School Lockdown Blamed For Malawi’s Surge in Early Pregnancies

As a result of school closures in Malawi due to the Coronavirus pandemic, an alarming increase in child marriages and early pregnancies has been registered, according to child rights activists and government officials on Monday.

All schools were closed, following the Malawian government directive issued on March 20, before even a single Covid-19 case was found in the country.

However, over the past four months, infections have surged with 3,664 cases registered so far, including 99 deaths.

The Director of the Civil Society Coalition on Education Benedicto Kondowe told AFP that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed many young women’s lives.

He explained that before the pandemic struck, Malawi already had one of the highest rates of child marriages in the world. To make it worse, “Covid-19 has led to a steep rise in underage unions”, Kondowe said.
“Remote areas have experienced an increase in child marriages since schools were closed due to COVID-19,” he said.

Kondowe’s organization reported 5,000 cases of teenage pregnancies in the southern Phalombe district. On the other hand, over 500 girls have been married early since the onset of the pandemic.

“The figures indicated that girls are receiving the required protection as they get to experience life more,” Kondowe said. He also added that other gender-based exploitation, violence, and other forms of abuse against adolescent girls had also been noted.

In an interview with Capital Radio, a local radio station, Gleston Alindiamawo, the district education officer for Nsanje, Gleston Alindiamawo, said Monday that more than 300 girls in the district were nursing unwanted pregnancies for the period after the closure of schools.

Alindiamawo blamed parents and guardians for not providing proper guidance to their children during this period that children have been at home for a long period.

In Mangochi, meanwhile, over 7,274 teenage girls have been impregnated from January to June this year.

Of the 7,274, this year 1,039 more girls have been impregnated as compared to the figure recorded in the same period last year said Peter Malipa. Peter Malipa is the district’s youth health services coordinator. That figure comprised of 166 girls of aged anywhere between 10 to 14 years old.

Habiba Osman, a United Nations Women specialist for the elimination of violence against women and girls, told AFP that the long period of idleness because of coronavirus restrictions was resulting in pregnancies and child marriages across Malawi.

Osman asked community leaders to keep an eye on and assist young people who are trying to engage in behaviors that put them at risk.

The figure is 1,039 more compared to those who became pregnant during the same period last year, the district’s youth health services coordinator Peter Malipa said.
That figure included 166 girls who are aged anywhere between ten to fourteen years years old.

Habiba Osman, a United Nations Women specialist for the elimination of violence against women and girls, told AFP that the long period of idleness because of coronavirus restrictions was resulting in pregnancies and child marriages across Malawi.

Osman called on community leaders to monitor and assist young people who are trying to engage in “risky behaviors”.