Child marriages are rife in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West and Masvingo provinces, with 24,5% of Zimbabwean girls between the ages 15-19 said to be currently married.
by Nqobile Bhebhe
This was disclosed by a Unicef communications specialist Elizabeth Mupfumira in Masvingo on Tuesday during a media workshop on developmental reporting.
Mupfumira said the statistics put Zimbabwe in the top 40 countries worldwide with high child marriage rates.
“According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey [MICS] 2014, 32,8% of Zimbabwean women aged 20 to 49 were married before the age of 18. Currently, 24,5% of Zimbabwean women between the ages 15 to 19 are married,” Mupfumira said.
“Prevalence is highest in Mashonaland Central (50%), followed by Mashonaland West (42%), and Masvingo (39%).”
Mupfumira said child marriages occurred more frequently among girls who were the least educated and lived in rural areas.
Poverty is also said to be one of the driving forces behind child marriages in Zimbabwe.
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Parents often marry girls off so they have one less mouth to feed. Dowry payments may be a further incentive.
According to the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), girls who married between the ages of 10 and 14 were five times as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women in their early 20s.
Although child marriage is technically considered illegal, the gaps in legislation have compounded the cultural practice despite the serious health complications.
The current legislation does not provide protection against child marriage and its associated abuses, which the country is obliged to provide for under the Constitution and its international commitments.
There are growing calls for the Zimbabwean government to align existing laws on marriage to the new Constitution to protect the girl child.
The Customary Marriages Act, which has no specific minimum age, has seen many parents and guardians consenting to marriage of their children.
Under the Marriage Act, girls below 16 can marry while the same Act says boys can only marry at 18. Girls between the ages of 16 and 18 can get married with the consent of their parents or guardians or, if a guardian refuses consent, with the consent of a High Court judge (Section 20).
