Sri Lanka

10% of girls in Sri Lanka are married or in a union before the age of 18 and 1% are married or in a union before their 15th birthday.

The median age at first marriage is lowest in Batticaloa.

In Sri Lanka, child marriage can frequently take the form of long-term cohabitation, which are unions recognised by the community as equivalent to being married but are not legally registered.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Sri Lanka, child marriage is also driven by:

Harmful traditional practices: Dowry continues to be commonly accepted in Sri Lanka. The practice of kaikuli among Muslim families (gifts given by the bride’s parents to the bridegroom) can reduce marriage to a “transaction” and dehumanise young girls forced to participate.

Violence against girls: Statutory rape and child marriage are closely linked in Sri Lanka. In such cases, marriage to the perpetrator is seen as a better option than risking being seen as “loose” or “immoral”. Child marriage is considered a better solution even though it means the loss of education and childhood for young girls. Marriages most frequently take the form of cohabitation and are legalised later, or (less frequently) families falsify documents to facilitate the marriage.

Family honour: According to a 2013 UNICEF study, some families marry off or agree to a cohabitation agreement with a young girl, as a way of “safeguarding” the honour of the girl and the family once the relationship between their daughter and an older man has become public knowledge.

Natural disasters: According to Plan, some girls were pressured into marriages with widowers and as a way to cope with the consequences following the 2004 tsunami.

Armed conflict: In former conflict areas in the North and East of Sri Lanka, child marriage continues. Some families marry off their daughters for physical and financial protection.

COVID-19: The pandemic has had a negative impact on girls and women in all social and economic aspects of their lives. A study conducted by the International Finance Corporation (2020) in Sri Lanka reported that with women heading 1.4 million households in Sri Lanka, women heads of households face a double burden with an increase in unpaid care work to support children and elderly dependents while earning an income to provide for their families. The prolonged lockdowns have also impacted women and girls in private spaces, with increasing reports of domestic and intimate partner violence. Although data on reported cases of domestic violence during the pandemic is scarce, records from helplines, police and other referral service providers indicate an increase in reported cases, child maltreatment, and intimate partner violence against women – with many women being unable to access adequate support services. 

Sri Lanka has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

However the government did not report on progress made against target 5.3 during its 2018 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum, the mechanism through which countries report their progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Sri Lanka ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2017, the CEDAW Committee recommended in its Concluding Observations that Sri Lanka increases the minimum age of marriage for all women in the State party to 18 years of age. In 2010 and 2018 the Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Sri Lanka to increase the minimum age of marriage, including by amending the Constitution.

During its 2017 Universal Periodic Review, Sri Lanka supported recommendations to review the absence of a minimum age for marriage under Muslim law.

Sri Lanka is a member of the South Asian Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC) which adopted a regional action plan to end child marriage from 2015-2018.

Representatives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including Sri Lanka, asserted the Kathmandu Call to Action to End Child Marriage in Asia in 2014. As part of its commitment, Sri Lanka will ensure access to legal remedies for child brides and establish a uniform minimum legal age of marriage of 18.

Sri Lanka country is a Pathfinder Country of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.

In 2016 the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs launched the National Action Plan to Address Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2016 – 2020. It was produced in collaboration with civil society groups and UN agencies, and includes plans to combat child sexual exploitation, including the prevention of early marriage.

In 2019, the government of Sri Lanka was due to launch a costed National Action Plan on child sexual exploitation and abuse with the support of Save the Children, which is meant to include the implementation of the law to address child marriage.

There are conflicts between the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act and secular laws on marriage in Sri Lanka.

The General Marriage Registration Ordinance 1997 sets the minimum age of marriage at 18, although a minor may still be married with the consent of parties.

The Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act has no minimum legal age of marriage and allows children under the age of 12 to be married where special approval is given by quazis (magistrate or judge of a Sharia court).

There has been ongoing debate and campaigning by civil society organisations and women’s rights activists to reform the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act to bring it in line with national and international standards on issues including child marriage.

A Committee appointed in 2009 by the Minister of Justice to propose reforms to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, released a report in 2019 including recommendations to increase the legal age of marriage for girls and boys to 18.

On 31st December 2020 the Ministry of Justice appointed a 10-member Advisory Committee on Muslim Law Reform.