BY ANNIE ZAHID
Child marriage is an important issue often left untouched or not too much highlighted. Child marriage refers to the marriage of boys and girls, most specifically girls before the age of 18.
According to the Economic Survey, 37 percent of women were reported to marry below the age of 18 in 2001. A big number of children mainly girls are forced to marry even at the innocent age of 7 years old.
According to Institute for Social Justice (ISJ) Pakistan in 2012, 75 cases of child marriage were reported by different media agencies; of these total cases, 43 percent of children were from 11 to 15 years old and 32 percent from the age group 6 to 10 years of age.
In 2008-2009, 24228 children of age group 10-14 were reported married and 1029784 children of age group 15-19 were reported married.
The number of children married in their minor ages is in millions but are not monitored and reported.
The Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2006-07) mentions in its section on teenage fertility that almost half of the girls of 15 to 18 years of age were already pregnant or had a baby to take care of.
The exact numbers of child or early marriages are not available due to a lack of proper documentation and data collection.
It is a highly illegal and unlawful practice. Internationally, it is considered as fugitive practice as well as a human rights violation. It is mostly observed in the backward areas where there is less knowledge and implementation of the law and people are less educated. South Asia has the highest rate of child marriages in the World.
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The causes of child marriage may be religious, social, cultural or economic. In many cases, all these factors intermingle to become the cause of this shameful act. Poor families force their children into marriage to overcome their financial burden. Many countries including Pakistan have laws against this social menace but the problem is there is no strict enforcement of these laws.
Poor families in order to stabilize them financially tempt to sell their girls into marriages as they get a large sum of money in exchange for her. Individual’s rights are denied by child marriage. The rights denied as a result of forced marriage are the right of education, the right to be protected against physical and mental tortures, injury and abuses including sexual abuse, rape, and sexual exploitation, and the right not to be separated from the parents against the child’s will.
Child marriages more often snatch girls’ childhood, deny the opportunity of education, escalate the risk of domestic and sexual abuse and put her in early and highly risky pregnancies. Girls under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die during childbirth than adult women.
Child brides are unable to negotiate social issues safely therefore there are more chances of them to become victims of diseases. The worst part of the story is that the negative impacts do not remain bound to the girl only but transfer to their generations. Children of child brides are 60 percent more likely to die in the first year of their life than those born to mothers older than 19.
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Ending child marriage requires work across all sectors and at all levels. It can be done by working on four areas; empowering girls, mobilizing families and communities, provide services, establish and implement laws and policies. Empowering girls by giving them employment and working with the girls directly to give them the opportunity to build skills and knowledge can help girls in their life.
Many cultures and families consider child marriage as the deep-rooted tradition. Efforts should be done to check this tradition and educate the families about the rights of girls. The taboo can be eliminated by providing the basic services of health and education to them.
Writer is student at National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad. She can be reached at anniezahid52@gmail.com
