MORE than half a billion (650 million) girls and women alive today were married as children worldwide. This is one of the startling figures contained in a 2021 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report about child marriage.
That means every year, at least 12 million girls are married before they reach the age of 18. This is 28 girls every minute. One in every five girls is married, or in union, before reaching age 18.
These data trigger various global child rights advocates to stand firm to ensure child marriage is eradicated.
However, despite those efforts to resolve the matter, some countries have managed to pass the proposals to amend the laws to eliminate child marriages and set the minimum age for marriage to 18 years including Malawi, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
African countries also account for 15 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage. Child marriage is a significant issue in Tanzania, as in many other parts of the world. Despite legal prohibitions and international efforts to address the problem, it remains prevalent due to a combination of cultural, economic and social factors.
According to various reports, a significant number of girls are married before they turn 18, with rural areas often seeing higher rates compared to urban regions. Based on the available information on the matters exacerbated by various factors including traditional practices, cultural norms and economic pressures.
These factors are said to contribute to the persistence of child marriage. In some communities, marrying off girls at a young age is seen as a way to secure their future or to alleviate financial burdens.
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Regarding this situation, a cross-section of stakeholders for gender equality in the country have asked the government to speed up the process of tabling the bill of child marriage to rescue the situation.
Speaking recently in Dar es Salaam during a capacity building workshop on ending child marriage, the National Coordinator for the Tanzania Women Cross-Party Platform (T-WCP/ Ulingo), Dr Avemaria Semakafu, said there is a need to speed up the process of amending child marriage law due to the effects that girls experience after getting married before they turn 18. She says the child marriage has severe consequences for girls, including higher risks of dropping out of school, experiencing domestic violence and suffering from health complications related to early pregnancies.
It also limits their future opportunities and personal development. She continues saying that child marriage not only affects girls’ health but also denies them the right to enjoy their childhood.
“Child marriage often compromises a girl’s development by resulting in early pregnancy, brides often become pregnant during adolescence, when the risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth increases,” she says.
Additionally, she added that Child marriage is a human rights violation that harms girls and women, along with their families and communities, it even goes against the constitution. Article 13 of the Tanzanian Constitution states that “all persons are equal before the law and are entitled, without any discrimination, to protection and equality before the law.” The Law of Marriage Act of 1971 sets the minimum age for boys to marry as 18, while for girls, it is 14 with the consent of the court and at the age of 15 with parental consent.
According to Msichana Initiative, the process of ensuring that the marriage law is amended has been going through various stages whereby until now the final decisions have been left to the ministry to ensure that the bill is tabled to parliament for amendment. In 2016, Rebeca Gyumi, the Founder and Executive Director of Msichana Initiative, a local NGO that aims to empower a girl child through education, filed a case before the High Court, challenging sections 13 and 17 of the Law of Marriage Act of 1971.
On 8th July 2016, the High Court made a landmark decision, declaring those sections unconstitutional.
The decision was confirmed by the Court of Appeal on 15th October 2019 and ordered the government to make amendments to the Law, setting the minimum age of marriage to 18 years, for both boys and girls.
Dr Semakafu’s views echo Mr Jacob Manuki, the Advocacy Officer for Msichana Initiative who says it is high time for the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs to act saying the court has already set a timeframe of one to enforce this order.
He adds that the time has lapsed; it’s now five years. However, he said the matter of ending child marriage requires a concerted efforts between government and community especially religious leaders. “Collective efforts and voices are the key interventions in moving the agenda forward and shaping the narrative of progress concerning girls’ rights,” he says.
The post Child Marriage Crisis: While over 650 million are married as children globally, Tanzania urged to act first appeared on Daily News.
