Child marriage restraint act: Speakers call for creating awareness

Speakers at Policy Dialogue stressed a need for creating awareness about "Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act" among all stakeholders including Police, Judiciary and people in the province to ensure its implementation. They said this while speaking on the occasion of Policy Dialogue on "A Discourse on Implementation of Sindh Marriage Restraint Act" organised by SAFWCO here at local hotel on Thursday.
The head of SAFWCO, Suleman Abro said that it was easy job to get a bill passed from Assembly than its implementation. "Under Awareness Project launched in Sanghar district, where the girls in the schools were educated about this act and its benefits but such project was criticised by the certain section of society including religious groups," he said.
The criticism appeared because the majority of them did not know about facts and benefits of the Act, he said, adding that such issue was resolved when our team gave them awareness about it. Advocate Ali Pal said that Marriage Act could not be implemented in the province, until stakeholders including police and judiciary were not taken on board. "We have to send the copies of Act to each official, which would help them to implement whenever any complainant comes to police station", he added.
Social Activist, Irfana Mallah said that PPP-led government had done good legislation including Sindh Child Marriage Act after 18th Amendment either due to pressure of International Communities or any other reasons but it did. Renowned social activist, Amar Sindhu said that there were invisible forces creating hindrances to the implementation of laws protecting rights of vulnerable communities including woman in the province. "We have to develop such system to hold invisible powers responsible, if any such incident occurs," she said. Associate Professor of Agha Khan University, S Kausar Khan said that early marriage of girl is alike strangling life of any body. "The continuity of dialogue can bring the change in the society, so we have to go ahead with this", she said.