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MORE than 50 percent of girls in Mashonaland Central Province are marrying before experiencing adulthood, it has emerged.
According to statistics made available during the commemoration of the Day of the African Child, Mashonaland West Province is on second place with 42 percent while in Masvingo Province, 39 percent of girls get into marriage before experiencing adulthood.
Child president Samuel Nyarenda told Parliament yesterday that, “We do not take pleasure in those statistics, but again I look at the reports on access to education and literacy and this explains the horror of child marriages and its prevalence in these areas.”
“This is compromising our once shinning 98 percent literacy rate and this is a threat to our pole position in Africa in terms of literacy rate,” he said.
According to Unicef, Zimbabwe is one of the 40 countries in the world with high rate of child marriages with girls being married before turning 18
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter