AT least 25% of women aged between 15 and 19 years are married compared to less than 2% of men in the same age group, a government survey has indicated.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStats) last year established that one in every three women were also first married before reaching the age of 18 years.
Part of the survey report read: “The proportion of women who were married before the age of 15 is more than that of men. Five percent of women and 0,3% of men age 15-49 years were first married or in union before age 15.
“One in three women and less than 1 in 20 (3,7%) of men age 20-49 were first married or in union before age 18. Young people aged 15-19 years currently married or in union were 24,5% and 1,7% for women and men, respectively.”
The MICS is an international household survey programme developed by Unicef after the 1990 World Summit for Children to assist countries in filling data gaps for monitoring human development in general and the social status of children and women in particular.
Since its inception, MICS has been conducted in more than 100 countries. In Zimbabwe, a customised version of the MICS, the Multiple Indicator Monitoring Survey, was first conducted in 2009.
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The report added: “The percentage of women and men aged 15-49 years who are in a polygymous union was 10,1% and 3,8%, respectively.
“Age mixing is prevalent for young women, with 19,9% of women aged 15-19, and 17,5% of women aged 20-24 years married or in union with a spouse 10 or more years older.”
