Help the poor to stop child marriage

WE can condemn the injustice of underage girls being married off to older men but the reality is we can do nothing much about it unless we tackle the poverty and hardship that drive the family of these girls to marry them off.

The recent case of a 15-year-old girl who married a man 29 years her senior in Tumpat, Kelantan was allowed by her parents to give her a better life. Her 60-year-old father and his wife had 13 children and were not able to take care of them all with the RM200 to RM300 they earned monthly.

The man who has two children had applied for permission from the syariah court to marry her and was granted consent.

It must have been a difficult decision for the family but one that had to be made for the greater good.

As much as we can condemn and label such marriages of convenience as “legalising paedophilia”, the reality is that many of the cases of underage girls marrying senior men is driven by poverty. Many of the families of the girls consent to these marriages to give their daughters a better life.

Poverty is real in Malaysia. There are many families in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis living below the poverty line. They live in shacks with no water and electricity and many have large families to feed. We need to help them. Without eradicating poverty, underage marriage will never be tackled.