Stakeholders including traditional leaders, Religious leaders, Social workers and media practitioners at a workshop, Tuesday called for sustained education in rural communities in the Upper East Region in reducing child, early and forced marriages, a phenomenon dominant in region.
Earlier child and forced marriages, the stakeholders resolved had immense consequence in the overall development of the girl child and there is for urgent need for continuous sensitization at the local level to change the trend. They made the call at a day’s stakeholder meeting in Bolgatanga to find ways of ameliorating the age old practice.
The workshop, organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) was supported by the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START) and the Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development. Stakeholders further called for the harmonization of customary laws and laws as stipulated in the country’s constitution which criminalizes forced and early marriages.
The Regional Director of the NCCE, Pontius Pilate Apaabey who spoke to A1 news on the sidelines of the workshop said the occurrence of early and forced marriages was alarming and there was need for intensified education in all facets of society to effectively remedy the trend which is affecting the education of the girl child.
Naba Awui Johnson, Chief of Yorogo, a participant at the workshop said attitudinal change was a way of dealing with the practice.
By: James Amoh Jnr. | A1radioonline.com | Bolgatanga, Ghana
