The Trinidad Guardian reports on new efforts by Trinidad and Tobago’s Gender Youth and Child Development Minister to standardise legislation relating to child marriage.
More than 8,400 girls and 1,300 boys under 19 years of age were married in T&T between 1997-2007. These figures include girls under the age of 15. These were the Central Statistical Office (CSO) figures presented by Rawwida Baksh, consultant at the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development at the National Consultation on the Standardisation of the Legal Age of Marriage yesterday at Crowne Plaza, Port-of-Spain.
“Research needs to be done in order to find out the dynamics taking place in these circumstances. We need to know how these young girls feel with their lives being mortgaged,” said Baksh. She revealed that T&T is one of 50 countries in the world where child marriages still take place. “In 2011, on the eve of our 50th Independence anniversary, it is anomalous that we would still have legislation that perpetuates the unequal treatment of girls,” said Baksh.
Read the full article on the Trinidad Guardian website.