Data published last year indicates one third of girls in Zimbabwe marry before their 18th birthday and five percent before they turn 15.
However, the Zimbabwean government is now stepping up efforts to protect the rights of the girl child, to shield them from early marriages.
Poverty is said to be a key driving factor sustaining child marriages in Zimbabwe.
Parents often marry girls off, to pass on the burden of caring for them to their suitors.
Bride price payments from the would be husbands offers a further incentive.
Some communities also see child marriage as a way of protecting girls from experimenting with premarital sex.
Dananai Chipuza a former carnival queen in zimbabwe thinks the law is a disadvantage to most girls.
She says ”so many girls have great potential and it seems as if our elders at some point they are not realizing the potential. Instead they see them potential wealth makers because they are marrying them off so they can trying to eradicate poverty, which is not true”.
The government is now working hard to educate the local communities on the disadvantages that come with child marriages.
Child marriages are known to deprive girls of education and opportunities.
They also jeopardize their health and increase the risks of exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and death or serious injury in childbirth.
Its being hoped the government will enact and enforce national laws that raise the age of marriage to 18, for both girls and boys.
