… 6% of Guyanese girls are wedded before 15 – report
By Jeanna Pearson
social Protection Minister Volda Lawrence has stated that because of cultural differences in Guyana, there is a clause in the Sexual Offences Act which allows for a child under the age of 15 to be married.
Volda Lawrence
Her statement comes on the heels of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, “The state of the world’s children 2016: A fair chance for every child”, which indicated that six per cent of children in Guyana were married by the age of 15, while 23 per cent are married by the age of 18.
Lawrence expressed shock over the report and stated that while she has not seen it, the figures were misleading taking into consideration the provision in the Sexual Offences Act.
“We don’t have child marriage,” she responded, further explaining that there was a clause in the Sexual Offences Act which allowed for a parent to carry their child to the court and ask for consent for him/her to be married.
Director of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) Patricia Bisnauth, in an interview with Guyana Times, stated that “culture” was one of the major factors why child marriages occurred.
“It is because we believe that the ultimate goal of a girl is to get married and so by marrying young, you prevent pregnancy before marriage, but what we are doing is enslaving our girls,” she said pointedly, asserting that at 15 years old a girl is not in a physical or emotional state to raise a family.
“And this worries us because they are not ready for marriage or equal partnership,” she said.
The report revealed these percentages were calculated for the years 2008 to 2014. It also stated that 10 per cent of men and 10 per cent of females justified wife beating for the period of 2010 to 2015.
It indicated that two of the major factors for child marriage, which accounted for some 15 million girls being married globally every year, were poverty and children with little to no education. It stated that girls with educational constraints were up to six times more likely to be married than girls who have a secondary education.
Past reports by the international organisations had stated that Amerindian and East Indian women were more likely to be married before age 18 when compared to African women. It highlighted that these women were usually 10 or more years younger than their husbands.
The situation had deteriorated to a point where Guyana was ranked alongside Trinidad and Tobago as countries where adolescent marriages were prevalent. In Guyana, a teen can be legally married at the age of 16 with the consent of a parent or legal guardian.
However, the UNICEF report insists that adolescent marriage violates a child’s right to an education and a normal childhood. It stated that these girls are subordinate to their husbands and families, and as such, have become more vulnerable to domestic violence, and are not in a position to make decisions about safe sex and family planning – which inevitably puts them at higher risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, high-risk pregnancy and childbearing before their bodies are fully mature.
It expounded that mothers who are still children are at higher risk of potentially disabling complications, like obstetric fistula (complication caused by prolonged obstructed labour), and both they and their babies are more likely to die.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 2013 report, titled “Motherhood In Childhood: Facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy”, the Caribbean ranks second only to continental Africa in the number of adolescent girls under 18 years old becoming pregnant annually. Approximately 20 per cent of young girls across the Region reported having their first pregnancy as adolescents.
Meanwhile, UNICEF affirmed that while child marriage may seem to be an intractable problem, it occurred because societies often placed a lesser value on girls. However, it indicated that there are tested strategies that can change girls’ lives, preserve their childhoods and empower them to make better futures for themselves and their societies.
“These involve increasing girls’ access to education, empowering girls with knowledge and skills, educating parents and communities, increasing economic incentives and supporting families, and strengthening and enforcing laws and policies that set the minimum age of marriage at 18 for both girls and boys,” the report stated, adding that education was one of the most crucial factors.
It stated that focused investments to reach and empower poor and marginalised girls through health, education, social protection and other systems can create alternative pathways for girls and their families. No less critical is the slow, patient work of changing social norms.
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo stated that when a girl’s education was cut short, she lost the chance to gain the skills and knowledge to secure a good job and provide for herself and her family.
“They are socially isolated. As I observed among my former schoolmates who were forced to get married, the consciousness of their isolation is in itself painful. By robbing girls of their potential, child marriage robs families, communities and nations of the contributions these girls might have made as women,” she said, adding that the phenomenon hampered countries’ efforts to improve the health of mothers and children, fight malnutrition and keep children in school.
“When girls are married as children, they cannot help but pass on poverty, low education and poor health – into which they themselves have been trapped – to the next generation,” she affirmed.
Earlier this year, a pregnant 14-year-old girl was found dead in a house with her common-law husband. The couple were together since she was 12 years old; the man was 20 years old.
There are many other cases of teenage girls involved in relationships with older men. Bisnauth stated that such incidents should be worrisome to the population, because “our young girls are being robbed at a very young age of their childhood and their innocence”.
She stated that the six per cent, although it was small, it was one too many. She stated that in most of these cases, the girls would not have completed their secondary school education and/ or would have been pressured by their families to stay in the unhealthy relationship.
Bisnauth added that she was in accord with the report that child marriage contributed significantly to impoverishment, not only in the child’s family but in the nation in its entirety.
