Child Marriage defined as marriage before age 18 is predominantly practiced in many parts of the country and it has grave social and psychological health consequences for both young women and their children. It devastates the lives of girls, their families and their communities. It also perpetuates an unrelenting cycle of gender inequality, sickness and poverty.

In line with the NCC’s mandate which is principally to protect and promote children’s rights and welfare and as a first step to initiate discussions on the prevalence of child marriage and to find ways for better enforcement and implementation of legislations against the practice, the NCC fully supported by the Access to Security and Justice Program (ASJP) between June and August 2015 embarked on an intensive fact finding and building of interventions mission against child marriage in the country.

The team identified and visited key districts and chiefdoms in all regional headquarters including Koinadugu in the North, Pujehun in the South, Kono in the East and Waterloo and Tombo for the Western Area Rural District Council.

The main objective of the trip was to engage different stakeholders at various levels in order to have fair insight into the situation of child marriage in the districts for the purpose of effective planning and prioritization of interventions; to identify the factors leading to the lack of enforcement of laws on child marriage within the formal justice sector and to develop appropriate interventions that would strengthen access to justice for victims of the practice.

The entire exercise was based on primary qualitative data collection from in-depth/ Key informant interviews and focus group discussions with various stakeholders including Traditional and Religious leaders, community leaders, women’s groups, victims of child marriage, government officials and children in all headquarters and surrounding chiefdoms visited.

The study revealed that the practice is a reality in all the districts visited and it is influenced by a multiplicity of factors ranging from traditional/cultural to social, economic and religious values.
These findings were categorized into various themes including: the lack of educational opportunities such as schools or vocational skills training centers in many places; the strong belief in certain religious and/traditional beliefs such as the perception of men towards women, it being forbidden (haram) for a young grown up girl not in school or engaged in anything to stay under the same roof with her parents and children’s negative attitudes including waywardness, too much interest in material things such as fashionable clothes, mobile phones etc) and the fear of potential pregnancies out of wedlock which would eventually bring shame and disgrace to the family.

The enforcement of laws also came up very strongly. It was evidently clear that the laws are available even though not consistent as that is a very strong reason why most of the marriages are either not reported, done in secrecy or informally (forced to move in with men that impregnated them). Compromise from family members also came up as an impeding factor to pursuing child marriage offences. A total breakdown in effective parenting and health concerns leading to high maternal mortality also were causes of concern to community people.

Nevertheless, there were indications that many children and their parents wish to delay marriage but because they lack the requisite options such as educational facilities or opportunities for their children to further their education, forces them to allow their children get married in hopes that the marriage will benefit them both financially and socially, while also relieving financial burdens on the family. It was also evident that many communities are aware of the legislations against child marriage but they rarely view the practice as an offence but rather as a culturally legitimate one thus making room for its continuity.

The above key findings fed into one day District Consultative Dialogue forums held in all four regions respectively which drew participants from relevant stakeholders within the various districts who gave their honest opinions and recommendations about the issue of child marriage in their various districts.

Below are some of the key recommendations proffered by participants at the meetings.

• Government has to pay serious attention to the provision of schools particularly senior secondary schools, vocational and/skills training centers and learning materials in most communities within the districts and to also consider posting qualified teachers to these schools.
• To consider the reintroduction of Family Life education and guidance counsellors in all schools.
• Target traditional and community leaders to institute or review existing bye laws against child marriage and also encourage their enforcement.
• Target inter-religious council to engage their members particularly the Muslims to distinguish between traditions and religion as regards child marriage and to also encourage them to influence change of perceptions on child marriage issues.
• Target tribal heads to also talk to their people to change their perceptions on child marriage and to put premium on educating their children.
• Chiefdom bye-law to be empowered by linking with FSU proceedings
• Resuscitate the Child Welfare Communities (CWCs) in all communities and empower the FSUs to deal with children’s issues.

  

• Hold frequent consultations with community people to educate them on laws against child marriage

• Encourage community people to always report cases on child marriage to the FSU and any other matters involving children.
• Parents to support their children and to pay more attention to their kids both in and out of school in order to ensure that they are adequately supervised.
• Children are to be encouraged to listen to their parents, concentrate on their books and avoid negative peer pressure.

All programmes were climaxed by live phone in radio discussion programmes on various Radio stations in all regions and they were all inundated with calls from listeners within the districts all of whom made salient contributions and recommendations as to how the bad practice of child marriage could be stopped in their various districts.

Photo shoots and exclusive interviews were also conducted with various people for the production a 30 minutes radio documentary and a 10 minutes video documentary educating people on the negative consequences of child marriage and the need for all to ensure that it is stopped in the entire country.