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Marginalised communities in the dark on child marriages ban

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THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Chipo Kunyumbu (not real name) sits forlornly on the verandah of her parents’ home in her village in Mbire district, Mashonaland Central, when four men and a woman arrive carrying several large boxes and paper bags. What was in those bags was no mystery.

THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Chipo Kunyumbu (not real name) sits forlornly on the verandah of her parents’ home in her village in Mbire district, Mashonaland Central, when four men and a woman arrive carrying several large boxes and paper bags. What was in those bags was no mystery.

BY TONDERAYI MATONHO

Earlier in the year, she had been forced to leave school due to lack of finances and shortly after, her mother informed her that she would be getting married.

Chipo, however, like many other people in the village, is unaware that the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) recently outlawed child marriages.

Mashonaland Central Province has a high prevalence of child marriages, according to a Portfolio Committee report on Women’s Affairs presented in Parliament in August 2016. The report says Zimbabwe is among countries with high cases of child marriages where 5% of women and 0,3% of men aged 15 to 49 years were married at 15 years.

Besides the ConCourt ban not reaching Mbire district as yet, more initiatives have also been mooted to support ending early child marriages, but remain unknown in marginalised communities.

The Sadc Parliamentary Forum in June 2016 adopted the Sadc Model law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children already in Marriage.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the adoption of this Model Law marks yet another milestone in the journey towards a Zimbabwe that is free of the scourge of child marriage.

Earlier milestones include the official launch of the African Union Campaign against Child Marriage by Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Grace Mugabe on July 31, 2015, followed by the land mark ruling by the ConCourt on January 20, 2016, outlawing child marriage.

“The Model Law is a useful resource in the ongoing national efforts to develop and implement effective and sustainable solutions not only to end child marriage in Zimbabwe, but also to build a society in which the rights of children, particularly girls are protected”, UNFPA notes.

The Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC) has called for the adoption of a Child Marriage Bill to end child marriages.

“There is need to scale up community sensitisation campaigns on the dangers of child marriages. We have to be on the same understanding with communities that child marriage is a violation of children’s rights,” ZNCWC programmes manager, Maxim Murungweni told NewsDay.

“The draft Child Marriage Bill, if adopted, will go a long way in addressing such loopholes and technicalities like in this scenario. We acknowledge current efforts the government and civil society are doing towards ending child marriages. However, we need to allocate more resources towards ending child marriage activities,” he said.

In March 2016, several legislators took the lead in promoting the protection of the girl child against abuse and pledging against early child marriages declaring to preserve the future of girl children as responsible parents.

“I am excited and after this we hope to get ministers and other top government officials to sign the pledge and we are also going to take it to schools to ensure that teachers also sign a pledge, saying they will not abuse school children,” said Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC Proportional Representation), who moved a motion on the protection of the girl-child.

Of the multi-billions of dollars needed for a comprehensive response to such initiatives worldwide, $11,7 million is needed for Child Protection Intervention in Zimbabwe. However, only 6% of this amount has been pledged by donors, making it the most underfunded sector.

The Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund and several other United Nations agencies and organisations, has developed a national action plan to end child marriages and its related communication for development activities.

However, critics have noted that such campaigns and initiatives and those that help the advancement of women, require women themselves respecting cultural norms and should be contextualised within local cultural and traditional practices.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, speaking at Parliament Building at the launch of the United Nations “He for She” campaign recently, said: “If you [women] do not work with the (traditional) chiefs in your campaign, then you have not started anything, because in our daily lives we are creatures of culture.”

According to experts, child marriages are mostly perpetuated by traditional and cultural practices, like appeasing spirits (ngozi), religious practices and poverty.