Child marriage is considered a violation of the rights of the victims and a harmful traditional practice.
It is an age-long tradition that has been widely and heavily criticized because of the dangers that come with it.
The dreams, hopes and aspirations of the victims who are mostly teenage girls are usually cut short.
Both the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the Children’s Act of 1998, Act 560, define a child as a person below the age of 18 years.
Ghana has a high rate of child marriage, with 19% of all young women getting married before turning 18 years old.
According to the 2021 UNFPA-UNICEF global programme to end child marriage, there are 2 million child brides in Ghana, with 600,000 married before the age of 15.
In Chereponi, traditional beliefs will not allow children to attain this legal age before they are given out for marriage.
They are betrothed at birth and forced into marriage at a very young age, usually between 13 and 17 years old.
Nineteen-year-old Jennifer, who was married off at the age of 15, narrates her experience.
“I was forced to marry at the age of 15 when I was in Primary 6. I resisted initially but because it’s our tradition, I couldn’t do anything about it.
“My dream was to become a teacher or nurse but that can never be possible as I am now a mother of two.”
Here, the incidence of child marriage is not always a result of teenage pregnancy.
It is basically to prevent the girls from marrying outside the family.
The conversation below ensued between the report and the head of family.
Reporter: Why do you give your children out for marriage?
Head of family: It is a tradition we came to inherit from our forefathers and it is not out of order to give your child out for marriage because if you don’t do that and you die, you won’t get more people especially in-laws attending your funeral.
The rights and education of the girls are not considered.
“I gave my daughter out to my nephew who is an orphan to marry because he doesn’t have anyone to cook for him and so since he is my sister’s son and a member of the family, I gave my daughter out at the age of 15 to him to marry to be cooking for him and also to prevent her from marrying outside the family.”
Some of the girls, who cannot contain the situation, run from home for their safety, while others stay to suffer the consequences.
“When the children are in primary school, we get a lot of girls attending but because of the marriage issues, the Junior High Schools are empty.”
Kwame and his wife, only two months ago, had their daughter run from home after she was forced to marry at the age of 15.
Reporter: We understand your daughter run from home when you forced her to marry?
Kwame Kojo: Yes it’s true. I was away in Nigeria when my father married her off to a man from our family but she run from home. I was called to come and assist to search for her and for close to three months now we don’t know her whereabouts.
“The mother is sad and I am sad too because of this tradition.”
But is there any hope of changing the tradition here?
The Children’s Act of 1998, Act 560, mandates the district assemblies to protect the welfare and promote the rights of children within their catchment area of authority.
But is the Chereponi District Assembly living up to this mandate?
“The problem is so huge in such a way that until we put in more and more efforts, you will not see the impact immediately but trust me 10 years ago the situation was dire than you are seeing now,” the Social Welfare Officer for the District, Gariba Murtala, said.
Despite efforts by Norsaac and Songtaba under the Power to Youth Programme, which aims at eliminating harmful practices including child marriage, the situation continues to persist.
“The question we need to ask ourselves is how do we enforce the policies we have put in place because we need to enforce it for people to know we really acting,” Mr Murtala said.
“Child marriage is a no-go area, is forbidden and we have a law that can jail and so we need the government agencies to be proactive in this area.”
According to the 2021 UNFPA-UNICEF global programme to end child marriage, if progress is accelerated, the prevalence of child marriage in Ghana could drop to 12 percent by 2030 and to 5 percent by 2050.
SDG Target 5.3 aims to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child marriage, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilations” by 2030.
More needs to be done to ensure Ghana meets the ambitious goal of ending the practice by 2030, set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It is the hope and belief of hundreds of girls in the Chereponi District that the government, CSOs, and other stakeholders will remain committed to the fight against child marriage by committing more resources to behavior change advocacy.
Until then, the future of girls here will remain bleak.