KUCHING: Teenage pregnancies, cultural practices and dropping out from schools have been listed as factors that contribute to Sarawak being ranked with the highest number of child marriages in the country.
The Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah hence, stressed on the need to educate the community on the importance of finishing school and pursuing further education.
“We need to educate our community, don’t stop school even if you have given birth. Many teenagers decide to marry early once they have given birth,” she said.
Fatimah also said one of the reasons child marriages are so high in Sarawak is because of the lack of interest in schools, leading them to making decisions to get married.
“Because they have dropped out of school, they cannot work as they have not reached the required age to work therefore they end up marrying,” she said.
Fatimah was officiating at the Gifted Art Exhibition in conjunction with the Mid-Autumn festival at Plaza Merdeka on Monday (Sept 25).
She added that cultural practices were factors which contributed to child marriages, and despite the practices slowly changing, child marriages were still practised in some communities.
“Many, many years ago, you were deemed as unworthy as a female if you didn’t get married early.
“However, slowly things are changing. What we (the Ministry) are still concerned about is the dropouts from school,” she added.
Fatimah was responding to a reporter’s question regarding the statistics made by the Department of Syariah Judiciary Malaysia (JKSM) citing Sarawak as having the highest number of child marriages.
Fatimah said that Sexual Education Awareness and Advocacy Programme (KAPS) has been crucial to address teenage pregnancy and it is an ongoing effort in collaboration with schools.
She said from 2016 until 2022, teenage pregnancy cases in Sarawak had reduced to 38.09 per cent.
“We have been addressing this issue since 2016, we have seen teenage pregnancy cases reduce and we still need to keep going,” she said.
