Married young

Its time awareness about child rights is spread, not only to girls & boys, but also to adults who support practice.

While evolution might support that the ultimate purpose of a living thing is to procreate, some parents in parts of Pakistan apparently think along similar lines in that one’s primary life purpose is to get married, once puberty occurs, so that he or she can also produce offspring. This is perhaps what was going through the mind of one father in Punjab, when he married his 11-year-old daughter to his 12-year-old brother-in-law — also the daughter’s step-uncle. Thankfully, there is finally an awakening to counter child marriage and gradually raise the minimum age.

The recently launched Alliance Against Child Marriages (AACM) Punjab is working to this end and must now execute its ambitions to spread awareness on the issue, particularly in rural areas of the country where child marriages are prevalent. Statistics find that approximately 50 per cent of Pakistani women are married by age 19 and become mothers by age 21. This disrupts the natural progression of both physical and mental growth, and could lead to a counterproductive, unhealthy family life. The practice is also criminal because a 13-year-old child given in marriage is not mature enough to have knowledge of the concept of sexual consent and hence could be subject to rape. It is time that awareness about child rights is spread, not only to vulnerable girls and boys, but also to adults who support the practice.

We welcome the initiative of the AACM, but more needs to be done to counter child marriages. The government needs to reevaluate child rights in tandem with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It must come down to creating strict, clearly defined laws and jailing any adult who chooses to violate those laws. Until the government deals heavy blows to violators, the practice will continue to ruin the lives of many young boys and girls.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2013.

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