MPs tackle child marriages

Members of Parliament from Matabeleland South  will on Wednesday re-ignite child marriage debate.

The legislators will converge on Bulawayo and raise awareness on the scourge together with Katswe Sisterhood.

"It's on child marriages and HIV, we are trying to get communities educated on it" said one legislator.

Early this year, the  Constitutional Court outlawed child marriage and struck off the statutes section 22(1) of the Marriage Act ,which for decades, had allowed children under the age of 18 years to get into marriage.

The full Constitutional Court bench said section 22(1) of the Marriage Act was inconsistent with section 78(1) of the Constitution which sets 18 years as the minimum age of marriage in Zimbabwe.

Various reports indicate that a teenage girl in the rural area is more likely to be exposed to the risk of pregnancy compared to her urban counterpart.

Teenage pregnancies and early marriages are prevalent in poor families compared to those in wealthy communities, according to experts.

There is a high risk of contracting HIV when girls are forced into child marriage as they are unable to negotiate for safer sex.

Experts said contrary to the widely-held belief that early child pregnancies or marriages were mainly in the apostolic sects, statistics have proven that other groups of religions and those in traditional religion or no religion have had their fair share of the early marriages.