What is marriage? Marriage is a life-long agreement between opposite genders. Why are marriages conducted? When a couple intends to join in matrimony with mutual consent. On the basis of shared interests, liking and hope for a better future, a couple of ties a knot with each other. They vow to accomplish a happy family life.
In contrast to the above-mentioned preamble of wedlock, millions of people don’t enjoy their basic human right of “Marriage with consent”. The prevailing forced marriages and honor marriages are creating havoc for billions of lives in the world. The most affected population of marriages without consent, honor marriages and underage marriages are children. Especially girls under the age of puberty are most vulnerable to child marriages then the boys, “Child marriage or underage marriage is a disastrous practice that robs millions of girls of their childhood, their basic human rights and their dignity”.
According to the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights(1948), “One has a right of free and full” consent to marry and one has a right to reach the age of maturity to make a decision about his/her marriage. A destructive practice of child marriages, which lacks consent, can be observed everywhere in the world. Internationally, a wide range of legislation has been carried out for the protection of children’s rights. The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child(UNCRC)(1989), is the world’s first convention on the rights of children. It has been signed by 193 countries at that time. The aim of this convention is to protect children against all the socio-economic dangers and to provide them with all their basic childhood rights. Comment number four(2003) has emphasized countries to set 18 years for the marriages. Currently,196 countries are agreed to the demands of this treaty. Muslim countries including Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates have also declared 18 years as a minimum age for marriage.
In the South Asian region, there is a lack of mutual consensus on the legislation for child marriages. As in the case of Pakistan still, the 1929’s Child Marriage Restraint Act rules. According to this Act, the allowed age for marriage for girls is 16 and the minimum age for boys is 18 years. In 2018, Senator Sherry Rehman presented a bill, to tackle child marriages, in Senate. After a hot debate in the upper house of parliament bill passed which limited minimum age of 18 years for marriage but the bill is yet to be passed from the lower house of parliament. Religious parties and other political parties in Pakistan have different views about the issue of child marriages. Religious parties seek guidance from Sharia which according to them has defined the age of puberty as 16 years. Contrary to that, other political parties seek guidance from UN’s conventions which have to define the minimum age for marriage as 18 years.
The point of view regarding the consequences of child marriages and underage marriages also vary in Pakistan. According to the religious and fundamentalist groups, the age of puberty is 16 years as defined by the Sharia. Genetic and hormonal changes have further decreased the age of puberty in girls, below 16 years now. They believe that the marriage in the first years of puberty keeps one chaste, safeguards from all the evils and establish a society which contains morally good people. While on the opposite hand, the liberals and secular groups emphasize on marriages after the age of 18 years as child marriages below the age of 18 years are increasing the risks of pregnancy-related injuries, premature child death ratio and destroys all their rights to economic, social, educational and political opportunities. Pakistan is home to numerous cultures and it’s a religiously dominated country. Child marriages are associated with regional cultures and religious beliefs. Different cultures use and define child marriages according to their self-made beliefs. The United Nations survey shows that 5% of girls are married before the age of 18 and 3% of girls are married before the age of 13.
The way forward is to materialize the UN’s treaties and laws and states must take serious action against the violators of children’s rights. If an adult has a right of “free and full consent”, why not a child?