12-year-old girl saved from Marriage

Pelingu (U/E), Aug. 28, G NA- The Talensi Nabdam District, in the Upper East Region, recently intervened to save a 12 year old school girl from being forced into marriage by her parents. The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mrs. Vivian Anafo disclosed this in a speech read for her by the District Coordinating Director, Mr Mohammed Akarlifa at Pelingu in the Talensi-Nabdam District during a Community Forum on Domestic Violence on Friday.
The forum, which was on the theme, "Uniting to End Gender Violence in Upper East Region" was organized by the Department of Women and Children to help address the spate of Domestic Violence, especially Gender Based violence, which is common in the area.
According to the DCE, the 12 year old Junior High School girl was taken from Pelingu by her parents and forced to marry a man in Kumasi. She explained that when the Assembly had the hint, it collaborated with the Chief of the area and the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Police Service (DOVVSU) and took the girl from Kumasi to Pelingu to continue with her education.
Mrs. Anafo noted that such practices were very common in the area and said the Assembly would soon institute pragmatic measures, including sensitization programmes in communities and punitive measures, against parents found forcing their under aged children into marriage. The DCE said one of the top priorities of the Assembly was to invest in education, especially that of the girl-child, and noted that if girls are given good education, they stood the chance of contributing significantly to the development of families and the nation. She said the assembly had set aside a special fund for the girl-child and asked parents who were finding it difficult to cater for their daughters to consult the Assembly for the necessary assistance. She appealed to parents to stop sending their children to the southern sector during school vacations to do menial jobs, since most of them get pregnant before schools reopen.
Ms Mercy Atule, Acting Regional Director of the Department of Women and Children, said the Department decided to organize the forum in the area because the practice of early and forceful marriages was very common.
She observed that the situation where some parents forced their daughters and even sometimes withdrew them from school to give them out for marriages because of economic reasons, constituted gender based violence and as such contravened the domestic Act, (Act 732), 2007. Ms Atule explained that there were several hazards that girls forced into marriages could suffer, including psychological and emotional disturbances, stressing that early and forceful marriages were partly responsible for the high rates of maternal mortality in the Region and could also cause sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS among victims.
She urged community members, especially victims of Domestic violence, not to hesitate to report such cases to the appropriate authorities to deal with the situation instead of hiding such crimes. She called on all stakeholders, including the Victims of Violence, DOVVSU, CHRAJ, Department of Social Welfare, Healthcare providers, MPs, Assembly Members and Opinion leaders to collaborate to deal with the problem.
Mr Mohammed Tiamiyu, a Senior Investigator of CHRAJ, said under the children's act of 1998 (Act 560) section 14, it was illegal for anybody to force a child to be betrothed, subject of dowry transaction or to be married and said the law was more emphatic on that and called on parents not to give out their daughters below 18 years for marriage. He indicated that even at 18 years certain factors such as education and consent of the girl were to be taken into consideration before a girl could be given out for marriage. He said anybody who violated such law could be sentenced to a fine of GHC500 or to a one year imprisonment.
He appealed to the law enforcement agencies to deal decisively on cases of domestic violence to serve as a deterrent to others and asked families of victims of domestic violence to report such cases to the appropriate quarters for action.
The forum, organized by the Upper East Regional Department of Women and Children was on the theme "Uniting to End Gender Based Violence in Upper East Region" and was aimed at sensitizing and curbing the high incidence of domestic violence, particularly gender based ones in the Region.