Protecting The Girl Child

Available statistics show that there are over 1.1 billion creative and talented girls worldwide. This figure, if exploited positively, is enough to build a global community that has the potential of creating a sustainable world that would make life better for everyone. But the dreams of this ingenious specie are being frustrated by non- provision of specific needs and tackling of challenges such as discrimination, bias, violence and lack of equal opportunities with their male counterparts. And there are glaring gaps in data collation and knowledge about these specific needs and challenges that girls face in their bid to improve their lives and equally contribute to the progress of their societies.

One of such issues standing on the way of girls’ quest to contribute to the progress of their societies is child marriage. Although child marriage is against the law in many countries including Nigeria, as international treaties forbid it, it is estimated that about 51 million girls across the globe are annually forced into early marriages. Quite often, in most African countries, parents of child brides are driven by factors such as pressure to conform to age- old traditions like preservation of chastity and economic considerations to give out their young daughters in marriage. It is not uncommon also in poor developing countries for poverty stricken parents to settle debts by offering their underage girls as payments!

These child brides often suffer from physical and psychological trauma as well as exposure to early sexual contact. Subsequently, pregnancy comes in at a time when the young girl is not adequately physically developed to permit the passage of a baby with relative ease. The outcome of this forced copulation and one of the most demoralising effects of early marriage is Vesico- vaginal fistula. Otherwise known as obstetric fistula, it is a medical condition where there is an opening between the uterus and the bladder because the pelvic bones do not have sufficient time to develop before the process of conception. This often leads to abandonment or divorce by their husbands as urine continuously leak from their bladders. Also, these early marriages deny girls the opportunity for quality education in addition to depriving them of their childhood. Among the more than 100 million children not in school worldwide, approximately 40% are girls.

In Nigeria, Women and girls constitute 60% of the illiterate population. Similarly, it has been estimated that over two million girls are subjected to genital mutilation every year, a practice still rampant in some parts of Nigeria. Intervention into the practice is considered as a violation of privacy, yet many girls face several health risks through this, including severe bleeding and contraction of HIV infection through the use of unhygienic methods in carrying out the procedure. Statistical data shows that adolescent girls have HIV rate up to five per cent higher than their boys’ counterpart.

Equally, rape remains a common form of violence against the female specie. It is defined as having sex with a woman and lately young girls and toddlers without their consents. Today, the rape epidemic in our society reflects the extent to which female human rights are flagrantly threatened. Available laws and collective attitudes toward this weapon of domination and repression call to question our combined sense of justice and our level of civilisation. Like a scourge, the regular cases of reported rape in the country’s media and confirmed statistics are threatening to smother the essence of the society. Each day, the media are awash with weird stories of varying degrees of ludicrousness, from child defilement to the rape of old women. Nobody, not even infants are safe from this form of terrorism against the girl child.

Perhaps, one of the most audacious of the dastardly acts against the girl child in Nigeria till date remains the abduction of over 200 secondary school girls, who were kidnapped in a most brazen manner from their hostel at Government Girls’ College, Chibok, Borno State. While some of the girls escaped, and 21 released only yesterday, the rest have remained in captivity after two years, despite wide condemnation and outrage across the world. In fact, some of the leading nations of the world offered to help in rescuing the girls. A renowned teenage Pakistani child right activist, Malala Yousefzai even visited the country on account of the girls’ plight. Bilkis Ogunnubi, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Lagos