FEATURE: Child marriage still prevalent in Niger
Unicef said there is a substantial gap in the prevalence of child marriage between the poorest and richest.
PRETORIA, November 20 (ANA) – Worldwide, more than 700 million women were married before their 18th birthday. More than one in three, about 250 million, entered into union before age 15, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said in a report.
According to the humanitarian agency, Niger has the highest child marriage prevalence rate in the world, with 76% of girls married before the age of 18, and 28% married before they turn 15.
Unicef said there is also a substantial gap in the prevalence of child marriage between the poorest and richest. Females in the poorest quintile are 2.5 times more likely to marry in childhood than those living in the wealthiest quintile.
The Unicef report indicated that child marriage is most prevalent in Maradi, Tahoua and Zinder. Girls as young as 10 years in some regions are married, and after the age of 25 only a handful of young women are unmarried.
A 2017 World Bank study suggests that ending child marriage in Niger could save the country more than US$25 billion by 2030.
Forty-nine percent of the country lives in abject poverty, earning less than US$1.90 per day. Eighty-one percent of the population lives in rural areas. Twenty percent of the population does not have enough food.
This alarming rate of poverty, according to Unicef, drives some families to marry off their daughters to men of wealth as a survival tactic and in the hope of increasing their economic and social prosperity.
Many girls drop out of school, or are excluded, due to poor results and an unsafe environment. This places them at heightened risk of marrying young due to limited alternatives.
Polygamy is another contributor to child marriages in Niger. Child brides are most likely to be second, third or fourth wives, as younger brides are considered more attractive and obedient.
There’s also a practice called wahaya which involves the purchase of one or more girls, usually of slave descent, under the guise of a fifth wife. Many fifth wives have been trafficked as young girls from rural regions across West Africa to the houses of richer, older urban men.
In certain areas, including rural Marake, some people reportedly believe that girls should be married before their first period, as bloodstained clothing may be perceived as loss of virginity, which brings shame to families. Child marriage is seen to protect a girl’s dignity and preserve her virginity.
Married girls are said to enjoy a certain level of respect within society that cannot not achieved if unmarried, regardless of how successful she may become professionally.
Gender and child marriage issues remain taboo and are highly politicised in Niger. Many initiatives taken to end the practice are blocked by specific social groups or religious leaders.
To combat the issue, Niger supported recommendations to adopt a family law to protect girls from child marriage, increase the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 and implement a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the practice.
In 2014, Niger signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage. The country has committed to eliminating child, early and forced marriage by 2030.
As of June 2018, the government is in the process of developing Niger’s first national action plan to end child marriage.
The national strategy on prevention of adolescent pregnancies has called for a reduction in child marriages from 76.3% in 2012 to 60% in 2020.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher