Child marriages are forced marriages and a violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966. Child marriages (CEFM) severely impede the achievement of various development goals and directly relate to SDG 5.3 “to eliminate all harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations” in particular. According to UNICEF (2018), South Asia carries the greatest burden of CEFM, with 44% girls and boys being married before the age of 14. Even where marriages may not be explicitly categorized as CEFM, the overall age at first marriage may still be low, resulting in negative consequences for the individual as well as wider society. In this chapter, we use tertiary literature to provide an overview of the primary drivers and consequences of early and child marriages. Here, we pay particular attention to the role of the gender order and women’s status within the household and wider society. While summarizing consequences, we highlight not only short- and long-term effects on such indicators as those related to educational achievement, health (especially reproductive health), and earning outcomes, but also multigenerational effects. In the end, we provide a critical synopsis of interventions to not just reduce CEFM incidence but to mitigate its most harmful effects.