Being a predominatly patriarchal society (Tiessen, 2008; Gunde, 2015), cultural beliefs and norms in Malawi continue to play a powerful role in influencing family practices that have been shown to be linked to child prostitution in a number of societies. Early marriage and child pregnancy have been identified as catalysts for children’s involvement in prostitution as a result of the increased responsibilities placed on young mothers. Evidence from India (Blanchard et al.,
22 | P a g e
2005; Orchard, 2007; Chemin and Mbiekop, 2015), Rwanda (Williams, Binagwaho and
Betancourt, 2012), Taiwan (S. L. Hwang and Bedford, 2003), Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam (International Organization for Migration, 1999; Rubenson et al., 2005; Montgomery, 2008b) has shown that some children and young people, among others, engage in prostitution in order to support their siblings, parents or their own children. While cultural norms lead some girls and young women into prostitution, there are others who make an active decision in accepting or choosing marriage as the means to supporting their families as well as fitting the normative role of womanhood. In this study, I explore in more detail why and how children and young women had ‘chosen’ prostitution.
2.3.1 Impact on Education
While years of expected schooling have risen to 10.8 following significant policy reforms, to encourage education, the average number of school years completed remains very low at 4.3, reflecting ongoing challenges in shifting beliefs about the value of education, particularly for girls in societies such as Malawi that is strongly patriarchal. In Malawi, early marriage and child- bearing are associated with incomplete school education in contexts where marriage is
commonly accorded a higher priority than education for girls (Samati, 2013; Omoeva, Hatch and Sylla, 2014). However, Mensch et al (2014) urge caution in reaching firm conclusions about the strength of association between these factors since available data have typically relied on
individuals’ recall of events. Further research funded by the ESRC is currently being conducted by Judith Glynn and the Ministry of Education in Malawi to develop a more nuanced
23 | P a g e
Many groups, particularly in the Central and Southern regions, view puberty as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood and marriage. For girls, initiation into adulthood includes
instructions on womanhood and values to prepare them for sexual life and marriage (Munthali and Zulu, 2007). These ceremonies also serve to mark girls’ availability for marriage. In this way, the position of women as housewives, and men as having greater economic power, is further reinforced.
While evidence from the annual demographic health surveys in Malawi does not support a direct correlation between initiation practices/ceremonies and age of first marriage, it does support argument that the continued importance placed on ceremonies marking rites of passage into adolescence exposes girls to the risk of early and unprepared pregnancies inside or outside marriage. The persistence of cultural practices that continue to celebrate girls’ entry into a period of sexual maturity and mark their availability for marriage creates something of a paradox. While pregnancy outside marriage continues to be associated with shame, and while early marriage also carries a higher risk of domestic violence (UNICEF, 2011) separation and divorce, young
mothers may find themselves assuming adult responsibilities without the support of the father of their child/ren or, most importantly in a context of poverty, the support of their own families. Seeking an independent means of survival without the benefits of completed schooling limits young women’s employment prospects to casual low income jobs such as undertaking laundry or becoming a housemaid, jobs that are more readily found in urban areas. This often implies further distancing from existing familial and friendship support networks.
24 | P a g e
In the interests of wider development and poverty reduction, and with support from Western democracies, Bakili Muluzi, the country’s first democratically elected president who was in power from 1994 to 2004, introduced free primary education. This led to a dramatic increase in enrolment (Kadzamira and Rose, 2003; Chimombo, 2009). However, with an absence of free secondary and tertiary education gains in primary enrolment have not been mirrored in secondary education and beyond.
In the 1990s, during Muluzi’s period in power, the USA funded the Girls’ Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education (GABLE) programme. Kadzamira and Rose (2003, p. 505) note that prior to the introduction of GABLE which introduced a fee-waiver: “girls’ education was not a priority of the government and gender disparities were not targeted in education policies and plans”. This, they argue, made it difficult for the initiative to be fully embraced by government. And, as with free primary education, GABLE overlooked structural specificities which led to opposition from some sections of society, and many parents needed little persuasion to maintain the status quo that prioritized boys’ over girls’ education (Kadzamira and Rose, 2003). With widespread household poverty and dominant cultural norms that perceive girls as future housewives, the fee-waiver has failed to prevent many, particularly girls, from leaving school before they complete primary education. So, despite the advent of political democracy and government policies to support educational opportunities for girls, the authority of traditional leaders has led to a lack of determination on the part of both ruling and opposition parties not wishing to be perceived as disrupting cultural practices in a way that may put them in
contradiction with communities or their chiefs (Kadzamira and Rose, 2003; Chimombo, 2009; Grant, 2012).
25 | P a g e
Gender disparities in education remain strongly evident in Malawi. A 2012 survey showed that although only 15 percent of women had never attended school, only nine percent of girls
completed primary school, only six percent completed secondary school and 1.8 percent attained education beyond secondary school (Malawi Government, National Statistical Office, 2012). Women’s educational attainment lags behind that of men at all levels and these disparities are accentuated in rural areas where numbers of dependents per household are higher and poverty is more widespread.
2.3.2 Impact on Health
Malawi’s food insecurity, the result of vulnerability to world markets and climatic shocks, is further aggravated by high rates of HIV infections (NSO 2012). With a prevalence rate of about 12 percent (Malawi Government, Ministry of Finance, 2015), Malawi is ranked among 10
countries that have an infection rate of over 10 percent (Malawi Government, National Statistical Office, 2012; UNAIDS, 2014; Avert, 2016). This implies that close to 1.5 million people in Malawi are living with HIV. Comprehensive efforts to address the epidemic have achieved universal awareness and new infections have been reduced by almost by a third from 98,000 in the past decade (Avert, 2016). Evidence from the National Statistical Office (Malawi
Government, National Statistical Office, 2012, 2016) reveals that, at 14.5 percent, the Southern region has a higher prevalence than the other two regions. Likewise, urban centres have a considerably higher infection rate than rural areas with 17 percent prevalence in urban areas compared to nine percent in rural areas.
26 | P a g e
HIV and AIDS has a double layer of importance in understanding child prostitution. First is the higher likelihood of HIV infection among those working in prostitution who face stigmatization on both counts. Second is the role of the disease in increasing adult mortality rates, creating the phenomenon of ‘AIDS orphans’, children left with severely reduced, or no, family support. The majority of all new HIV infections occur through unprotected heterosexual sex; and among those who have multiple sex partners, factors that have generated fear, anxiety, and prejudice against those infected with HIV. ‘Traditional’ belief systems associate the infection with punishment from God for promiscuity, immorality and wickedness (Kopelman, 2002; Sano et al., 2016). These beliefs and the associated stigma have created barriers for people with HIV in seeking diagnosis and treatment. The most severely affected are sex workers and gay men, groups for whom prejudice, discrimination and stigma are exacerbated by the fact that prostitution and homosexuality are both illegal in Malawi, making it risky for them to access information or identify support and services (Avert, 2016). It is against this background, that the prevalence rate has remained the highest among these groups, with infection estimates for sex workers suggested to be over 60 percent while the national infection rate has been showing signs of decline (Malawi Government, 2015a). Despite the continuing high levels of infection among those involved in prostitution there has been a reduction from 77 percent in the infection rate at the beginning of the decade, the result of recent efforts to acknowledge that those involved in prostitution are among higher risk groups that require attention (Malawi Government, 2015a). This
acknowledgement has not, however, led to any significant attempts to develop a more critical understanding of the lives of those involved in prostitution.