EDITORIAL: A recent press report about alarming rise in girl-child marriages in exchange for money in villages of Sindh affected by the 2022 devastating floods has caused quite a stir.
In his reaction to the report, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has been quoted as saying that “there has always been this tradition of early marriages, but the floods have made people very desperate.” He has thus rightly identified both issues contributing to the persistence of child marriages. His spokesman, however, told journalists the CM has ordered an inquiry into the matter, and wants to understand the social impact of the rains on the people of these areas; after the inquiry report is submitted he will visit the affected areas and make the needed amends.
It’s been two years since that disaster befell the people in vast swathes of rural Sindh, by now its impact should have been catalogued and addressed as far as possible.
Although Pakistan has the unenviable distinction of having one of the highest rates in the world of child marriages, the scourge is more rampant in Sindh. To its credit, Sindh is the only province that enacted the Child Marriage Restraint Act back in 2014, making it a cognisable and non-compoundable offence, and setting the minimum age limit for both girls and boys at 18 years.
A similar bill in Punjab has been pending since 2015, while the other two provinces have yet to initiate any move in this regard. Obstructing progress are the usual patriarchal cultural norms. This prevents physical and emotional growth of underage brides with the result that they are more prone to die from childbirth complications than those in their 20s or 30s. Their babies too tend to suffer from health problems.
The high rate of maternal and infant mortality rate in this country is a consequence of early marriages. The practice not only adversely affects girls on an individual level, but also the country’s economic development since it is one of the reasons behind the population explosion. Earlier, a girl is married the more children she is likely to bear.
It is imperative therefore that all provinces make girl-child marriage prohibition laws, and implement them, too. Nonetheless, laws alone are not enough. They also need to be backed by actions, such as improving girls’ access to education, creation of job opportunities for their families, and making the people better aware of how harmful child marriages are for girls.
That may seem a tall order to our policymakers, given the financial constraints. But it is also a matter of indifference since those most impacted belong to poor and marginalised sections of society.
The problem, though, can be seen in its wider perspective, i.e., the effect of high population growth rate on the national endeavour towards socio-economic progress. Necessary measures are required to be adopted to discourage the prevalence of girl-child marriages.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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