Child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18, is associated with adverse human capital outcomes. Emphasis is more placed on girls because this is an issue that impacts girls in far larger numbers and with more intensity.40% of the girls in Uganda are married before their 18th birthday and one in ten is married before the age of 15. According to UNICEF, Uganda has the 16th highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the world and tenth highest absolute number of child brides globally-787000.
There are many reasons for Child marriage, most of them being poverty, peer pressure, cultural norms and practices, displacement due to political instabilities.
It has serious impacts on the life of child, below are some of the effects of child marriage in Uganda.
- High mortality rate. Young mothers are more likely to die during child birth because their bodies are not fully developed and also babies born to very young mothers are likely to die in the first year of life. Pregnancy to them can result in serious consequences like Fistula, prolonged labor, premature labor, still birth, anemia, infant and or maternal death.
- Increased HIV/AIDS rates. Married girls are more likely to become infected with HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted infections, In Uganda girls aged 15-19 years are 2-8 times more likely than boys of the same age to become more infected with HIV/Aids. Globally the prevalence of HIV infections among women is highest from ages 15-24, the peaks for men is 5-10 years later.
- Illiteracy. Child brides often have to give up on education as they are expected to take up household responsibilities. While it is believed that educating a woman means educating the entire nation, the opposite is exactly true because an un educated woman cannot educate her own children in case of financial difficulties and other adverse conditions.
- Denial of basic needs of life. The convention on the rights of the child which was endorsed by most countries around the globe guarantees particular rights to children and most of these are abused by the practice of child marriage like a right to education, rest and leisure, a right to protection from mental or physical abuse, these rights are important for the mental, physical and emotional development of the child.
- Increased school drop out rates. Children who are married off at an early age automatically miss school due to the home responsibilities they get as children.
In spite of the efforts by various stakeholders to fight the vice, the number of girls forced to get married at a young age still remains high. There are many NGOs in Uganda like JOY FOR CHILDREN, UGANDA, working towards eradicating this issue and empower the girl child, it does so by sensitizing communities on the dangers of child marriage, organizing advocacy training workshops for local leaders and school outreaches.
Parliamentarians also have a big role to play in the struggle of ending child marriage by advocating for better laws that protect the girl child, support the implementation of the SDG target 5.3 to end child marriage by 2030 and budget for ending child marriage.
