Two Sides of the Same Coin: Why Tackling Child Domestic Work Means Tackling Child Marriage

By Jonathan Blagbrough

In the fight against child exploitation, child marriage and child domestic work often appear on separate policy agendas. One is framed as a matter of gender and harmful cultural practices; the other, as a labour rights violation. Yet, as new research shows, these are not separate worlds. They are deeply interconnected experiences for many girls - feeding into each other, sharing root causes, and producing remarkably similar forms of discrimination, abuse, and long-term harm.

When we look at them together, we start to see the bigger picture: a pattern of entrenched gender inequality and poverty that drives girls into one of two pathways, both lined with exploitation and vulnerability. Unless practitioners and policymakers act on them as two sides of the same coin, we risk merely shuffling girls from one abusive situation to another.

Why the two practices are linked

For a girl in a rural community facing economic hardship, limited schooling, and pressure to “protect” her family’s honour, the options are meagre: early marriage or domestic work. In both Nepal and Tanzania, the pilot study found that parents, relatives, or the girls themselves sometimes saw domestic work as a way to delay or prepare for marriage, i.e. as a socially acceptable, “safe” route to earn money and learn household skills. In other cases, marriage was seen as an escape from the grind and vulnerabilities of domestic labour.

In reality, these escapes are often illusions. Girls move from one closed-door environment to another, swapping an employer’s control for a husband’s - and often facing the same restrictions on movement, verbal and physical abuse, long hours of unpaid domestic chores, and loss of educational opportunities.

The study captures this with painful clarity: the same drivers - poverty, gender discrimination, and violence in the home - that push girls into both child marriage and child domestic work. In both situations, they leave their families to live in someone else’s household, where their status is low, their dependence high, and their rights routinely ignored.

“My mother sent me to Kathmandu as a domestic worker when I was about eight or nine years old. I cried a lot. We had financial problems. I believe mum sent me because she was concerned that if I stayed in the village, they would marry me at an early age.” 

Girl in domestic work, 13 years, Nepal

A shared pattern of abuse

Once inside these arrangements, the parallels multiply.

• Violence and Threats: Whether at the hands of husbands and in-laws or employing families, girls described emotional abuse, beatings, sexual harassment, and intimidation.

• Control and Isolation: Girls were often forbidden to leave the house, contact friends or family, or make decisions for themselves. Economic dependence kept them trapped - through low or no pay in domestic work or financial control by husbands.

“When I ask my employer to communicate with my family, she tells me to wait, and I stay for a long time without communication, and sometimes she tells me I have already spoken to your family, they are all ok.” 

Woman who entered domestic work as a child, 18 years, Tanzania

• Heavy Workloads: In both roles, girls performed exhausting, largely unmechanised household chores, often from early morning until late at night, with little time for rest, diversion, or study.

• Health Consequences: Early pregnancy, injury, malnutrition, chronic pain, and mental health problems were common, compounded by stigma, fear, and social isolation.

As one social worker put it: “Both child domestic workers and children in marriage depend on their host families to get income. Economic dependence has made [them] more at risk of physical, sexual and emotional violence and has taken away their ability to defend themselves.”

When interventions miss the links

Efforts to tackle one problem in isolation can backfire. Removing a girl from an abusive marriage without addressing the underlying issues may simply push her into domestic service. Rescuing her from exploitative domestic work without providing education or income support might lead her straight into child marriage - or even into commercial sexual exploitation.

This displacement effect is real and dangerous. The report indicates that unless interventions are holistic, coordinated, and well-targeted, they risk shuffling girls between different forms of exploitation instead of ending it.

Girls’ own experiences reveal not only the harm they endure but also the small pockets of agency they are sometimes able to carve out despite their situation. A few girls in domestic work spoke of improved status within their own families when they could send money home, or of gaining skills that could be useful later. Others valued moments of friendship and opportunities to attend school or vocational training.

“I have a small business, and my neighbour supported me in establishing it. My husband does not know I have been selling dagaa [small fish]. When [he] suspected and asked me, I said no, I do not have any business. If my husband knew that I had a business, I would be beaten and sent away back home. He said I do not want you to do any business, but he did not mention the reason.” Girl married as a child, 17 years, Tanzania.

These glimpses matter because they show what could be possible if girls had genuine choice, safety, and support. They also remind us that solutions must be built with, not just for, the girls most affected.

The case for a more integrated approach

Connecting the dots between child domestic work and child marriage leads to some clear priorities:

1. Address the root causes together Poverty alleviation, education access, and challenging harmful gender norms are not optional add-ons - they are core to prevention. Cash transfers, social protection schemes, and livelihood programmes for families can reduce the economic pressure that pushes girls into both marriage and domestic labour.

2. Keep girls in school - and make it worth staying for Evidence shows that enforcing compulsory education delays marriage and reduces child labour. But education must be accessible, safe, and relevant, with pathways into further training or work that is more economically sustainable than domestic work.

3. Tackle violence and control Laws against child marriage, forced labour, and violence must be strengthened, enforced, and aligned. Interventions must also work directly with husbands’ and employers’ families to change behaviours, reduce isolation, and address substance abuse.

“I used to go to my mother’s house because he used to hit me after getting drunk, and I left him when I was 15 and a half years old. After drink, there is violence. I was talking with a friend when he approached and began kicking me. He used to show me all his anger.” 

Woman married as a child, 18 years, Nepal

1. Shift social norms Deep-seated beliefs about girls’ roles, sexuality, and worth fuel both practices. Community-level work - including engaging with parents and youth - is essential to dismantle the idea that girls’ futures belong in someone else’s household.

2. Listen to girls Girls’ perspectives are critical for designing programmes that work in real life. Survivors of child marriage and exploitative domestic work have insight into the risks, the escape routes, and the kinds of support that truly help.

Seeing the whole coin

The international community has committed, through the Sustainable Development Goals, to end discrimination, exploitation, and violence against women and girls, and to eradicate forced labour and harmful practices like child marriage by 2030. I contend that we will not get there if we treat child marriage and child domestic work as separate silos.

Instead, we need to name and confront their shared DNA: the gender norms that funnel girls into the domestic sphere, the economic inequalities that make them expendable, and the violence and control that enforces their compliance. 

Tackling these issues together is not just more efficient - it is the only way to avoid replacing one form of harm with another. Only then can we effectively expand the choices and freedoms available to girls, so that their futures are shaped by opportunity, not exploitation.

Source: Anti-Slavery International: Two Sides of the Same Coin: Exploring the relationship between marriage and domestic work for girls and their links with child slavery and forced labour, Jonathan Blagbrough and Catherine Turner (forthcoming)