Child marriage is downright brutality on the mental wellness of the female child. The acceptable age for marriage, which is 18, still leaves room for debate, yet we see girls who are not mentally, emotionally, and physically riped for marriage forced into marriage.
Marriage is for the mature minds, those that are psychologically, emotionally, and physically capable of facing the challenges accompanied by marriage. When a girl child gets entangled in marriage, there would be dire consequences.
What is child marriage?
Child marriage is the unlawful union between a child less than 18 and an adult. Although child marriage tends to lean towards immaturity of the concerned person in marriage, be it a boy or girl; but looking more closely at child marriage, one can see that it affects mostly the girl child.
In today’s developing society, gender inequality poses a threat to the rights of the girl child. No girl child should be forced into marriage at a young age as it brings adverse health issues.
The girl child is the most vulnerable when it comes to early marriages because she stands a high risk of being victimized. In Nigeria, child marriage is not a foreign problem but a familiar one that needs tackling.
One cannot help but ask what the actual cause of child marriage is? Poverty is the chief cause of child marriage in Nigeria. The fall in the standard of living, as well as gender inequality, raises its ugly head in the issues of child marriage in Nigeria.
The female child, irrespective of age, religion, ethnicity, and position in the society, stands the right to be educated as much as her counterparts.
Statistics have shown that the possibility of having a tremendous increase in child brides by 2030 is feasible if child marriage is still practice. Nigeria is not left out where child marriage is involved, because the northern region is a player in that regard.
Marriage is a much complex institution of learning that many people are not qualified for and fail woefully at it, then adding a child to the mix will lead to utter failure.
The ideology that the female child only ends up in the kitchen should be changed because the female child can also partake in society.
Consequences of child marriage in Nigeria.
- The following are the consequences of child marriage in Nigeria;
- Child marriage results in early pregnancy, which can be detrimental to the health of the girl child.
- It leaves room for vulnerability as the child becomes a victim of abuse.
- Child marriage breaks the rights of the girl child, as she would be out of school, taking away her right to be educated.
- It leaves the girl child susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases.
- Child marriage can lead to the demise of the girl child in terms of child delivery.
- It results in the adverse health effects of the female child.
Conclusion
Child marriage should be stopped in other to prevent unlikely consequences.