(454) Child marriage

Child marriage
 

I belonged to Matsuyama silver chorus last year. When I was singing one of Japanese children’s songs, Akatombo meaning Red Dragonfly I found child marriage in its words of the third verse. It goes like十五で姐やは 嫁に行き お里のたよりも絶えはてたMy baby-sitter got married when she was 15, and even the news of her country home ceased completely. In Japan child marriage once existed.

I learned about child marriage in Kenya two years ago from my Kenyan friend. In Kenya more than 25% of girls get married before they are 18 years. This affect their education and their future.

I looked up child marriage on the internet and I knew it is fuelled by gender inequality, poverty, traditions, and insecurity.  The site says that globally, the rates of child marriage are slowly declining but progress isn't happening fast enough.　In Japan according to the statistics, in 1899
(Meiji 32) 33.9% of girls get married before they were 19 years, and 26.1% in 1921 (Taisho 10).