A woman calms her grandson as his parents look on in Mengla township in Yunnan Province. The young mother, only known as Cai (right) is glad to have her husband's mother to look after her baby. Photo: CFP

Many teenagers in Honghe, Yunnan Province, become parents in their early teens.

Children as young as 13 - and sometimes even younger - are having children of their own, as advocated in their local traditions. Honghe is a prefecture with a large ethnic minority population, with 60 percent of the residents being non-Han people, mainly Hani, Yi, Miao and Dai.

This phenomenon is part of the reason that the region has a higher rate of teenagers dropping out of school to work for immediate economic gains than other regions in China.

Local traditions encourage people to get married and have children at a young age, and those who fail to do so face pressure from their community.

However, these marriages fall outside of the legal system, as China's Marriage Law sets the age threshold for legal marriage at 22 for men and 20 for women. Without a legal marriage certificate, their children cannot be registered with the police and qualify for a hukou, or household registration, which is key to accessing education and other social welfare services, until the parents get older and qualify for a marriage certificate.

These traditions have been greatly influenced by the modern lifestyle, and the education authorities are struggling to reduce the number of school dropouts.

As a result of more people attending school and college, or going out to work, the tradition of early marriage has waned. In 2011, Jinping county in Honghe recorded 128 new mothers that were 18 years old or younger, but the number dropped to just 32 during the first 11 months of 2014.

Global Times

Yun, 16, likes to watch cartoons while looking after her 1-year-old baby. Photo: CFP

Ming, 17, looks on while his son is tended to. Photo: CFP

Jian listens to his baby move inside 16-year-old Mei. It only took a few days for Jian to pursue Mei and for their wedding to be arranged, as his father hoped the relationship would make him a responsible man. Photo: CFP

A teenager, 16, takes care of her two children at home. Photo: CFP