The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA has urged the media to champion the course to end child marriage in the country.
Speaking to A1 News at a workshop organized in Bolgatanga to equip journalists with the requisite knowledge on the issues of child marriage, Doris Mawuse Aglobitse, programme analyst at the communication and resource mobilization department of the UNFPA said the media must play an active role in tackling the situation which is on the increase.
In various presentations made by the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana police service in the Upper East, West and Northern regions, it was revealed that many parents are ignorant of the fact that children are not supposed to by law marry at ages below 18 years according to the Children Act 1998( Act 650 ). But statistics indicate that every year, 13.5 million girls that is 1of 3 girls marry before age 18 while 4.4 million of them that is 1 in 10 girls marry before they turn 15years. Statistics also indicate that the prevalence rate of child marriages in Ghana ranges from 12.2% and 39.2% with the Upper East region topping on the list with the highest rate.
In a joint programme with United Nations Children Emergency Fund, the UNFPA initiated the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to end Child Marriage aimed at creating an enabling environment to uphold girls’ rights and entitlements, reducing school drop outs, delaying marriage and reducing sexual and gender violence among other things. According to the 2010 population census, one third of Ghana’s population is under 24 years with 14% of women aged between 15 and 19 began childbearing. Ghana is among the four countries in West Africa undertaking the programme to end child marriage, the rest include Niger, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso.
Participants were drawn from selected media houses including the ministry of gender, children and social protection and officers from the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service in the Upper East, West and Northern regions.
By: Adugbire Cletus | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
