Eastern province Minister Isaac Banda has warned parents against marrying off their children under the age of eighteen .
Mr Banda who is also MP for Lumezi constituency said this at Katube Basic School in Lundazi during a developmental meeting that it was disheartening that parents were allowing their children to get married at a tender age before completion of school.
He said those parents allowing their children to be married at the tender should be punished because it was not allowed for the girl child to be married below the age of eighteen years.
He warned that the country will not move forward until the issue of early marriages was resolved.
He said the Government would like to see more children in the country getting education by 2015 in order to attain Millennium Development Goals(MDGs).
ZANIS
Give the girl child chance to get educated
I think poverty and scarce opportunities are notable reasons why some parents are forced to marry off their daughters at an early age. Unless these obstacles are removed, I’m afraid the parents will not only marry off their daughters but probably also force them into other dubious means of earning a living e.g. prostitution.
Parents should learn to ‘persevere’ in hard times and not jump into conclusion of giving away their daughters…
Education is the best investment in these daughters than these early marriages…
How old was Tandie when she married RB?
LT, you ve displayed journalistic incompetence again. You ve quoted that Minister speaking about the subject of early marriages but without a background as in why was he talking about it, was there anything that occured which prompted the Minister to issue such a statement and indeed where was he when he said so. Basic principles of reporting bane.
coomment withdrawn. I didnt read the story. someone else used my details to send the cooment in ‘5’ Sorry ba LT
seems africa parents does not know the dangers of early marriages in girls, show the IGNORANT parents some video clips on FITSULA a condition which is caused from having early pregnancies in under aged girls…… they sure would think twice before selling off their young daughters to early marriages… in exchange for LOBOLA a small price compared to the agony a girl child has to go through for the rest of her adulthood, all because her parents greediness, and ignorance…..
Just make it a criminal offence for anyone marrying an underaged girl, pliz let the girl play with dolls or kalambe, than run a house, most of these girls are being married off to men fit to be their great grandfathers, these are just pedos hiding in the name of marrying baby girls. If you jail them for having sex with underaged girls, then they will think twice.