Almost every year girls under the age of eighteen are married off around the world. Majority of these marriages are arranged for financial reasons, and the girls are less likely to complete their education. Instead they are forced to stay at home and bear children. These girls have a higher risk of dying in childbirth, contracting HIV, and being domestic violence victims.
Tanzania has the highest rates of girls under eighteen being married off. Two out of five girls are married off before the age of eighteen. They also have the highest rate of child pregnancies in the world.
Most girls are forced to get married to produce an income for their families which can be used by their brothers to secure a wife. Young girls are also forced to marry after failing exams in school.
The Law of Marriage Act (1971) allows boys to marry at the age of 18 and girls to marry at the age of 14 with parental consent. A new law initiated by the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children was passed last month in Tanzania. The new law aims to change this movement by making it illegal for a man to marry or impregnate a primary school or secondary school aged girl.
Other countries in Africa have put similar laws in place. For example, Gambia has announced punishment of up to twenty years in jail for men marrying underage girls. This is good to hear since the marrying of underage girls has been going on for centuries, and needs to be stopped.
What can we do to help?
As a nation we can set up nonprofit organizations, and programs that educate the rural areas around the world of the unfavorable aspects of child marriage. We can try to educate women and men of the negatives of child pregnancies. Helping them keep their girls in school.