Warille calls for abolition of ‘harmful’ cultural practices

The Minister for Gender, Child, and Social Welfare, Aya Warille, has called on citizens to abandon some cultural practices that are not in tandem with modern civilisation, such as early child marriage.

Speaking to students at the Nyakuron Culture Centre in Juba while marking the International Day of the African Child, the minister said that while some cultures recognise child marriages, the practice retrogressive.

“Some of our cultural practices are harmful and they are really against the rights of our children, so we are calling upon everybody to take responsibilities and stand up and make sure that those harmful practices are dallied with appropriately,” Warille said.

Any official or informal connection between a kid under the age of 18 and an adult or another child is referred to as a child marriage.

Even though the number of girls married as minors have decreased globally – from one in four a decade ago to roughly one in five now – the practice remains popular, according to the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF).

The report also states that more than 100 million girls were predicted to marry before their eighteenth birthday in the next decade before the COVID-19 pandemic. And that up to 10 million more girls will be at risk of becoming child brides as a result of the pandemic.

Warille also mentioned blood compensation and tattooing as examples of terrible cultural practices that derail morality.

 Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare is charged with enforcing policies that protect children’s rights and welfare in order to enhance children’s lives in the country.

“Today, children struggle to go to school for various reasons, and we have issues of children without appropriate parental care,” she said. “We (the Ministry of Gender) believe that focusing on women’s empowerment is important because women will be able to take their children to school and the hospital.”

‘‘Focus on girls’ education and empowerment, positive social norms and gender norms shifts, and behaviours that foster equality among adolescents, families, and communities,” said the UNICEF’s representative Maiden.

These are ambitious goals but crucial to achieving and securing the future of the children on the continent and in the country.