Child marriages not new

TASEK Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya has raised the ire of many for suggesting that statutory rape victims marry the rapists and that girls aged nine and above are fit for marriage.

But most people may not know that Malaysia recorded some 9,000 child marriages in the last five years.

Under Malaysian law, a person below 18 is considered a minor.

In disclosing this in an interview with Sin Chew Daily published yesterday, Suriana Welfare Society of Malaysia chairman James Nayagam said the figure did not include the many cases that were not recorded.

He said apart from several “marriage after rape” cases that courted controversy, many child marriages were the result of poor parents marrying off their 14 to 15-yearolds to men in their 50s and 60s to “offload a baggage” in return for a cash dowry.

Unicef Malaysia child protection specialist Sivaselvi Supramaniam said child marriage is a major challenge for children in many countries including Malaysia, with an average of 1.5 million girls below 18 getting married each year.

She said child marriages are not confined to specific races or religions as they exist across all religions and ethnicity as well as among refugee and immigrant communities.

Sivaselvi pointed out that poverty, lack of education and social pressure are the main factors driving child marriages.

She said marrying too young has serious health consequences, as evidenced by the fact that as many as 50,000 people aged between 15 and 19 are dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications.

“The maternal mortality rate for girls in the 10-14 age bracket is five times higher than those in the 20-24 age group,” she said.

Based on a 2010 Malaysian census, 1.4% of Malaysian mothers were in the 15-19 age group.

Between 2011 and 2015, 2,104 Muslim girls aged between 16 and 18 registered their marriages at the National Registration Department.