An assessment of the effects of child marriage on girl child education in Soroti District

Abstract

This study set out to assess the effects of child marriage on girl child. Its specific objectives were to establish the factors influencing child marriage among school going girls; to determine the effect of child marriage on the girl child and propose strategies to reduce child marriages among school going girls in Arapai sub county, Soroti District Given the nature of the study and its requirement of seeking understanding of factors influencing child marriage; its extent and strategies to address it, a qualitative research approach was used in the context of a case-study research design. Purposive and stratified purposive sampling techniques were used to select respondents for the study. These were studied by use of in-depth interview research method with in-depth interview guides. The study revealed that, child marriage occurs in poor, economically deprived communities as a result of poverty, gender discrimination, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, lack of decision making skills. Poor school environment directly affected girl child education and health to mention but a few. Girls are overworked and their health gets worse; they became pregnant early and led to maternal and child mortality rate. The study also revealed that girls’ are faced with domestic violence from their homes and even when they are married the mother in law mistreat them at home. Most of them suffer from sexually transmitted infection with a high risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS resulting in school drop out It is therefore recommended that the community be involved in awareness creation; Government education programmes to benefit both girls and boys and improve the curriculum and the quality of teaching, flexibility schedules to allow girls meet personal needs Net working and collaboration by different actors. Legislating against child marriage and promote girls’ voices. Power at multiple levels is also vital to their self efficiency. Empowering the youth in peer-to-peer approach, sexuality education in schools and life skills as determinants of child marriage from girl’s own perspectives be enhanced, systematic documentation, monitoring, evaluation and research remain very paramount in the fight against child marriage