Most underage girls in Mangochi district, Eastern Region of Malawi are reportedly adjusting their age upwards with an aim of justifying their admissibility to get married.
The revelation was made by Funny Chilembo, District Manager for Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) for Mangochi who said the act is common in the areas of Traditional Authority (T/A) Makanjira, Namavi, Mponda and Chowe.
According to reports, the young girls are also fabricating their ages to the Nation Registration Bureau (NRB).
According to Chilembo, a 15 year old girl in the area of T/A Mponda was withdrawn from an early marriage after she managed to lie that she is 18 years old both on her Identification Card and a health passport.
Chilembo added that some underage girls are coming from the neighboring Mozambique into the country with the help of their parents where they join their-would be husbands.
In his remarks Senior Chief Chowe said that it might be true that some girls are faking their age but said he is yet to handle the matter.
Principle Registration Officer for NRB in Mangochi Boniface Butao admitted that such things are happening but said they rarely happen.
“Since 2019, we have recorded two cases of such nature and where we are not sure about the age of some girls, we ask to bring their health passport produced at least five years ago because it is very easy for someone to lie about their age when using a recent health passport,.” Said Butao.
Butao added that the mass birth registration targeting children below the age of 16 which has been completed in Balaka and Ntcheu could therefore help in curbing the issue faking age.
In Malawi, it is not allowed for a child below the age of 16 to get married after parliament amended the constitution and placing the age of marriage on 18.
