Child marriage, which typically involves girls marrying before the age of 18, is a violation of human rights with severe consequences for both the girls themselves and their future children. It often creates a cycle of disadvantage that can persist across generations. It can also happen when both parties are below the age of 18.
Child marriage has taken away the rights of younger girls who are yet to make meaning out of life and education. Its practices have caused much damage and destroyed the lives of innocent girls not only in Ghana but in the world at large.
This is still practiced in this modern age in countries like Niger, Liberia, the Congo, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc. In Ghana, places where child marriage is practiced are mostly in the northern part.
Child marriage is prohibited by law in Ghana, but it remains prevalent, especially in the northern regions and among rural, less-educated, and poorer populations. Despite some progress, the child marriage rate has increased in the northern regions, exacerbating disparities within the country.
There are so many causes of child marriage and today in this article, I want to take you through seven (7) of them, which I know will at least make you aware.
1. Lack of parental love and care
Most child marriages occur as a result of improper parental care and love. Parents push their female children into getting married to older men because they sometimes do not have enough love and care for them. All they care about is the gain from the man who is coming to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage.
Some parents, after they give birth, leave the female child prone to the dangers of this world because the girl child needs someone to care for them. They go in for older men who they think can take care of and love them, hence getting involved in child marriage.
2. Peer Pressure
As the girl child turns into adolescent, they intend to practice whatever they see, especially now that we’re living in a technological world. They practice as they see, and this may cause child marriage.
Seeing their friends get married to wealthy men who provide them with everything they need can lure a young female child to also want to do the same. Some also come as a result of the kind of friends they keep. Friends that will push them to go in for older men who are above their age to marry them.
At this stage, there’s nothing you can do to make them have a change of mind because they’ll want to get married at all costs. This is because they see others doing it so it might seem right to them.
3. Poverty
In most cases, parents allow their girl child into child marriage because of financial problems they face in the family. Parents see that, due to a lack of money, they will want to accept any offer to give their female child into child marriage. In order to get money to cater to certain financial problems and needs in the family, such as taking the younger siblings to school and feeding them.
They don’t care about the amount of money to be given to them. Some parents also exchange their girl child for the settlement of debt to the debtors. This happens when parents are not able to settle the amount owed.
Child marriage happens also because some family have a lot of female children and cannot cater to them so, giving them out in an early marriage will cut down the cost of living in the family. This is one of the major reasons child marriage occurs (poverty).
4. Lack of education
Education is one of the important keys to success, and a lack of it makes it difficult for one to progress. Most child marriage occurs because a lot of people do not have fair knowledge about the consequences.
They do not know the complications that come with it. Child marriage was an old practice that was abolished a long time ago, but people still practice it out of ignorance and lack of education.
5. Wants and needs
Female children are lured into child marriage mostly because of the promises they get from men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers. They get promised so many interesting and beautiful things. Sometimes, they also get lured by the promises of being taken good care of and the provisions of the things they need to make life easily accessible to them.
When it happens this way, they are eager to get married because they will get to enjoy and have whatever they want or need. The imagination of life being beautiful is all they dream of without thinking about the aftermath of the marriage. Most of the time, situations also make them succumb to the marriage.
6. The belief of females being relegated to the kitchen
In some cultures, females are not allowed to education because it is believed that the only place for a female child is the kitchen. They believe that a female child is to cater to a man or a husband, thereby forcing them into early marriage.
Even though some may reject the marriage proposal, it becomes taboo not to be married off as early as 15–18 years of age. Tradition demands that young female children be married off at an early age to prevent complications that may affect the family. This demand puts fear in the individual to accept any marriage proposal made by any elder man.
7. Fear of the unknown
Parents might believe that marrying their daughters at an early age can protect them from sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections. Social norms, the desire to strengthen social ties, and perceived protection also play a role.
Effects of Child Marriage
Child marriage has many negative health consequences, including:
- poor maternal and reproductive health,
- a higher risk of HIV and other infections, intimate partner violence, and maternal mortality.
- Early childbearing also increases health risks for young mothers.
- It’s associated with lower educational attainment, lower socioeconomic status, and increased poverty.
- The adverse effects of early marriage can affect the health and well-being of future generations as well.
Conclusion
In summary, the study investigates how child marriage affects various aspects of women’s lives, from their health and empowerment to social support and stress. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics around child marriage and its far-reaching effects in Ghana.
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