Forced marriages in Botswana

Although teenage pregnancy does not doom one to a life of poverty. It does make it harder, and when your in a developing country it could be next to impossible.

In the country of Botswana teenage pregnancies and forced marriages are widespread. Sometimes teenage pregnancies can involve teachers impregnating students.

A workshop in Botswana put on by the Women’s Affairs Department issues a statement of the effect of this social ill.

from theDaily News Online Botswana

An official from the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNYC), Mr Emmanuel Galeboe, said there was an alarming rate of inter generational sex in the region, which also leads to impoverishment of the girl child.

He said most of the young people involved in this cross generation sex end up either pregnant or infected with the HIV.

Since the beginning of the year, close to 1 200 have dropped out of school because of pregnancy in the Ngamiland region.

One participant, Ms Magrate Mhlanga, said some cultures in northern Botswana were known to practice under-age marriages, where girls were forced out of school to be married by older men.

“This issue needs to be addresses, but I don’t know how,” she said.

Most of those married at young ages become subjects of their husbands and do not participate in any decision making regarding the family.