Archivio per mese: Novembre, 2017

From Associazione 21 luglio’s latest research about early marriages, shocking data on the phenomenon: the rate reaches 77% in the Capital’s slums exceeding the negative world record of Niger. «It is essential to overcome slums in order to guarantee children rights».

ROME, 24 NOVEMBER 2017. In the world every year 15 million girls marry before reaching 18 years. In Italy studies and estimations about the phenomenon do not exist and early marriages are usually judged from a cultural point of view and attributed only to Roma communities or families of recent migration.
To quantify the phenomenon and understand the nature of these unions, Associazione 21 luglio realised the report “I am not old enough. Early marriage in Rome’s slums”, that will be presented today at 3 p.m. at the National Office against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) at the eve of the International Day against Women’s Violence.
The research was conducted in the extreme outskirts of Rome in 8 different housing locations (7 settlements and one occupied building), hosting more than 3.000 people, and considering the data of marriages contracted in the last two years (2014-2016). From the data collected, a shocking result emerged: on a total of 71 marriages, the rate of early unions is 77%, a number that exceeds the negative world record of Niger (76%) and by far the highest rates in Europe that are held by Georgia (17%) and Turkey (14%).
Out of a total of 142 individuals who married, nearly 72% married between 16 and 17 years old. 28% of those who married when they were still minors did so between the ages of 12 and 15. Gender influences highly the precocity in marriage: one girl out of 2 marries between 16 and 17 years old, one out of 5 between 13 and 15 years old.
The research stresses how the dynamics arisen during the interviews and the focus groups cross communities belonging to contexts far away from Rome’s slums and nevertheless affected by the phenomenon. The cross-over of early marriages witnesses that the socio-economic conditions of families have a strong influence on the issue, more than the cultural specificity of each group.  It is not by chance that early marriages register a double rate in rural areas than in urban ones and that a girl that attended only elementary school is double exposed to early marriage than a peer with higher education.
It is necessary to specify better about the link between early marriage and education: in the case of forced or combined marriages, the interruption of schooling paths is one of the most detrimental consequences of early marriage. When the marriage is chosen by the bride and groom (situation that corresponds to the 49% of the cases analysed in the research), instead, it is true the contrary: it is the failure of the schooling experience that contributes to steer the youth towards early marriage.
In a context of socio-economic deprivation such as Rome’s slums, characterised by the lack of external incentives and a very high unemployment rate, especially feminine, marriage is an opportunity to invest time, energies and capacities. The socio-economic disadvantage and the community’s conditioning, in a place where there is no space and too many people, become binding inside slums and foster that kind of practice.
«In order to guarantee children rights and promote a healthy childhood development, it is necessary a radical change in our country – Associazione 21 luglio declared – beginning with the need of combating urban and educational poverty through the overcoming of the slums located in the outskirts of the biggest Italian cities, places of segregation and socio-economic deprivation that hinder the enjoyment of children rights and of fundamental human rights».

World Children’s Day. Associazione 21 luglio and REYN Italy: «15 thousand Roma minors living in Italian slums are deprived of rights. To reach real inclusion, it is necessary to combat ethnicisation in the policies».
In occasion of the World Children’s Day, Associazione 21 luglio and REYN Italy – active in the promotion of the rights and wellbeing of children – denounce the dramatic condition of the 15 thousand Roma minors living in formal and informal slums in the country. In Rome, it is estimated that 4.100 minors live in housing emergency and in poverty: 1.350 between 0 and 6 years of age, 2.750 between 7 and 18 years. The life of all these minors is signed by social exclusion, few access to health services and stigma. For these children life expectancy is 10 years below the average, in 1 case out of 5 they will not enter schooling paths and they will have almost 0 possibilities to go to university.
Housing conditions are the first obstacle encountered by Roma minors that affects their right to education. The majority of the slums are located far away from basic services, in extreme peripheries and in filthy and polluted areas. Lack of income, discrimination, social exclusion, cultural deprivation and inadequacy of the housing space are all factors that impact enormously on the physical and psychological wellbeing of the minors and cause the so-called “ghetto pathologies”: malnutrition, scabies, tuberculosis, anxiety and depression.
Forced evictions of informal settlements constitute traumatic events for children that live in slums, rendering families’ living conditions even more uncertain. They have also serious consequences on the right to education of children that suffer them. In Naples, in Gianturco neighbourhood, a forced eviction that involved 1.300 Roma in housing emergency (half of them were minors), caused a real diaspora just at the eve of the international Roma day on 8 April 2017.
In the Capital, since November 2016 there was an increase of 133% in the number of forced evictions.
«Recurrent ethnic policies have fuelled a circle of poverty and social exclusion, trapping disadvantaged families and becoming obstacles to the access to fundamental rights, such as housing and education – declared Carlo Stasolla, President of Associazione 21 luglio. REYN Italy is at work to promote a change in Italy aimed at fostering inclusive policies starting from early childhood characterised by quality and high professionalism».