More awareness needed on child marriages in Sabah

By Olivia Miwil - March 26, 2019 @ 12:31pm

KOTA KINABALU: More needs to be done to address the issue of child marriages in Sabah.

This was despite the state government's stance that the marriageable age in the state should be 18 and above.

Sabah Assistant Law and Native Affairs minister Janie Lasimbang said the measures include a need to review the state law to ensure that it is in tandem with federal law's move to set a minimum marriageable age.

“This change is not something easy to achieve. The ministry aims to train native and customary leaders, as well as grassroots community members about the minimum age; organise programmes at schools, to talk about child marriage issues.

“The media also plays an important role in ‘championing’ consistently about child marriage to bring awareness to the public to accept the ideas of the minimum age of marriage,” she said.

She added that the issue of child marriage is also one of the important quests for her.

Last October, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had said Sabah would maintain 18 as the minimum marriage age in the state.

His remarks came following the statement of a Sabah Mufti who had previously proposed to reduce the minimum marriage age for Muslim girls from 16 to 14-years-old.

Janie said this during a courtesy visit by the NSTP to the state Administrative Centre here, today. Present was NSTP Business Customer Sabah and Sarawak (Education Vertical) manager Dominic Sylvester Olas.

She also said the state capital had also registered many child marriages involving teenagers who had migrated from the state's rural areas in search of work.

“Usually, they are from the villages and stay together at small rented houses. Living in such (cramped-up) conditions have seen them getting pregnant and this, in turn, has seen them getting married at an early age".

In addition to championing the issue of child marriages, the Kapayan assemblyman said she also hopes to address environmental issues, economic empowerment among women, awareness among the community on the importance of registering the birth of their children, as well as using culture as a platform to unite people.