Polygamy Rises

By Kikonyogo Ngatya One out of every three married women in Uganda is in a polygamous marriage, a new report has indicated.The Uganda Demographic and Health Survey report launched yesterday said the number of women openly sharing husbands had increased from 30% to 32% over the last five years.The state minister for planning, Isaac Musumba, launched the report at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel yesterday. The report said a third of the women in polygamous marriages had more than one co-wife. It said older women were more likely to be in polygamous marriages than young ones. The report compiled by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, gives an overall picture of the health and social situation in Uganda. It is published after every five years, the last having been in 1995.The report gives a study on other aspects of health and social development. The total fertility rate has remained at seven children on average. Martenal mortality is 505 for every 100,000 women. The report also said 64% of children below five years are anaemic, 39% stunted and 4% wasted. It said more than half of the women suffer from vitamin A deficiency.The report said immunisation levels had dropped from 47% to 29% of the children fully immunised at 12 months old. More than 51% of the children of mothers with secondary education. have been fully immunised as compared to 28% of uneducated mothers. Contraceptive prevalence rate among women has increased from 15% in 1995 to 23%. The USAID director, Dawn Libeli, also attended the conference.Ends