VietNamNet Bridge - In H’mong communities it is not uncommon for teenagers to get hitched to create an extra worker for the husband’s family but what are the consequences of these adolescent weddings?
It is hard to believe that this year Giang A Khoa, a 12-year-old H’mong kid, got married. Looking even younger than his age, Khoa has yet to leave Hong Ngai, his native land in Bac Yen District of Son La Province.
Every day, he follows his friends herding buffalo. Every night, he creeps into his mother’s bed to sleep as he’s afraid of ghosts.
“His marriage took place at Tet Festival this year. His wife is two years older, her name is Sung Thi Dua,” explains Giang A Tua, vice head of the Hong Ngai Commune People’s Committee, in an unaffected voice.
The event lasted three days; two buffaloes and four pigs were slaughtered and the whole hamlet got drunk.
“Why did he get married so young?” I ask Tua.
“His family needed another worker to till the fields,” the official answers.
Khoa’s case is not unique. This Tet Festival (under the Lunar Calendar of the Kinh people) there were 10 weddings in Hong Ngai commune for teenagers. The commune’s official also tells me 14-year-old Giang Ca Xu was accompanied by his elder brothers to “rob” Mua Thi Chua, 16 years old, then take her home to be his wife; while 12-year-old Giang A Ky, was guided by his uncles to rob 18-year-old Thao Thi Khoa for the same purpose.
Finding this hard to believe they take me to the house of Mua A Phinh and Han Thi Dua, who married each other at the tender age of 14.
In an undersized house full of smoke, I see around 10 people sitting around a cooking pot having their lunch. Phinh and Dua are now both 35 years old and have six children. The eldest son got married at the age of 20 and has already got a child. So, Phinh and Dua have already become a grandfather and a grandmother.
Meanwhile, at 27, a man named Tu got married for the second time. Now 37, he has seven children. In 2002, at the age of 13, Giang Thi Cho, one of his daughters, was abducted by people in Lung Tan Hamlet for marriage. She has given birth to two children.
“Sometimes, I have to supply them with rice and maize,” Tu said.
For the past few years, the early marriage problem has been one of the main causes behind the mountainous Son La Province’s low development. A source from the Bac Yen District People’s Committee said over half of the H’mong households are on the list of the district’s poor households due to this problem.
This issue is common in Hong Ngai, Ta Xua, Nang Cheu, Sin Vang and Thang Chu communes in the district. The locals consider families with many working members as rich, instead of the poor as classified in the officially-set standards.
“When they need more workers for farming, they will strictly apply the depraved customs of child abduction for marriage,” said Hong Ngai communal vice head Giang A Tua.
Lingering poverty is not only one outcome of this issue. Many families have come to complain that they lost their children. Right in Hong Ngai, after an exchange of angry words between a teenage couple the wife ate ngon, a very poisonous plant, in hope to kill herself.
According to stats from the Son La Province Department of Justice, across the locality there have been nearly 48,000 marriage cases without any certificates and over 100,000 children born without a birth certificate. Since early last year, around 500 under-age marriages have taken place.
“Ethnic people consider marriage and reproduction as natural phenomena, so they will be very surprised to know they are illegal and not getting a marriage or birth certificate,” said Thao Sy Dy, a H’mong person and official of the Department of Justice.
At a few communes, local leaders have worked out one idea: Imposing a monetary fine of VND100,000-200,000 ($6.3-12) on an early marriage case. However, what they usually receive is a situation when a young couple came to make a marriage certificate and pay the fine at the same time.
It’s been said that at some hamlets, local officials attended the weddings of these teenagers and joined in the festivities, drinking plenty wine. Yet before leaving they did not forget to collect the fines.
(Source: Time-out)
