A GNA Feature by Muniratu Akweley Issah
Accra, Sept. 24, GNA – Lariba Musah, a native of Tamale in the Northern Region, escaped from home and relocated to Accra, Ghana’s capital city when her parents were about to marry her off at age 14 to a 50-year-old man for a high bride price.
Scenario
In her determination to achieve her academic ambitions, Lariba decided to leave home secretly to secure her future.
She started working as a female head porter, popularly known as “kayayoo” for a livelihood.
Unfortunately a rape from a man placed her in an unpalatable situation, especially when that resulted into pregnancy.
That, notwithstanding, she had a little bit of smile as an agency provided her with care and support to return to school after delivery and counselling.
Child Marriage
Child marriage is the formal and informal practice, where one or both spouses enter into marriage below age 18, thus before attaining the adult age.
It is also referred to as forced marriage because it is believed that it is not the child’s interest to go into marriage. He or she is being forced into it.
Usually, the party whose consent is not sought is the girl and she is usually forced or coerced into marriage although some boys could also be affected by that practice.
Lariba Musah’s case is a typical example of forced and coercive marriages, which remains widespread and predominant in the northern part of Ghana and some other regions.
The Children’s Act, 1998 (ACT 560) Section 14 states that “no person shall force a child to be betrothed, be subjected to a dowry transaction or be married,” and “the minimum age of marriage of whatever kind shall be eighteen years.”
Globally, one out of five girls between the ages of 20 to 24 years married before attaining 18 years with Ghana not an exception.
Available statistics from the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MoGCSP) showed that the Northern region has the highest incident rate of 28 per cent, followed by Volta region, 24 per cent, and the Oti region, 23 per cent.
Peri-Urban communities such as the Greater Accra Region reduced from 11 per cent incident rate in 2021 to eight per cent in 2022.
The 2010 National Population Census report made it known that out of a total 3,254.007 children within 12 to 17 years old, 176,103 representing 5.4 per cent were married.
A thematic brief on Child Marriage by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) over 100,000 children were in such union in 2021.
Experts have described the menace as domestic violence, depriving young girls of education and human rights while exposing them to diseases and infections, including Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
It is estimated that 71,000 adolescents globally die annually due to suicide and up to 40 times as many adolescents attempt suicide, ranking suicide as the third major cause of death during adolescence.
Concerns
Dr Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, expressed concern as the menace has been the leading cause of suicide among young people, particularly young girls who are left with no future in terms of career and emotional problems including depression, anxiety and hopelessness.
Dr Quarshie, who is also the President, Association for Suicide Prevention Ghana (GASP), disclosed that “From our research evidence, child marriage is one of the causative factors of child suicide and self- harming behaviours among young girls in our country when they are forced into these marital institutions.”
“Clearly these are young people who are not matured, still in school, building their social network and social relationship with their peers and then suddenly you are taking out all of these important and useful contexts in their growth stage,” he added.
Dr Quarshie said child marriage should not be encouraged as it was jeopadising the future of young girls who are forced into marriages with husbands who are multiple times older than them creating lots of problems including truncating of their education.
He said it was important for parents and families to take a second look at the effects of the menace, eschew it and help the young girls to build a more prosperous and a healthy future.
“Besides this act going against the law, it is also inhumane, if you push the young girl into early marriage, you are not just pursuing her happiness, her future is also compromised and it will not help her now, tomorrow and her future.”
Mr Joseph Whittal, Deputy Commissioner, Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said Ghana is among nations with highest prevalence rates in-spite of ratifying the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child first.
He said that child marriage contravenes the objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the UNFPA estimating that by 2030, more than 407,000 girls will be married before age 18.
He said 41.6 per cent of non-educated women marry before18 compared to 4.7 per cent women with higher level education, adding that education must proceed marriage for girls to attain their personal goals, acquire key skills and understand family roles in society.
In Ghana, 20 per cent of women had their first child before age 18 with teenage pregnancy being one of the consequences of child marriage.
He said lack of harmonisation with Ghana’s customary laws may condone the practice of child marriage.
“The high prevalence of child marriage in Ghana is an indication of societal attitude towards women and girls,” he stated.
Sensitization Dialogues
To reduce the worrying trend, the gender ministry rolled out sensitization dialogues with identifiable groupings including adolescent boys and girls, and parents on the effects of child marriage and ways to curb it.
Madam Matilda Banfro, Greater Accra Regional Director, Gender Department, MoGCSP, said educating the entire populace was necessary to make people aware of the consequences of the practice and the best way in addressing it.
She said: “We are engaging the entire population including men and boys because they are making our girls pregnant and mothers are also forcing adolescent girls into marriages; we think that engaging the girls and the rest of the population is very necessary due to the importance of education, when the girl is empowered to be in school, the future of that girl is guaranteed.
Madam Banfro said some Ghanaian cultural practices promote child marriage as the girls are given out to marriage at early stages to avoid promiscuity, however the girls become victims of domestic violence.
She stated that during the dialogues, they are made aware of the law that protects young girls against child marriage practices, stressing that Section 14 of the Criminal Offences Act provides the right to refuse betrothal and marriage as it states that “no person shall force the child to be betrothed, to be subject to a dowry transaction, or to be married.”
She advised parents not to abandon or push their children into forced marriages when they get pregnant and urged the public to assist the Domestic Violence Support Unit created by the MoGCSP to monitor victims and families indulging in the child marriage practices.
Recommendations
The UNFPA’s thematic Brief on Child Marriage indicated that the practice persisted for both boys and girls despite the existence of laws and policy frameworks to eliminate it.
It persists in Ghana perhaps due to lack of support, and willingness by Ghanaians in making the eradication a reality.
It behooves on citizens to eschew the menace, and support in the proper growth stage of adolescents, particularly girls to become independent and useful citizens in society.
GNA