The ayes have it.
That was the consensus of over 300 teenagers who yesterday unanimously agreed at a public consultation that children should not get married before the age of 18.
The consultation, titled Married Acts and Issues Related to Children, hosted by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s office at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain, discussed issues such as child marriage, domestic abuse, teenage abortion, teenage pregnancy and sexual offences matters.
Addressing the children, Al-Rawi said the consultation was one of many his office held, which sought views so far from religious leaders, the judiciary and magistracy. He said he wanted the views from young people on whether abolishing under-age marriages was necessary and which the Government can act legislatively to increase and harmonise the age of marriage across the four statuses.
Under the existing law, Al-Rawi said, the Hindus, Muslims, Orisha and Civil and Christian allowed marriages under the age of 18.
He said the Government could not amend the laws itself, hence the reason they had been seeking consultation on the matter from all quarters.
Many of the attendees represented religious bodies and were secondary school students.
Al-Rawi said the police needed to do more in bringing men to justice who impregnated girls between the ages of 12 and 16, which was considered statutory rape.
He produced statistics which showed that for the period 2006 to 2016 there were 84,330 marriages in T&T, with 548 cases being minors.
Of this figure, Hindus had 328 marriages of minors, followed by Civil with 117 and Muslims 103. Orisha had none.
The 548 children who tied the knot, Al-Rawi said, ranged in age between 11 and 16.
With regard to sexual offence matters pending in the magistracy as at July 2015, Al-Rawi revealed there were 1,089.
Of this figure, there were 559 who were charged with sexual intercourse with a female under the age of 14, while sexual intercourse with a person attaining 14 years and under 16 years were 268, followed by 128 matters of sexual intercourse with a person over 14 and under 16 years without consent.
Al-Rawi described the figures as harrowing.
Between 2011 and 2015, Al-Rawi disclosed, there were 743 teenage abortions, 67 of which fell in the age bracket of 13 to 16.
Al-Rawi said from 1999 to 2015 there were 15,231 teenage pregnancies, with 6,115 coming from the San Fernando General Hospital alone. Twenty three of these pregnancies were from girls under the age of 12.
The AG said “What we are seeing is that thousands of children are having babies.”
For two hours, Al-Rawi questioned each person who came up to give their views on the contentious matter and asked them whether they would support a child marrying under the age of 18.
He also threw out the questions if they thought a 12-year-old was ready for marriage.
The majority disagreed, saying that children between the ages of 12 and 18 were not mature and ready to take on the responsibility of marriage The participants called for sex education to be part of the syllabus in schools along with the establishment of parenting programmes.
Among those who were against child marriage was Tyshad Ashton, 17, who asked the AG why was it okay to steal a child’s innocence.
Ashton’s sister, Alexia, 13 a Form Two Caribbean Union College student, said that making a decision on marriage at such a tender age required a mature mind.
Naparima Girls’ High School students Amba-Vaani Persad and Chloe Jade Ramdeo, both 13-year-olds concurred that a child should be able to enjoy his or childhood and not be pressured into marriage.
Several called for child marriages to end, while others felt that the issue should be determined by consenting adults.
Pleased with the turn out and the responses, Al-Rawi said he was encouraged that the country was on the right path.