲之間結婚，還有2.6%在13歲不到就結婚了。

"Women who were married as children remained significantly more likely to have had three or more childbirths, a repeat childbirth in less than 24 months, multiple unwanted pregnancies, pregnancy termination, and sterilization," wrote the researchers, led by Anita Raj at the Boston University School of Public Health.

“童婚女子明顯地傾向於生育三胎或以上、24個月內連續生產、多次意外懷孕、妊娠終止以及絕育，”研究者在報告中寫道。該研究團隊的領導者是波士頓大學公共健康學校的阿尼塔·拉傑。

India introduced laws against child marriage in 1929 and set the legal age for marriage at 12 years. The legal age for marriage was increased to 18 years in 1978.

印度於1929年實施反童婚法，並界定法定結婚年齡爲12歲。到了1978年，法定結婚年齡提高到18歲。

While the practice of child marriage has decreased slowly, its prevalence remains unacceptably high, and rural, poor, less educated girls and those from central or eastern regions of the country were most vulnerable to the practice, the researchers wrote.

雖然童婚的做法已經在慢慢變少，其普遍程度仍讓人難以接受。鄉下的、貧困地區的、受教育程度低的女孩以及該國中央和東部地區的女孩最容易成爲受害者，研究者寫道。

Such findings indicate that child marriage affects not only adolescents aged 16 to 17 years, but also large numbers of pubescent girls aged 14 to 15 years, and show that existing policies and economic development gains have failed to help rural and poor populations, the researchers wrote.

這一發現表明，童婚不僅影響到十六、七歲的青少年，還波及數量衆多的十四、五歲情竇初開的女孩。研究還顯示現有的政策和經濟發展成果並未使農村和貧困人口受益，研究者寫道。

They attributed the high numbers of sterilization in young women married as children to them having their desired number of children at an earlier age.

兒時結婚、現已絕育的年輕女子數量衆多。研究者把其中的原因歸結爲這些女子生育的子女過早地達到她們所希望的數量。

But it was also indicative of inadequate fertility control, which was evident from the high numbers of unwanted pregnancies among these women.

但這也說明了生育控制方面的不足。這一點，從這些女子當中意外懷孕情況之多也可以看出。

They also warned that sterilization might reduce condom use in such couples, which would heighten the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

他們還警告說，絕育可能使得這些夫妻使用避孕套的情況變少。而這將增大感染艾滋病病毒和其他性傳播疾病的危險。

Child-marriage prevention programmes should be broadened to include interventions for women married as children and men who might pursue children for marriage, the researchers added.

避免童婚的舉措應該擴展，要包括干預女童結婚和干預男子尋求與女童結婚。研究者補充道。