A commendable initiative has been launched by the Alliance Against Child Marriages (AACM), comprising 16 civil society organisations. Fifty percent of Pakistani women are wed by the age of 19, and half of them give birth by 21. The age of marriage is as low as 13 in areas such as Matiari and Jacobabad. Through the platform of AACM, Zakia Shahnawaz, the Punjab Population Minister, has sought effective legislation to be promulgated on child marriages.
Like many other evils, child marriage is also rooted in the bog of illiteracy and poverty. Misguided religious beliefs further seal the fate of these innocents. Fauzia Waqar of Shirkat Gah argued on the forum about the absurdity of signing the marriage contract between two children, when it is supposed to be a consensual agreement between two adults. Neelum Hussain of Simorgh stated that minors who are forced into marriages tend to have many more extra-marital relations later in life as compared to marriages at ages of maturity. Immature children may in later life disrespect the sanctity of marriage. But that would be a problem we would encounter only if the girls going through early pregnancies emerged successful after their battle with health problems. Most never get that lucky. Nabila Malick, of the NGO Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan highlighted that the Child Marriage Restraint Act allows the marriage of a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy. Menarche is considered sufficient as a license for marriage of young girls. The penalty for going against the law is a fine of Rs1,000 or one month imprisonment, which is hardly a deterrent in our social environment.
Childhood pregnancies are the major cause of teenage deaths in underdeveloped countries. The child mortality rate in our far-flung areas is soaring by the day. In such places, young girls have no access to birth control facilities. While giving birth, when their fragile lives are hanging by a thread, they find themselves surrounded by daais (traditional midwives). If their delicate, underdeveloped bodies survive the ordeal, they face the looming threat of post-natal complications. The tragedy multiplies if the life of the newborn cannot be saved. If all goes well, you have a 13-16 year old child holding a newborn child in her lap, being clueless as to how to take care of herself or her baby. How can we so brutally seize from a child the right to an education, the right to childhood, to mature through a natural transition into adulthood? As for religion, what was applicable in the seventh century cannot possibly be acceptable in the 21st century without judicious reinterpretation under Ijtehad (religious consensus). Misinterpretation of religious texts, under the shield of which we marry off girls as young as nine, needs to be done away with. AACM’s initiative for seeking fresh legislation about child marriages should be supported by anyone who lays claim to being enlightened. *