State Minister for Gender, Labour, and Social Development Peace Mutuuzo has asked parents to stop looking at their children as items for sale. Speaking at the National Symposium on the Well-being of the Girl Child in Kampala, whose theme was; ‘Protect The Girl, Protect The Nation,’ Mutuuzo noted that some parents have ended up cohabiting in fear of being asked for dowry which is very expensive.
“Many young people have ended up cohabiting in fear of being asked for dowry which is very expensive. Some parents have ended up looking at their children as items for sale,” she said.
She added that dowry is one of the prevailing practices which make women appear like commodities in a home. Mutuuzo further divulged that the practice of selling their children in exchange of goods in the name of traditions is unworthy.
She adduced, “It’s shaming that some women are fighting hard to have their husbands pay dowry to their parents and when it is not done they feel like they are worthless.”
Mutuuzo therefore called for abolition of dowry insisting that it wouldn’t be against culture because culture evolves all the time. “In the past women used not to work but now they do. Girls used not to go to school but now they have been educated,” she said.
