There has been a timely conversation about child marriage culture. So I thought of writing this. This is a re-writing of a story that has been written for a long time.
Child marriages continue to occur in all three major ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. This is a serious problem in the Mahaweli agricultural zone. The land issue is the reason behind it. Poverty is the other cause. This marriage system is common among the Sinhala community in areas such as Welikanda in Polonnaruwa, Welioya in Mullaitivu and Siyambalanduwa in Moneragala.
Many child marriages take place between the Tamil community in the North and East and the Tamil community in the hills. In the plantation sector, housing problems and poverty seem to be the cause.
In the case of the Sinhala and Tamil communities, there is no legal incentive for child marriage in either of these communities. In Sinhala society, child marriage is now unwritten and lasts until the proper age. They can sometimes be broken at the right age and the mother who has been involved in child marriage with the children may be left helpless. There are many such mothers in the Welioya region. Problems caused by that are also common in that area.
In the case of the Muslim community, child marriage is allowed under the existing Muslim marriage law. In fact, there seems to be a great deal of support for child marriage in the Muslim community. It has taken a long time to change this Muslim legal system, but due to strong opposition from Muslim men in the Muslim community (such as Ali Sabri), the law has yet to be amended. On the other hand, the Sinhala political leadership does not interfere much in these reforms. The reason for this is the suspicion that they will lose their vote share due to this. It is for this reason that these laws could not be passed in Parliament, even in the wake of the Easter attack.
The so-called radicals’ roundtables are also delaying these laws and regulations. When the Buddha statues were broken in Mawanella, many at the place where I was working at the time accepted that this was the work of extremist Sinhalese. It is to incite racism and provoke the Sinhalese against the Muslim people. But the truth that has been revealed today is quite different. If the CID had carried out a proper investigation into the incident when the Buddha statues were smashed, the Easter attack could have been prevented. If that happened then it would be impossible for a Rajapaksa to become President again. If it had been so, the misfortune that has befallen us today would not have occurred. Sinhala radicals who think like this should visit the region where the majority of Muslims live in the East. Just as the Sinhala extremists in the South are active, their Muslim extremism is several times more violent than the Sinhala extremists.
Therefore, we should not look at the issues of the existence of society from a racist angle. It would be an idiotic statement to say that Muslims are a minority or that their culture of child marriage has existed for a long time and that they should be allowed to continue. Therefore, we must demand that the Kandyan marriage law as well as the Muslim marriage law be abolished and all these communities be brought under one marriage law. We do not require a large number of laws as Muslim law, Kandyan law, Jaffna law, etc. All races must be brought under one equal law.
Therefore, the Muslim law that supports child marriage should not be amended but abolished immediately. Next, priority should be given to changing the social conditions that support child marriage in general. Sustainable solutions to land issues as well as economic problems must be provided. Until that happens, child marriage will continue to exist in all three communities.