In Zimbabwean rural areas, children are getting married in their teen years despite laws that guard against early marriages. It is “normal” to see 15 year olds who are married and have a child and are living together. In most such households, the young father would be an artisanal miner working illegally at some gold mine to be able to care for his young family. Life is hard and when its rainy season the burden to take care of the family doubles. The mines become a dangerous place with most flooding such that men are not able to work. It is in such seasons that lives are lost due to mines collapsing.
Such is the life of the rural child, it is one of opportunities and dreams lost at a young age. Poverty being the driver of decisions taken that impact generations. Some come from broken homes, their parents and guardian unable to keep them in school for long. Some fleeing from the poverty and abuse they experience in their homes, they think getting married to artisanal miners is the ticket from poverty. Various organisations and some government interventions try to assist to break this cycle. However, most of these mediations are aimed at the girl child leaving the boy behind.
More inclusive strategies need to be devised to properly deal with child marriages.
“We need to be all inclusive and not just focus on the girl child alone leaving behind the boy child, we need to teach them both on the dangers of child marriages. I’m not dismissing that there are old men taking advantage of young girls but I’m just saying lets also consider the boy child in our strategies to end this problem.” This was said by Becare Ndebele, a Zhombe resident during an online discussion on child marriages.
The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), in 1989 unanimously adopted the convention on the “Rights of the Child”. It states that the child should be protected from all forms of maltreatment by parents or others responsible for child care and establish appropriate social programmes for the prevention of child abuse. They agreed that children are not just objects who belong to their parents and for whom decisions are made. But they are human beings and individuals with their own rights. The Convention says childhood is separate from adulthood, and lasts until 18 it is a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity. The actions, or inactions, of government impact children more strongly than any other group in society. According to the UN, every area of government policy from education to public health affects children to some degree. Short-sighted policymaking that fails to take children into account has a negative impact on the future of all members of society. But the boy child is being left being in most strategies with more focus being on the girl child.
Midlands Provincial Chairman for Padare/Men’s Forum, Edson Masimba said that their organisation continues to teach boys to abstain from sex for as long as they possibly can. Padare also teach them about the immense responsibilities that come with being a child and father. He called on more organisations to target the boy child so that they don’t get left behind as their inclusion is essential in the child marriage talk.
“There are so many programs targeting the girl child, calling for her to be given a second chance and that is good. If she falls pregnant she can go back to school and there are support systems in place. More focus has been on the girl child simply because our patriarchal societies have not been all inclusive of both genders. But as we go forward there is need to target both boys and girls at the same time,” he said.
Former Minister of Health and Child Care Doctor Henry Madzorera said that “we need to raise the level of masculinity and make sure that men survive. When a boy or a man experiences domestic violence society makes fun of them yet the pain and emotional damage is as real for them as it is for the woman. Yes, statistics show a higher number of girls being married off early but boys still need to be involved in this conversation.”