The Department of Social Welfare in the Bolgatanga Municipality of Upper East Region has so far received and currently working on 18 marriage disputes and related cases this year.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Madam Mercy Pwavra, the Municipal Director of the Department, said the cases were mostly child custody and access, child maintenance, paternity disputes, and marriage related issues.
She said child custody and access were the highest appealed cases, mostly by couples in instances of divorce, annulment or separation.
She said under such circumstances, the rights and responsibilities of parents were always defined, “One parent has the residential custody and the other parent is entitled to visit or have ‘parenting time’ with the children”.
With regards to child maintenance, Madam Pwavra said they were mostly women seeking to ensure that their estranged partners contributed to the upkeep of the children.
The Municipal Director said paternity disputes and couples seeking reconciliation and other cases were part of the cases and were handled with the necessary procedure to bring satisfaction to all parties.
Madam Pwavra said most of those cases marred quality upbringing of children and called on married couples to avoid pride and submit to each other in order to peacefully co-exist.
She expressed worry that family cohesion was becoming weak as some people were not responsible for the welfare of their children and urged parents to take up their responsibilities even after divorce.
Madam Pwavra advised potential parents to work hard to enhance their economic status before deciding on having children as poverty was a root cause of most marriage problems and the cases sent to the department.
Source: GNA
