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The Council of Osu-Doku Traditional Area in the Greater Accra Region has been tasked to stamp its authority to ensure that girls who go through ‘Dipo’ puberty rites are not less than 18, as a way of reducing early child marriage and teenage pregnancy in the area.

Nene Tettey Kwao I, chief of Luom-Osu-Doku, who made the call, said the council, which has an authority over the rites, should ensure that families present with their programme for ‘Dipo’ rites for their girls for approval for the council. This will ensure that the council ascertains the ages of the girls before they are initiated.

He suggested that there should also be a committee with strict guidelines to make sure no child is allowed to go through the rites if she does not qualify.

The rites, he explained, which ushers the girl-child into adulthood, are being abused, and rather make the girls feel they are ripe for marriage.

He further lamented that most of the children go through the rite at a tender age when they do not really understand the concept, and once they go through, they think they are matured to live with a man. He, therefore, appealed to the traditional authorities to address the issue.

Nene Kwao, who was speaking to The Finder on the sidelines of a dialogue meeting with queen mothers and chiefs to campaign against child marriage, added that poor parenting has also been a contributing factor to early child marriage in the area.

He explained that most parents take the pride when men troop to their homes in search of their daughters’ hand in marriage, to which they give them out even when they are not qualified for marriage.

The puberty rite, called dipo among the Krobos, is a very prominent event which has been carried out for years despite the influences of education and modernisation.

In her welcome address, Rosemond Kombat, project officer of End-Child Marriage at ActionAid Ghana, announced that about 70 girls have so far been rescued from child marriage since the campaign was launched in 2015.

ActionAid Ghana has been implementing a two-year project funded by UNICEF Ghana on the child marriage campaign.

This campaign started in October 2015 with an overall goal of bringing the practice of child marriage to a stop in 120 communities and 122 districts across the Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, Upper West and Upper East regions of Ghana.

The project aims to reduce socio-cultural practices that promote child marriage, and instead help children acquire knowledge, skills and attitude to resist child marriage and stay in school.