By ELNA Kundishora
The Marriage Act prohibits the marriage of girl children below the age of 18 years. The Act explicitly prohibits child marriages.
Even, President Emmerson Mnangagwa used a statutory instrument to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years. This is in line with the definition of a child – Section 81(1) of the Constitution defines a child as a boy or girl under the age of 18 years.
However, despite the legal framework in place trying to eradicate the practice of child marriages; this practice is still very prevalent in Zimbabwe. Clearly, the issue is not with laws; as there are no loopholes, vagueness and inconsistencies in the laws that prohibit child marriages. However, it would appear that the weaknesses of the enforcement mechanisms have created an environment which has ultimately resulted in further injustices for the children.
Research shows that 34% of girls in Zimbabwe are married before the age of 18 and 5% are married before their 15th birthday. Child marriage is more common in rural areas and among certain religious sects.
_Causes of child marriages_
Poverty, _inter alia_, is one of leading factors that ‘paves way’ for child marriages. With an economy like ours, daughters are sometimes married off to reduce their perceived economic burden; and of course the bride price is used for the survival of the family.
It is my submission that, child marriages cannot be eradicated without addressing:-
1. the issues faced by poverty stricken societies. We are talking about individuals that do not even have the basic rights.
2. why the law enforcement agents seem to fold their hands. It is no secret that practice of child marriages is very dominant among certain religious sects; yet the law is very clear that any religion, culture or practice that violates the rights of children is inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore should be abolished. If there were more arrests ; this might serve as a deterrent to the perpetrators.
As society, we do not realise the damage or problems related to child marriages or even if we do; it would seem as though we are not taking this issue seriously. These problems include early death; lack of educational opportunities and the violation of children’s rights.
Let us let children be children! A 12 year old has no business being a wife or mother. She is supposed to be in school with her peers. But then again, this leads me back to my previous submission the certain issues have to be addressed first.
To begin with, the right to education has been recognized as a human right; but most people in poverty stricken areas cannot afford to send their children to school. Now because society has always deemed the girl child to be inferior to the boy child; you would find families were girls only go up to grade 7 and then after that they are deemed fit to get married. It is not surprising that their bride price would be used to further the sons education.
Until the government steps in to assist; we have a long way to go… Even when it comes to charges of statutory rape; even if reported the victims are withdrawing charges because to them it is about survival.
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