Kaliati bemoans high child marriage rates
Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati has expressed worry that despite numerous interventions to keep girls in school, the country continues to register high rates of child marriages.
Speaking in Blantyre on Thursday during a three-day national symposium on ending child marriages, the minister said it was further disturbing to note that many of the children withdrawn from marriages last year have gone back to the marriages.
Kaliati challenged stakeholders such as traditional leaders, religious leaders, non-governmental organisations, civil society and government departments to devise a lasting solution to end child marriages.
The minister further pleaded with young girls to resist pressure to enter into marriage but instead concentrate on their education, saying poverty cannot be an excuse as the government and its partners are implementing several programmes in support of the girl child’s education.
“It’s really pathetic that despite all the efforts early marriages are still rampant, we are trying to engage the girls themselves to understand what they want. What is it that we are supposed to do,” she said.
Malawi targets to eradicate child marriages by 2030.
However, statistics from the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare show that from January to July this year, the ministry’s 2021 Supervision Report on Ending Child Marriages shows that the country registered 8 110 child marriages in 11 districts. The report said 2 425 of the cases were reported between January and July 2021 while about 5 685 child marriages were carried over from the previous year.
In the report, the ministry says about 1 518 comprising 1 234 girls and 284 boys re-enrolled in school, representing 40 percent of the total number of children withdrawn from child marriages.
Commenting on the findings, keynote speaker and Oxfam in Malawi country director Lingalireni Mihowa suggested strengthened coordination among nong-governmental organisations to align their activities towards the different strategies on ending child marriages.
Mihowa further suggested the need to strengthen collaboration with traditional leaders to address issues of social norms that are driving child marriages worried that despite having good laws and policies, the country still faces many behaviour challenges.
She said: “There is also need for a comprehensive package of support to the girls, including psychosocial counselling and economic support so as to break this nexus between child marriage and poverty because poverty remains the driving force to child marriages, districts that have high levels of poverty also have high levels of child marriage. We need to pull our efforts towards high-level impact.”
In his reaction, Inkosi ya Makhosi M’Mbelwa V of Mzimba cautioned chiefs accused of receiving money to authorise child marriages to stop the unlawful behaviour.
“It is unfortunate that while we are fighting child marriage, some chiefs are doing the opposite. I strongly condemn this because as chiefs our duty is to protect life,” he said.
Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with approximately 42 per cent of girls married before the age of 18. It is ranked number four in Africa and 13 globally.
