KUCHING: Ethnic groups in Sarawak have yet to decide on a suitable minimum marriage age to be specified in their respective native customary laws, according to the Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS).
However, SWWS said they agreed on the need to raise awareness and encourage later marriage.
"Across all native customary laws, there is no mention of (marriage) age. There was however, the assumption that couples would marry when both were sufficiently mature to have and provide for children.
"The challenge now is how to translate that wisdom into modern life when being able to provide for a family requires staying in school and finding a sustainable income," SWWS said in a statement on Tuesday (Feb 3).
The society recently held a roundtable discussion with key native bodies on its Marriageable Age and Native Adat report.
Over the last 18 months, SWWS held workshops on the topic with native leaders, women and youths in five locations in Sarawak, involving nearly 300 people from 12 ethnicities.
SWWS said the workshop participants observed that teens in the past were more able to take on the responsibilities of parenthood compared to today.
They also felt that youths should stay in school and wait until they were older before raising a family.
In addition, they observed that pregnancy was the main cause of early marriage.
"In such instances, native marriage was seen as a way of removing stigma and enabling the boy - often a sweetheart of similar age from the same village or school - to avoid prosecution.
"While this might relieve pressure at that time, it did not necessarily do so later. It was observed that early marriage often led to early divorce and grandparents caring for the infants," SWWS said.
To address this, the participants proposed more effective and accessible education on sexual and reproductive health.
Youths should also be given non-judgmental space to discuss their personal problems with adults, including parents.
"In all five locations visited, increasing parenting skills in communicating with and raising teens was recognised as a need," SWWS said.
