Child Marriages in Mashonaland Central

Samantha Sumani

Child marriages for both young girls and boys is a form of violation of human rights. The issue of child marriages has been on a rise in Shamva, Simona, Rutope and other areas surrounding Bindura.
Dorcas Mazhande, the Youth Programmes Officer of Zimbabwe Youth Council in Bindura, identifies the dangers of child marriages saying that it disturbs the physical, mental, psychological, educational and emotional development of both boys and girls, but especially girls.
For instance, girls being denied an opportunity to express freely their views and the right to be defended against detrimental and devastating traditional practices.
“More over early marriages require the performance of heavy household and marital responsibilities, including the raising of children. How will child mothers raise their children while they are still children themselves? ” Mazhande said.
She said that the Zimbabwe Youth Council co-ordinates issues to do with social development of youths as they were key stakeholders to the organisations that organise issues to do with child marriages.
She said that they have been carrying out campaigns to stop early marriages, especially in rural areas. In early September 2022, they went to Nyava at an event hosted by ROOTS, where other organisations and Government ministries like Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Youth, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and others were present. They were given a space to present on the dangers of early marriages.
“Mashonaland Central Province has a large number of early marriage cases because of the nature of the communities, like mining compounds and farms where certain cultures encourage child marriages such as girl training where they train girls on how to handle a man “chinamwali” because as soon as the child learns this then the next thing is practice,” Mazhande said.
Sharpard Zanamwe of National AIDs Council in Shamva commented on the issue of child marriages in Shamva, saying: “Child marriages have been on an increase and campaigns are being carried out but yielding little results.”
He added that of late chiefs in Shamva have been of assistance through the introduction of by-laws.