Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Green Party President Peter Sinkamba
Green Party President Peter Sinkamba says his party does not believe the solution to ending early child marriages lies in criminalizing the act.
Mr. Sinkamba says resorting to criminalizing the act as a solution shows lack of understanding of the root cause of the vice.
Mr. Sinkamba states that the root cause for early child marriages in Zambia is child poverty, adding that without a deliberate policy to end child poverty, it will be impossible to curb early child marriages.
He notes that ensuring that every child in Zambia has enough to eat is one of the biggest moral and economic challenges of modern times, noting that since the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, child poverty in Zambia worsened within a few years.
Mr. Sinkamba explains that the Green Party has a multi-billion dollar policy to reduce child poverty which includes introducing measures to allocate 10% of the budget to reducing child poverty, which will generate close to U$1 billion a year in 2016 and scaling it up to US$12 billion by 2021.
He says the revenue will then be invested to fund Children’s Credit Scheme which will give U$100 a month per child to families, at a cost of U$8.4 billion a year.
Mr. Sinkamba says a Parental Credit of U$220 a month in the first five years of life for the poorest children, costing U$720 million a year will be another policy that he will put in place to help end child poverty.
He further states that U$3 billion per year will be invested in children’s health and education to reduce the harm caused by poverty.