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THE Sarawak Women for Women Society has urged the state government to implement laws to deter young girls from getting married to reduce the high number of cases of teenage pregnancies.
Sarawak Minister for Women, Community Development and Early Childhood Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the society had met her and officially proposed banning marriages between people under the age of 18.
"The society wants to see traditional marriages of girls below age 18 disallowed.
"It wants the legal age for traditional marriages to be increased to 18 years as is the case with civil marriages as it is concerned with the high number of pregnancies involving young teens.
"We in the ministry will look into this seriously.
Fatimah said the ministry is also concerned about the welfare and health of such young girls, their babies and their future arising from early pregnancies.
The Vibes had previously reported that girls from the Iban community make up the highest number of teenage pregnancies in big cities such as Miri.
Iban chieftain Pemanca Alexander Isut had said the situation is also reflected in other major urban centres in Sarawak. It is a case of concern as such pregnancies cause many family and personal woes as well as serious consequences for the babies.
Isut had said Iban families must take a more serious approach to tackling this issue. The Ibans are the largest ethnic group in Sarawak.
"Ibans accounted for the highest number of pregnant teen girls nowadays, even here in Miri city. The number of such teenage pregnancies is rising.
"This is not the only social problem afflicting the Ibans. Drugs, illegal racing, getting into trouble with job scams...these are among the serious problems our young ones are facing," he had said.
Isut said families and neighbourhood committees as well as schools and ethnic associations must hold more dialogues to find ways to curb these teenage issues.
A survey carried out by University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) among teenagers and youths in early January showed that easy accessibility to porn videos is fuelling their sex drive, and subsequently causing a surge in teenage pregnancies in the state.
Getting hooked on these sex scenes is among the top reasons why more teen girls are getting pregnant even in their early years, Fatimah said.
She had said the recent survey by Unimas also showed that other key factors causing pregnancies among wayward teens are dropping out from schooling, volatile family relationships, personal problems, substance abuse and sexual grooming by others, as well as peer pressure to try out sex.
"The survey by Unimas showed that 58.7 per cent of teenage pregnant girls had dropped out of schools, and got involved in sexual relationships which got them pregnant.
"Some 60.1 per cent of girls got pregnant before the age of marriage (legal age 18).
"The study showed that in 2023, there were reported cases of 2,026 teen girls who got pregnant in Sarawak.
"That is an increase of teen pregnancies by 32 per cent compared to the 2022 figures," she had said.
Fatimah said her ministry will be working out a module with the Education Department to conduct a series of programmes in primary and secondary schools throughout the state, focussing on personal sexuality topics, healthy physical and mental developments and related topics.
"We need to deal with these issues professionally for the sake of our teens," she had said.
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