Youth Involvement in the Fight against Child Marriages in Malawi

Kennedy Machira, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Letcia Ngwale, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Globally, child marriage has been a human right issues affecting their mental, physical and economic development, Malawi included. Despite numerous efforts to reduce the problem, the practice still continuous. The study examines youth involvement in the fight against child marriage in selected districts of Malawi. The study used qualitative study from 87 respondents purposefully sampled from two child marriage prevalence districts of Mchinji and Dedza to address the objective. Content analysis determined themes and sub themes that informed the study results. The gender norms and values, early pregnancies, harmful cultural and religious practices, weak enforcement of the law and poverty were key drivers of child marriage in Malawi. Strong cultural and religious beliefs weaken youth fight against child marriages, hence, its persistence in Malawi. Therefore, as the youth remains the fundamental players in the fight against child marriage, strong orientation and educative campaigns using multi-media and multi-stakeholders' approaches targeting hard to understand cultures and religion is key if and only if the country to increase the well fare of the children and completely hand the human right challenge of child marriage.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Families, Unions and Households

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