“Climate Brides” by Climate Brides

South Asia has one of the highest rates of child marriage, and it is also highly vulnerable to climate change. But how are these two issues connected? 🌊

At Climate Brides, we are documenting the many ways climate change is deepening the drivers of child marriage across South Asia—through loss of livelihoods, displacement, food insecurity, and disruptions to schooling.

Our #ClimateBridesMap explores these linkages in a clear, visual way. Visit www.climatebrides.com to download the map and our short explainers for a deeper dive. All resources are available in multiple languages.

Use them in classrooms, public forums, conferences, and media spaces to inform discussion and inspire action. For now, help us spread the word.

Illustration: @dore.mai
Research: @reetiks7

“Mapping child mariage in South Asia” by Climate Brides

What changes when child marriage is viewed through both prevalence and population scale?

Child marriage in South Asia looks very different depending on what we measure. Prevalence rates are often used to compare countries, highlighting where the practice is most common. By this measure, Bangladesh (51%), Nepal (35%) and Afghanistan (29%) continue to record high proportions of women married before the age of 18, reflecting persistent structural inequality and vulnerability.

But prevalence alone tells only part of the story. India’s rate (23%) is lower than several neighbouring countries, yet its population size means it accounts for the largest (absolute) number of women and girls who have been married in childhood globally, an estimated 222.4 million. Elsewhere, countries such as Sri Lanka (10%) and the Maldives (2%) show comparatively low prevalence, illustrating the region’s uneven trajectories.

Even these figures remain incomplete. Many marriages are never formally registered, meaning some of the most vulnerable girls remain absent from official statistics.

📌🗺️ South Asia therefore reveals a key point. Child marriage is shaped not only by how common it is, but by how many lives it affects. This map brings prevalence and demographic scale together as part of the Climate Brides project.

Compiled by: Reetika Revathy Subramanian, PhD
Data Source: The Child Marriage Data Portal, UNICEF (2026)

“Remembering the Shared Histories of the Northern Muslim and Tamil Communities” by Jithmi Athukorale (Groundviews)

In her article’s “Remembering the Shared Histories of the Northern Muslim and Tamil Communities”, written for Groundviews, Jithmi Athukorale shares how the mobile exhibition Memories of the North helps to recall how Tamils and Muslims used to live in harmony and coexistence before the expultion of the later bt the LTTE in 1990.

This article is available on Groundview’s website.

“Eelamarasu Times: How a revolutionary movement gave rise to a Tamil press in Paris” by Delon Madavan and Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud (Dvar magazine)

In his inaugural release, Dvar magazine has published “Eelamarasu Times: How a revolutionary movement gave rise to a Tamil press in Paris“, a condensed translation of an academic article, authored by Dr Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud and Dr Delon Madavan published in Paris, Capitale Polyphonique
 
About the authors:
Since 2008, Anthony has been engaged in research on the Tamil diaspora, examining the trajectories and experiences of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, particularly in Tamil Nadu, South India.
Delon was born in France to parents originally from Jaffna, Sri Lanka. For the past twenty years, Delon’s research has focused on migration, identity and integration of Tamil populations in several cities around the world (Jaffna, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and Montreal).

“Little Jaffna: A first-of-its-kind Franco-Tamil thriller” by Amruta (Dvar)

A new magazine/newsletter Dvar – a progressive English -language cultural publication dedicated to amplifying the voice of South Asians across Europe has been launched this month.

Amoung the first articles of the Dvar you can a read a review of Lawrence Valin’s  ‘Little Jaffna’ film. The review was written by Amruta the Editor of Dvar

 

“Dynamics of Tamil Urban Ethnoterritories in Diaspora” Video Podcast of Delon Madavan’s presentation during Cornell University’s South Asian Program Seminar (2020) 

We would like to share the online video presentation on “Dynamics of Tamil Urban Ethnoterritories in Diaspora (Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Singapore)” given by Delon Madavan on Monday October 5th at 11.15AM (New York time)/ 5.15 PM (Paris time).
Sharika Thiranagama was the respondent for this presentation.
This online event was hosted by the South Asia Program of Cornell University

About the Seminar:

Studying the ties and practices that bind Tamils to the districts they inhabit or visit is essential to understand the ways Tamils use and transform space in diaspora. The territorialization of Tamil identity, that is, their spatial extension and the continuation of their socio-cultural practices, is not always immediately visible in multi-ethnic cities in which Tamils are a minority. Tamils transform those spaces where they are dominant according to their own cultural and social practices and establish venues conducive to social interactions. Furthermore, the polarization of space and the dynamics of identity networks explains the various attitudes of Tamils towards the social frequentation of certain areas. Finally, the presence and role of places of sociability, such as religious, cultural or commercial establishments, are essential to understand Tamils’ relationship with locality and thus the reasons for which these districts are recognized or not as “Tamil” by Tamils themselves. With specific examples drawn from fieldwork in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Paris, this paper shows that the affirmation of Tamil identity and the constitution of Tamil ‘ethnoterritories’ in certain areas is not only the outcome of Tamil action but also the consequence of state-sponsored urban planning policies, such as eradication of slums, gentrification and heritagization of specific zones, and the frequentation of these zones by non-Tamil migrants.

About the Speaker:

Delon Madavan was the Tamil Studies Visiting Scholar at Cornell’s South Asia Program in Spring 2020. He completed his PhD in Geography at Paris-Sorbonne University (France) in 2013. He has taught at the Department of Geography at Sorbonne University and also gave lectures at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. Madavan is Researcher Fellow at the Centre of Studies and Researches on India, South Asia and its Diaspora (University of Québec à Montréal, Canada) and Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Studies and Researches on India and South Asia (CNRS-EHESS, France). In his research, he examines the articulation between migration, identity and space to analyze forms of integration of the Tamil populations in several cities (Jaffna, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Paris & Montréal). Madavan is the author and co-author of several articles and books on Tamils in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and France.

About the Respondent: 

Sharika Thiranagama, is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University. Her research explores the intersection of political mobilization and domestic life, focusing on highly fraught contexts of violence, inequality, and intense political mobilization. Her major work has been on the Sri Lankan civil war and research with two different minority ethnic groups, Sri Lankan Tamils and Sri Lankan Muslims, exploring the ways in which militancy, political violence and large-scale displacement became folded into intergenerational transmissions of memory and ethnic identification. Most recently, in new fieldwork on Dalit communities in Kerala, South India, she examines how communist led political mobilization reconfigured older caste identities, re-entrenching caste inequities into new kinds of private neighborhood life. She focuses on the household as the prime site of the inheritance of work, stigma and servitude as well as the possibility of reproduction, dignity and social mobility. She is the author of “In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).

 

Décryptage sur  RFI – Radio France Internationale consacré à “Le Sri Lanka au bord du gouffre” avec Delon Madavan

Nous partageons le lien pour réécouter le podcast de l’émission Décryptage sur  RFI – Radio France Internationale consacré à “Le Sri Lanka au bord du gouffre”.
Delon madavan, enseignant chercheur spécialiste du Sri Lanka était au micro d’Anne Corpet pour partager son analyse sur la crise que traverse alors le pays.

Podcast “Le Sri Lanka au bord du gouffre” avec Eric Meyer et Delon Madavan pour l’émission de radio “Cultures Mondes” de France Culture

Nous partageons un lien pour écouter le podcast de l’émission “Cultures Mondes” de Radio France consacrée à “Le Sri Lanka au bord du gouffre”. Eric Meyer et Delon Madavan ont été invité par Florian Delorme à partager leurs analyse sur la situation du pays alors en pleine crise économique, politique, sociale et humanitaire.

“Sri Lanka : comment la population a mis fin à la « Gotacratie »” par Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan pour The Conversation

Nous partageons un lien pour accéder à l’article “Sri Lanka : comment la population a mis fin à la « Gotacratie »” rédigé par Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan pour The Conversation

“Sri Lanka : nouveau président, fin de crise pour autant ?” Interview de Delon Madavan pour TV5 Monde

Nous partageons l’entretien de Delon Madavan accordée à TV5 Monde suite à la nomination, par le Parlement, de Ranil Wickremesinghe, comme Président intermédiaire de Sri Lanka. 

 

“Renuka Urapola, du Sri Lanka : “Tout était différent mais j’ai tout accepté. J’ai dit : je vais combattre”” Emission de radio “Parcours de Combattants” de France Inter

Nous partageons un lien de l’émission de radio “Parcours de combattants” de France Inter qui revient sur le parcours migratoire et l’intégration de Renuka Urapola. Delon Madavan y intervient pour revenir sur les dynamiques migratoires et l importance de la scolarisation pour les communautés sri lankaises.

