Malaysian youth marrying too young, says UN report

UN resident coordinator in Malaysia Michelle Gyles-McDonnough says early marriages deprived young people of an education and ability to be part of a productive labour force. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, December 16, 2014.

Far too many young people in Malaysia are getting married too early, putting their health and wellbeing at risk, said a United Nations representative today.

UN resident coordinator in Malaysia Michelle Gyles-McDonnough said that these early marriages compromised the ability of young people to stay in school, pursue a higher education and be equipped to be part of a productive labour force within a high-income nation.

"Early marriage denies young people the basic right to the full realisation of their potential and better options must be made available to Malaysian youth," she said at the launch of a report on the state of the world population, titled "The power of 1.8 billion: adolescents, youth and the transformation of the future" in Kuala Lumpur today.

The report revealed that there are currently 1.8 billion young people, aged between 10 and 24, roaming the world.

"This world has never before seen so many young people exist together at a single moment," Gyles-McDonnough said.

"This is a generation that is more connected, better educated and healthier than any generation before, and thus hold in their hands the potential for immense transformative power."

However, she warned that early marriages among the young was among several challenges that the country's population was facing.

The other challenges included teenage pregnancies, youth unemployment and other social problems arising from the lack of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health information and services.

In her speech, Gyles-McDonnough said that the 2010 population census showed that 1.4% or 80,000 married women were between the ages of 15 and 19 while the corresponding number of young married men was 70,000, although she did not break down the races.

Besides that, the 2010 UNGASS Country Progress Report showed that in 2009, 477 girls under the age of 15 had undertaken pre-marital HIV screening at test centres. This includes two girls under the age of 10.

"If we have children as young as 10 registering for pre-marital counselling, then you have a problem here."

In 2013, more than 170,000 girls under the age of 19 declared their pregnancies at the Health Ministry's maternal and child health clinics nationwide.

Activists in Malaysia have been up in arms over the rising number of child marriages and have urged the government to outlaw them.

Girls below the age of 16 have to obtain the permission of the Shariah court before marrying but activists have been concerned that the consent was easily given.

Gyles-McDonnough, who is also the UN Population Fund representative, said despite the high national literacy rate, 44,000 children of school-going age have never attended school, as of 2009.

"This has certain negative implications on their future, creating situations that will cost much more to solve than if the problem is averted at its inception.

"We need to create opportunities for our young to find their place as leaders, innovators, change-agents and entrepreneurs of the future.

"The State of World Population report emphasises that one point – that investments in young people, particularly young women and adolescent girls – has the potential to unleash the power for greater human development and advancement."

- TMI