SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
More than 60 million girls around the world were married under the age of 18 last year, out of which 24% were from rural Pakistan and 18% from urban areas, said Blue Veins Programme Coordinator Qamar Naseem at a seminar. Child marriages is a common phenomenon in Pakistan. In the absense of strict laws, this practice goes unabatedly. n Sunday the police, acting on a tip-off by a child rights activist, stopped a marriage ceremony between a 6 year old girl and a 22 year old main in Dubai Chowk, near Thokar Niaz Baig, Lahore. The girl, Sumaira, was married to a man thrice her age because her family could not pay off a debt to the father of the groom – the groom being a labourer in a nearby housing society. The episode is a stereotypical example of motivations that prompt families to marry off their young daughters, and should act as a blueprint for the state’s crackdown on this unjust practice.
Early marriage thwarts a girl’s chances of acquiring education, endangers her health and cuts short her personal growth and development. The risk of death for pregnant girls under the age of 15 is five times higher than for women in their twenties. Taken together, the costs of this practice are too high to be ignored. Societies cannot progress when the common practice of marriage dooms them to a life of poverty. The state has come a long way; both the Sindh Assembly and the Punjab Assembly have recently passed legislation which significantly increases the punishments for the people “involved in the act” and has defined these people to include the parents, guardians, and the cleric officiating the ceremony. They have set the minimum age of marriage for girls at 18 and 16 respectively and require the groom and bride to produce ID cards before the marriage can be officiated. Issues with the implementation of this law aside, this is a positive step; one that needs to be adopted at the federal stage, and implemented throughout the country. The other provinces still follow the 1929 act, which lets the offenders off with a proverbial slap on the wrist. Civil society and our lawmakers need to push strict implementation of law to curb such practices. That is the only way to ensure that the children of this country, especially those who belong to tribal and traditional families, are not made to suffer anymore.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
