Children must not be brides

“We must end child marriage and educate the girl child so that they can attain their full potentials … Girls who end up as brides at a tender age are coerced into having children while they are children themselves,” the Commission Chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, when she addressed the Summit participants in a recorded video message.

But as African leaders meet, Tanzania remains one with the highest child marriage prevalence rates in the world, and on average, almost two out of five girls are married before their 18th birthday.

Experts and human rights activists are now pushing for awareness campaign to shed light on the need to protect future children who happens to be assets for any nation’s development.

The Tanzania Ending Child Marriage Network (TECMN) announced it will take the lead in tackling the rising number of girls below the age of 15 forced into early marriage by destitute parents most of whom targeting to generate wealth through dowry.

Kokuteta Baregu, the network chairperson told reporters in Dar es Salaam that early and forced marriage is disturbing and a collaborative approach between the government, CSOs, NGOs and other players was required to end such unacceptable gender violence.

“Early and forced marriage is a serious problem. We have to jointly work together to end it,” the NGO activist said at a workshop organized by the Tanzania Media Women Association (Tamwa), bringing together representatives of NGOs working to end child marriage.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 2013 survey indicated Prevalence is highest in Shinyanga which has 59 per cent, followed by Tabora (58), Mara (55), Dodoma (53), Lindi (48), Mbeya (45), Morogoro (42), Singida (42), Rukwa(40), Ruvuma (39), Mwanza (37), Kagera (36), Mtwara (35), Manyara (34), Coast (33), Tanga (29), Arusha (27), Kilimanjaro (27), Kigoma (26), Dar es Salaam (19), and Iringa eight per cent.

However report findings showed married girls between the ages of 15-24 are more likely to be HIV positive than unmarried counterparts (2.5 per cent/ 2.0 per cent).

15-24 year old girls who are divorced separated or widowed are HIV positive.

Ending Child Marriage ambassador and former Tamwa executive director Valerie Msoka said research shows child brides in Africa reached 125million in 2015 and it is projected there would be 310million such brides by end of 2015.

According to the goodwill ambassador, early and forced marriage is a result of education challenges. Most schools for instance are far away from homes of the pupils.

Fragmentation of laws especially the Marriage Act, 1971 coupled with little political will by leaders to end outdated traditional practices was pushing up the scourge.

Tanzania launched an early and forced marriage free zone campaign in 2014, spotting Tarime district in Mara region as the first zone.

The campaign helped to raise awareness among women and girl children who had heavily been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) also another form of GBV as a step ahead of their maturity.

Yet, the government through former minister for Community Development Gender and Children, Sophia Simba signed an International Charter on the Girl Child in 2014 as it intensified efforts to tackle the problem.

John Josephat Myola, the program director for the Agape Aids Control Programme in Shinyanga made it clear that efforts have not been borne fruit in the region as cases of early and forced marriages kept soaring.

He said it’s unfortunate that most parents have been colluding with dishonest police officers to keep their bad plans upbeat and undisturbed.

The age group of girls most affected are those aged 15 and slightly below, and sometimes marriage is forced on a pre-teen child, he said, pointing out that parents even look for charms from herbalists to attract suitors to their girl children.

“Such acts have brought hundreds of girls to be victims of gender based violence.

Some parents even push their daughters not to mark correct answers in their final standard seven exams so that they aren’t selected for secondary education, and instead they can be married,” he pointed out.