The Gender and Culture Affairs Minister, Peace Mutuuzo, has warned young girls against the practice of pulling their vagina lips to elongate their labia.
The labia are part of the female genitalia; they are the major externally visible portions of the vulva.
Ms Peace Mutuuzo on Wednesday said government will find avenues of talking to girls, especially in primary schools, how to report the perpetrators for encouraging a practice that does not add value to their health.
“We shall target matrons in primary boarding schools. You are preparing our girls who are not yet ready for marriage and may get partners who do not care about that (genital elongation),” Ms Mutuuzo said while addressing journalist in Kampala.
From premarital sex, the teenagers end up unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
She said visiting the bush “okukyalira ensiko” as it is known in Buganda, is a violation of girls’ rights.
She said some even go to TVs to teach people while many do it in schools.
“According to science, there is nothing this adds on a female body. Some have made it a job to make money from people.”
She added: “We need to condemn these things and ask those who have been doing it to stop it. Leave the children to grow like the way God created them.”
Some girls have even dropped out of school because of labia elongation simply because they cannot stand peer pressure.
Pulling as it’s popularly known, is a tradition common in central and southern parts of Uganda and Rwanda, which basically involves the elongation of the labia minora on the female private parts by girls and women.
The practice is widely criticised by the west for allegedly being outdated and barbaric.
Ms Mutuuzo hinted on the vice while addressing journalists about the forthcoming International Day for Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation scheduled on February 6.
She said her ministry needs an increase in the budgetary allocation from the current Shs200 million to Shs1.2 billion to help fight female genital mutilation which is predominant in Sebei sub region in eastern Uganda.
The money is to, among other things, help in community sensitisation, strengthen male engagement, establish shelters for FGM victims and engage more elders in the fight against the practice.
