KARACHI:
Pakistan has the world’s sixth highest number of girls married before the age of 18. Child marriage is prevalent in the country due to several reasons: deeply entrenched traditions and customs, poverty, lack of awareness, little or no access to education, and lack of security.
After the 2022 floods, the number of child marriages in the province of Sindh increased due to climate-driven economic insecurity. Girls, ageing 13 or 14, in the flood-hit areas were married off by their parents in exchange for money. In Khan Mohammad Mallah village of Dadu district, 45 underage girls have been married off since the last year’s monsoon rains — 15 of them in May and June this year. Many villages in the agricultural belt of Sindh have not yet recovered from the 2022 floods. Before the 2022 rains, there were no cases of girls being married off so young in this area. Parents of such girls argue that they hurried the marriage of their daughters to save them from poverty. Child marriage takes away a girl’s right to a safe childhood and education, and affects her health, growth and fertility. Such a marriage also has broader socio-economic consequences for individuals and the society at large.
Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah has taken a timely step by setting up a committee to carry out a comprehensive probe into the weddings saga that took place in Khan Mohammad Mallah village.
Asif Thebo
Mehar City, Dadu
