The Government of Ghana has launched a national campaign to end child marriage, a practice that affects 1 in 5 girls in the country. Efevbera Y, Bhabha J. Definition and deconstruction of child marriage of girls and applications for global public health. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1–1. Some of our findings are consistent with those of other countries and regions. For example, previous studies have shown significant risks for children of married adolescent girls, such as premature birth, low birth weight, and a higher likelihood of dying before their second birthday [6, 10]. The finding that child marriage was associated with the birth of adolescent children reflects the norms that girls and women are expected to have children soon after marriage. We find that child marriage was associated with child mortality among women aged 20-24, and previous studies support the links between child marriage and poor child health [6]. Therefore, efforts to improve early childhood nutrition should be linked to programmes to reduce child marriage and programmes to address the nutritional needs of pregnant adolescents or adolescents in general in areas with high rates of early marriage. In this way, initiatives can have a positive impact on adolescent girls and their future children, helping to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and poor health.
To our knowledge, previous studies have not examined the association between child marriage and ADL difficulties, but a common finding in the literature is that child marriage is associated with poorer overall health outcomes [19]. Others argue that since the age of consent is 16, sexual abuse of the child at that age is treated as an offence that discourages men from abstaining from doing so. A popular example of this was the controversy between a school owner and a student that was taken to the Gender Equality Tribunal in 2009. The owner impregnated the 16-year-old student and later married her. It has been reported that the girl accepted the law that makes her legal. He was prosecuted for forcing a teenage girl into marriage. The case attracted national interest, as human rights and gender equality advocates were determined to use it as a test case. People were horrified that marrying someone before the age of 18 was considered a less serious crime than filth; Child marriage is an offence punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison. However, as she was already married to the owner, she did not cooperate with the prosecutor`s office and the case was eventually dropped.
This sums up many experiences of pursuing child marriage in Ghana, involving people who have reached the age of consent. If the age of consent is raised, sexual relations under the age of 18 will be treated as a disgrace, resulting in a prison sentence of at least 7 years and a maximum penalty of 25 years. They believe it will be a great deterrent between adults and children, significantly reducing the incidence of child marriage. Tema, 27 years old. September, GNA – Some opinion leaders in Tema have called on parliament to review Ghana`s laws to ensure that the age of sexual consent matches the legal age of marriage. In addition, some believe that raising the age of consent is in the best interests of the child, as required by law. They believe that it makes no sense to say that a person can have sex at 16 and is not prepared for the consequences, and also that a person at 18 is better off financially, mentally and emotionally than a 16-year-old in terms of marriage. In Fig. 3A (dichotomous outcomes) and Fig. 3B3B (continuous results), we present the results in terms of savings, support, self-perceived stress and capacity to act. Child marriage was associated with lower stress levels in the 20-29 age group (coefficient = − 1.18; CI -1.84 – -0.51), but not at 20 to 24 years.
In contrast, women married as children were less likely to believe that their lives were determined by their own actions (OR = 0.42; CI 0.25-0.72 in women aged 20 to 24 years and OR = 0.54; CI 0.39-0.75 in women aged 20 to 29 years). There was no significant association between child marriage and savings, social support or other agency reporting in this sample. The problems that arise in the gap between the age of sexual consent and the legal age of marriage in Ghana can be viewed from a pluralistic perspective. On the one hand, it has extremely positive results for SRH for young people. On the other hand, it can be a problem for SRG. Optimistically, setting the age of sexual consent relatively lower than the age of marriage provides opportunities for youth to access SRH information and services to make informed decisions [17]. In the Ghanaian context, sexual communication is absent and shrouded in mystery, as socialization agencies (i.e. parents, family, school, church, and community) refrain from openly discussing sexual issues. According to Amo-Adjei [29], this is generally the appropriate age to inform young people about SRH issues and the content that should be disseminated. Meanwhile, the age of sexual consent could have been used as a proxy to determine when to begin SRH education and socialization. Since the authors of the legal age of sexual consent at 16 offered young people the opportunity to access accurate SRH information that would guide them in their sexual decision-making between this period and the time of marriage, the potential negative effects were somewhat overlooked. We first summarized the general characteristics and outcome indicators.
Next, we examined subsequent risks associated with child marriage by estimating a set of regression models (logistic for dichotomous and ordinary least squares (OLS) outcome variables for continuous outcomes) for each of the outcomes described above. Controls used in this analysis included individual characteristics (age and highest level of education), household-level factors (household size; number of members in each of the following age groups: 0 to 5 years, 6 to 12 years, 13 to 17 years, 18 to 24 years, 25 to 34 years, 35 to 44 years, 45 to 54 and 55 to 64; the gender of the head of household; if the head of the household has already attended school; (period) and a dichotomous variable for each of the districts of Karaga, Yendi, Bongo and Garu-Tempane. The country`s laws provide that a child can consent to sexual relations at the age of 16, while the age of marriage is set at 18, which is considered the time of adulthood. Okyere J. Definition of child marriage in Ghana. Modern Ghana. 2020 www.modernghana.com/news/1026073/defining-child-marriage-in-ghana.html. In addition, they regard demands to equate the age of consent with the legal age of marriage as moral ideals that are hardly taken into account in practice.
Raising the age of consent to 18 means that many sexual activities that take place anyway will be considered legal rape, leading to excessive prosecution. The idea is that the two-year gap between the age of consent and the legal age of marriage encourages teenage pregnancy, which is a major driver of child marriage. Child marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights and a threat to access to education, sexual and reproductive health care and employment. It also threatens the right to be free from violence, reproductive rights, freedom of movement and the right to consensual marriage. In most sub-Saharan African countries, the legal age of marriage is 18. Therefore, girls who marry before the age of 18 are considered victims of child marriage. The issue of sexual consent, which refers to the minimum age at which a person is deemed to have the legal capacity to consent to sexual intercourse, is closely linked to the legal age of marriage. Although there appears to be a standard legal age for marriage, the legal age of sexual consent varies in most sub-Saharan African countries and is often lower than the legal age of marriage.
In this commentary, we argue that the gap between the legal age of sexual consent and marriage is partly responsible for some of the sexual and reproductive health problems, such as intimate partner violence, sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancy, premature birth, including unsafe abortions among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, and violations of their right to health.