Ses mots
“A l’arrivée, tout était difficile : la vie sociale, la vie économique, être séparée de la famille… Je n’avais personne ici.”
Sur M. Bogorad : “Les conseils qu’il m’a donnés, c’était immense. Pour réussir ma vie et réussir les études de mes enfants, il était là. Il avait les réponses pour toutes les questions.”
“Quand on vit dans un pays étranger, on est entre deux cultures. Ce n’est pas facile pour nous et pour les enfants. Ils sont nés en France, ils ont grandi en France, avec les Français, il y a des choses qui nous conviennent, d’autres non. Mes enfants nous ont toujours écoutés. Je suis une maman très heureuse.”

“Sri Lanka : une île au bord de l’implosion ?” Interview accordé par Delon Madavan à Société de Géographie

Nous partageons l’entretien vidéo de Delon Madavan réalisé pour la Société de Géographie sur la crise sri lankaise de l’Aragalaya. C’est l’occasion de revenir sur de nombreux sujets (causes de la crise, les conséquences de la crise pour la population, les revendication des manifestants, le fameux “passage à l’agriculture biologique”, les intérêts de l’Inde et la Chine ou encore des sociétés civiles à Sri lanka et en diaspora ). C’est rarement possible dans les médias classiques faute de temps .

 

“Le Sri Lanka tente de ménager à la fois l’Inde et la Chine, qui s’y livrent une guerre d’influence” par Côme Bastin (Ouest France)

L’article “Le Sri Lanka tente de ménager à la fois l’Inde et la Chine, qui s’y livrent une guerre d’influence” par Côme Bastin, réalisé pour Ouest France est disponible à travers ce lien

Pour rapporter le subtil jeu de rivalités entre l’Inde et la Chine à Sri Lanka, le journaliste s’appuie notamment sur les analyses de Delon Madavan qui lui ont été partagées lors de la préparation de cet article

“Un Musée (de théâtre) project” in Saint-Denis, after the one in Kandy and before the one in Jaffna.

 Un Musée (de théâtre) is an international participatory theatrical and photographic installation that invites visitors to create their own portrait, by combining a video-projected photo from the 20th century to the present day with one or more words. A photographer takes their portrait. This project is inspired by the play Hamlet-Machine by Heiner Müller. This play revisits the history of the 20th century and in particular that of the communist dream and its collapse. The session held in Paris provided an opportunity to look back on the work done with the participants in Kandy. It also provided an opportunity to recontextualise the participants’ choice of photos and words in relation to the economic and political crisis affecting SriLanka and the Aragalaya movement.

Delon Madavan gave an introductive présentation to help the French audience to understand to reality of Aragalaya for the Sri Lankans.   Here is a link to the website of the company La communauté inavouable to discover the results (photographs and theatrical performance) of the work done with the participants of the Kandy workshop: https://lnkd.in/e2D2aAfs

Thank you to the company LA COMMUNAUTE INAVOUABLE and to Clyde Chabot for  in this beautiful project!

“Sri Lanka : une île dans la tourmente” par Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan pour Echogéo

L’article d’Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan “Sri Lanka : une île dans la tourmente” pour Echogéo est disponible sur ce lien

Résumé :

Sri Lanka connaît sa pire crise économique depuis son indépendance (1948). Les pénuries et l’inflation des produits de première nécessité (denrées alimentaires, carburant, médicaments) ont provoqué, depuis mars 2022, un soulèvement populaire sans précédent des Sri-Lankais, au-delà des clivages ethniques et religieux, qui a entrainé la fuite du président Gotabaya Rajapaksa le 9 juillet 2022 puis sa démission deux jours plus tard ; mettant fin à quasi deux décennies de règne des frères Rajapaksa. Cet article revient sur les causes de cette crise politique, économique, sociale et désormais humanitaire pour entrevoir le caractère inédit de cette protestation et se questionner sur la mobilisation des sociétés civiles dans une île longtemps marquée par la bipolarisation de la vie politique, pour finalement envisager les effets géopolitiques de cette crise multiforme.

pour citer cet article: Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud et Delon Madavan« Sri Lanka : une île dans la tourmente »EchoGéo [En ligne], Sur le Vif, mis en ligne le 16 novembre 2022, consulté le 26 février 2026URL : http://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/23844 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/echogeo.23844