13 girls rescued from child marriage in 2024- MOGCSP

The Head of the Child Marriage Unit at the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protec­tion (MOGCSP), Hajia Saphia Tamimu, says 13 girls were rescued from child marriage last year.

According to her, six of the girls were sent back to school while the others were put into learning trading and other skills to empower them­selves.

“So the Child Marriage Unit at MOGCSP for the year 2024, have rescued about 13 girls from child marriage and then about six of them are in school which we are following up and the rest are in econom­ic empowerment, also learning trade,” she said.

Hajia Tamimu made the revelation at a media engage­ment held in Accra to discuss the ongoing issue of child marriage in the country.

The forum was focused on how the media can assist in the fight against child marriage, particularly through the use of the National Child Marriage Information Portal.

She stated that the Child Marriage Information Portal was launched in September 2021 to serve as a resource on issues of child marriage in Ghana, however, it has not received the necessary consent from the public and stakehold­ers.

Highlighting the progress made in reducing the prev­alence of child marriage in the country, she said through intensive education and law enforcement, the practice of child marriage has declined significantly, from about 40 per cent in the 1980s to 19.3 per cent as of 2018.

Notwithstanding this decline, she underlined that difficulties still exist, especially as one in five Ghanaian females still marry or create unofficial partnerships before turning 18 years.

She indicated that 2021 Population and Housing Census data revealed that over 120,000 children aged 12 to 17 in the country were either mar­ried or living with a partner.

Hajia Tamimu emphasised that adolescent pregnancy was the key driver of child marriage, with 15.3 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 having either given birth or were currently pregnant.

“Despite the laws in place and penalties for offenders, the practice continues,” she added.

The Consultant for the Child Marriage Information Portal at UNFPA Ghana, Mr Senanu Agbozo, said the Na­tional Child Marriage Infor­mation Portal was launched to tackle child marriage prevalence in the country.

He added that MOGCSP partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UN­FPA) to accelerate the elimina­tion of child marriage in Ghana by 2030 through this portal.

Mr Agbozo emphasised that the portal was not only a data repository but also a platform for collaboration among vari­ous stakeholders, including the police, NGOs, and the media to work together in order to bring an end to child marriage.