Geresom Musamali and Fred Ouma
16 August 2007
Kampala — POLYGAMY is going down in Uganda. Overall, 28% of married women are in polygamous marriages, according to the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey, compared to 32% five years ago.
Of those, 7% share their husband with two or more co-wives, compared with 10% in 2001. Older women are more likely to be in a polygamous union than younger ones.
Polygamy is also slightly more common among rural women (29%) than urban women (23%). It is also more common among uneducated women (35.3%) than those who have been in secondary school (22.1%).
The prevalence of polygamy is highest in West-Nile and the Northern region, where over 37% of married women are living in polygamy. It is lowest in Kampala and the South-western region (about 17%).When breaking the regions up, Karamoja tops the list, with almost 59% of women living in polygamous unions.
Data from the survey among over 11,000 respondents, conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, further shows that fertility continues to be high in Uganda, with little national change in the last 10 years.
At current fertility levels, a Ugandan woman will have an average of 6.7 children in her lifetime, slightly down from 6.9 in 1995. That is the highest in eastern and southern Africa.
There are now 31 million Ugandans, the finance state minister for general duties, Fred Omach, said at the launch of the report at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala.
He attributed the high population growth to improvement in the health services. He expressed concern that the economic growth was not keeping pace with the population growth.
"Our growth domestic product is 6.5%, far below the current average seven children a Ugandan woman will bear in her lifetime."
Urban women have significantly fewer children than their rural counterparts, 4.4 and 7.1 respectively. There are great regional variations in fertility as well, from 3.7 children per woman in Kampala to 7.5 in the North and 7.7 in the East.
Fertility also varies markedly with the education and economic status of the mother. Uneducated mothers have almost twice as many children as women with secondary or higher educations (7.7 children compared with 4.4).
Women in the poorest households have more than twice as many children as women in the wealthiest households (8 children versus 4.3 children).
Only women aged 15 to 19 show a decline in fertility, from 206 births per 1,000 women to 150 births, indicating that they marry and have their first child at later ages. Nevertheless, childbearing in Uganda starts early. Half of the women have had their first birth by the age of 19.
If given a choice, 41% of married women want no more children, while the majority said they already had more children than they desired. However, only 24% of married women are using contraceptives. Though the number has gone up from 15% ten years ago, it is still low. The reasons range from lack of access to fear of possible side-effects or the reaction of the husband. Not less than 17% of married women who use contraceptives report that their husbands do not know about it.
Ugandans marry young, according to the survey. The median age for women is below the age of consent (17.8 years). Men on average marry later. The median age is 22.3 years. First sex also differs, with women having their first sexual intercourse at 16.6 years, as compared to 18.1 years for men.
Wife beating and violence against women is also high. More than two in five women have ever experienced sexual violence and 60% have experienced physical violence. In all, 70% of women have experienced physical or sexual violence. Almost one in six Ugandan women who have been pregnant experienced violence during pregnancy.
Interestingly, acceptance to violence is also high among both men and women. Overall, seven in 10 women and about 60% of men believe that there are some situations in which a husband is justified in beating his wife.
On health, the good news is that child mortality has gone down.
Under-five mortality declined from 156 deaths per 1,000 births to 137 deaths. Vaccination coverage has also improved. However, with 44%, the percentage of children fully immunised against six killer diseases remains low.
The bad news is that chronic under-nutrition among Ugandan children is significant, with 38% of children being stunted. In addition, seven in 10 children below five are classified as anaemic and 20% has Vitamin A deficiency.
On HIV/Aids, general knowledge is high. Virtually all men and women have heard of the disease. However, they are less aware that the chances of getting the virus can be reduced by the ABC strategy (abstinence, being faithful, use of condom). Seven in 10 women and eight in 10 men are aware that using a condom can reduce HIV transmission.
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