Partners in Creating the Future
When Age Matters
When Age Matters
Tuesday, 21 November 2017

We live in a world where the spread of several controversial affairs is in every inch of the globe. Where poverty, refugees, bullying, terrorism, lack of education, low economy and higher numbers of early marriage are being major complications. Child marriage - that is the procedure in which females are getting married under the legal age of 18 -  occurs in every region and is practiced across cultures,    traditions and religions.

 

 Throughout the world, marriage has been the moment of happiness and celebration for each and every girl, but sadly the act of getting married early and before the age of 18 has pointless meaning of celebration and attacks the rights of innocent souls.

 

This shocking issue comes into being due to various reasons. It is rooted in gender inequality; in many communities, females aren’t valued as males and they are seen as a burden on their family. Parents view marrying their daughters early a way to ease their economy hardship by transferring the girl to her husband’s family. Also, traditions play a major role in getting the female married too early; it is known since ages for some families and centuries that when the girl starts to menstruate, she becomes a woman in the eye of the society. And marriage is apparently the next step towards giving her a status as wife or a mother.

 

Thus, poverty, lack of education and wars are actually the main reasons for early marriage among poor families. And the strongest proof on this, the migrants from Syria who are now located in diverse countries in different refugees’ camps. For example: the Syrian refugees who are located in Jordan in Al-Za’atari camp.

 

They suffer from low educational stages, extreme poverty and unawareness besides the narrow vision regarding the disadvantages of having their daughter married early which are: depriving her from getting knowledge, hindering her physical and mental development, abiding her from having the chance of being the leader in the labor market -even if this is in a very low percentage- and influencing her wellbeing and being exposed to health issues.

 

Bearing in mind that the Jordanian action plan is a huge step which believes that such issues must be taken into consideration and in cooperation with the UN organization UNICEF must lessen the effects of this issue.

 

Referring back to the Higher Population Council’s (HPC) study which indicates that 2 out of 10 Jordanian females are getting married before the age of 18, and 4 out of 10 Syrian females in Jordan are getting married before the age of 18.

 

 Due to this case, it requires from the country itself that suffers from doubtful issues - represented by child marriage – to put its effort on implementing some suggested solutions such as: working on the empowerment of the girls by building their skills, calling for providing better living standards for refugees by giving health insurances and job opportunities, holding some awareness campaigns and courses to declare the bad effects the female could suffer from when marrying early to the parents before their daughters first, establishing youth programs for both genders and encouraging improving the accessibility to education for young females.

.Ages does not matter in most relationships, but in marriage, it matters a lot

 

 

2

Child Labor

 

Child labor is a prevailing phenomenon throughout the global economy, especially in the markets of developing countries. It can be defined as the practice of having children -under the age of 15- engaged in economic activities, either on full or part time basis. It hinders their mental and physical development and deprives them from their childhood.

 

To begin with, there are such strong factors behind dragging children to child labor; one of the major factors is poverty. When the country is exposed to extreme poverty and lack of employment opportunities among citizens, the child becomes a victim in this case.   A good example of this appears in India and Sudan where poverty is widespread. Also, the failure to provide basic requirements for children by the government; for example, schools and learning centers, will make the child stuck in doing such work and missing out on education, resulting in their shortage of cognitive and academic skills.

 

On the social side, parents'  illiteracy or their unawareness of the negative  effects of child labor forces their children to dropout from compulsory education through child laboring that ends up earning the child nothing but exhaustion and malnutrition; because they would be performing heavy long working hours labor in unbearable circumstances while not being able to feed themselves adequately.

 

Under those circumstances, there are some procedures that must be implemented to decrease the child exploitation effects on the individual and society. For example, forcing laws by organizations concerned with children's rights which insists on reaching a specific age for a child that allows him/her to work only if it was a necessity. In addition to that, strengthening education by building new schools and providing educational supplies that facilitate the process of education such as: teachers, stationery and books.

 

To conclude, child labor is a controversial issue that has been playing a major role in depriving children of their rights and childhood. Children should be making sandcastles not bricks. So this problem must be taken into consideration and must be solved in order  to save the future youth.