Early or Child marriage, according to the Convention on the Right of the Child, refers to any marriage of a person younger than 18 years. Even though child or early marriage affects both boys and girls, girls are mostly. Their overall development is compromised, leaving them socially isolated with little or no education, skills and opportunities for employment and realization of their implicit potentials. This leaves them more vulnerable to poverty. The practice also deprives them of basic rights to health, development and equality.
A forced marriage is a marriage that is performed under duress and without the full and informed consent or free will of both parties. Here also, young women are the most victims. Being under duress includes feeling both physical and emotional pressure. Some victims of forced marriage are tricked into relocating. Young women fall victim to forced marriage through deception, abduction, coercion, fear, and inducements. A forced marriage may be between young people themselves, a young persons and an adult, or between adults.
Traditional and religion believes as well as and poverty continue to fuel the practice of early and child marriage, despite its strong association with adverse reproductive health outcomes and the lack of education of girls. Customary practices in certain parts of the country lead to both early betrothal and marriage of girls. Where it can be proved that the girl’s consent to an early customary marriage was absent, a prosecution for forcible marriage can be carried out. But, of course, many females do not know that they have the right to refuse early marriages. Many feel compelled to cohabit with a man by circumstances such as poverty.
Ghana is a signatory to several International Conventions such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on Eliminating Discrimination against Women. It therefore befits on the country to tighten her laws and strengthen her systems to deal with this social menace that has the ability to affect all spheres of the economy. Promoting girl child education will go a long way in helping the nation to attain Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals.
Early and forced marriages can contribute to putting people, specifically girls, into a cycle of poverty and powerlessness. Most are likely to experience violence, abuse and forced sexual relations. This means women who marry younger in age are more likely to be dominated by their husband. They also experience poor sexual and reproductive health. Young married women are more likely to contract HIV and their health could be in jeopardy. Most people that are forced into a marriage lack education and become illiterate. Young ones tend to drop out of school shortly before they get married.
Chapter 5, subsection 28 (d) of the constitution of Ghana recognizes that parliament enact such laws as are necessary to ensure that children and young person’s receive special protection against exposure to physical and moral hazards. Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says “every grown-up has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated”. This implies that marriage must be at the full consent of both parties.
Normally, girls from the Northern regions of Ghana are usually given out in marriage at very young ages against their will. This is a clear violation of the constitution of Ghana and the universal declaration of human rights. The girls are forced to marry men old enough to be their fathers and in some situations, their grandfathers. However, many of the girls escape from these marriages to settle in slums in Accra and Kumasi where they become courier girls popularly called “KAYAYEI”. Many of these girls drop out of school and have no skill to make a living. Most of these girls also find themselves been sexually abused by some men. This increases their risk of been infected with acquiring HIV. Some of them get pregnant without fathers.
The result is that many children are brought onto our streets. Many of these street children grow up without education and sense of responsibility. They lack basic necessities of life and find it difficult to feed or clothe themselves. The worse situation is that they will resort to the ‘gun’ as a means of livelihood.
In addition, in some parts of the Volta region, young virgins are forced to marry traditional priests. It is the punishment they are to serve for the crime or misfortune of their family members. This is popularly called “TROKOSI” in the Ewe language. These virgins are kept behind closed gates in the compound of the priest. They are never allowed go to out. They never go to school or learn a trade. With time, most of them give birth to children who are also kept away from the society. In this situation, they are denied most basic necessities of life such as education, clothing, good shelter, health and proper food.
Poverty in Ghana is generally described as low levels of income, the lack of shelter, food, clothing, education, and other important needs of life. Poverty should also be seen as is a consequence of human rights violations. Public education need to be geared towards young people and families about the health hazards of early marriage to the girls and encouraging parents/guardians to allow girls to go to school and spend more years in school before marrying and starting families. It is not enough for one to know the law, people must demand for their rights. The state must also establish good protection system for young people to ensure that the fundamental rights and dignity of the Ghanaian youth, especially the girl child is protected, promoted and fulfilled. These, I believe are ways of preventing abuse of their fundamental rights and increasing levels of poverty.
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