ISLAMABAD:Shirakat-Partnership for Development in collaboration with Amplify Change launched a report titled “Shattered Dreams” on a nationwide survey of the victims of early and forced child marriage (CEFM). Shirakat – Partnership for Development, a women-led national organization has been working on gender justice, women and child rights, economic justice and climate justice in Pakistan for the past 17 years.
The launch was attended by government functionaries, National Commission on the Status of Women, Social Welfare, CSO representatives, child rights activists, mothers, and young women and men.
Early and forced child marriagec ontinues to be a pressing issue in the country. With key drivers such as poverty, inequality, lack of access to quality education, limited life choices, social norms and beliefs that marriage can be legalized as soon as both the girl and boy hit puberty and that this law cannot be amended, the reduction in early child marriage requires effort and collaboration from multiple sectors.
The research report highlighted the adverse economic, marriage satisfaction, mental health and maternal and child health outcomes as a direct consequence of early and forced child marriage. Not only were the victims’ underage at the time of marriage but it was also found that when it comes to consent of child bride or groom, the supremacy of parents’ or guardians’ decision took priority and consent of the child bride or groom was hardly ever sought in true sense.
The research concluded that the biggest problem was the implementation of the law. Lack of awareness of this issue as well as the Child Marriage Restraint Act in the public was highlighted as one of the key challenges to implementation of child marriage laws. In addition, marriage being a private affair further impeded the progress in timely reporting of CEFM. For provinces where the child marriage law was 16 years,
Stakeholders highlighted the legislation was contradictory to the requirement of the child bride having an ID card since CNIC is issued at the age of 18.
Furthermore, the representatives highlighted that while laws existed, on ground implementation was non-existent owing to the weak and underperforming law enforcement machinery. The issue of 65-70% children being un-registered at birth was also raised as a challenge as it makes it difficult to verify age at the time of marriage registration.
Ms. Farrah Naz, Country Director GAIN and a feminist activist shared that all early marriages are in fact forced marriages as the consent of child brides and bridegrooms is not valid due to their being under age. Mr. Safdar Raza the Member, Board of Directors, Shirakat shared his experience and learnings from his work on child rights. Ms. Asiya Nasir, ex-MNA pointed out the frequency and impact of CEFM on the minority groups. Dr Hadia Majid, Professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and one of the Principal Investigators on the research could not travel to Islamabad due to political situation. Ms. Bilquis Tahira-founder of Shirakat Partnership for Development concluded that the reason we haven’t made a dent in this practice is because we haven’t invested in girls.
Social patterns of behavior take a generation to change but we know by example that education works well over a generation.
On top of that we also know reasons for school absenteeism and drop-outs i.e. mobility and access issues, WASH facilities etc. It really is just a prioritization issue and by not addressing social systems we allow this issue of early child marriage to remain cyclical. She added that ending of early child marriages has to be a state owned campaign with follow up of good health facilities, family planning facilities, schools, pro-bono lawyers and sensitization of the police.
CSOs and other stakeholders can only play a vital role in awareness creation/advocacy but cannot hold policy makers/implementers accountable.
