Increase in early marriages worries government

Increase in early marriages worries government

Shangombo, June 10, ZANIS —– Gender and Child Development Deputy Minister Josphine Limata says government is worried about the increase of early marriages in the country.

Ms Limata has also said government will no longer condone cases of early marriages in the country.

Mrs Limata said government was concerned about cases of early marriages throughout the country saying the practice was putting lives of the young girls in danger.

She noted that most of the girl children were not fit enough for delivery and could not shoulder the burden of mothering babies.

ZANIS reports from Shangombo that the minister said this when she and her delegation paid a courtesy call on the District Commissioner Dominic Lisulo at his office today.

Ms Limata explained that since most women in the country were economically disadvantaged, it was government’s responsibility to support them as majority of them were not working.

She said this was one of the reasons that she led a high powered delegation to sensitize women in the area on the empowerment fund by government.

The Gender Deputy Minister explained that the government’s empowerment fund was meant to help all the women through their certified and registered clubs.

And Shangombo District Administration Officer Albertina Kabatana says most school girls in the district have abused the government’s back to school policy by frequently going on maternity leave.

Ms Katabana said her office had noticed a saddening trend where most girls in the area were not completing their education in preference for early marriages and eventually early pregnancies despite government’s move to grant the school going one maternity leave.

She disclosed that at Senanga High School girls were abusing the provision of school maternity leave by going on such a leave more than three times.

Ms Kabatana told the minister and her delegation that most of the girls in the area where giving birth to small or still born babies because their bodies were not matured.

She also disclosed that one of the school girls was impregnated by a Chinese road construction worker who has since gone back to his country.

She suggested to the minister to set up funds to sensitise the girl child against early marriages which she noted was only increasing levels of poverty in most Zambian households.