Child marriage, which is not less than abuse of rights, is prevalent in almost every corner of the world which has been eroding thousands of little souls’ lives who so far reach in half enjoyment of their life. There are various factors that have been a cause for promoting child marriage and one among them is the parents. Whenever a child is born, they directly do their engagement with their relatives, promising to marry them later on when they reach at 14 or nearby. However, some cruel parents force their children to an early marriage with their own relatives so that their relatives would be happy. Child marriage is recorded as the biggest reason to end a girl’s childhood and affects the child’s educational process and then may end up with their committing suicide.
Even if a child does not come to the age of 13, the family thinks about their marriage. The children are so far unable to be responsible for themselves, how will they take the responsibility of another young one? It is hard to deal with such unwanted circumstances for the children. In fact, this not only breaches their basic rights, but also their future plans will be disturbed badly. The life of early married children with the involvement of the community will make them suffer hard to spend their lives ahead.
Similarly, about 40 millions girls worldwide were newly married forcefully from 2022 to 2023 and in some current reports stated that from 2022 to 2025, an estimaed 150 million girls would marry. Child marriage changes the mind set of young girls to distractions It not only disturbs girls’ educational process rather it can be the source of different hard diseases which girls have to be involved in after getting married and their pregnancies are likely to be difficult.
“It was very hard for me when I got married at 13. The man I was married, was twice my age.” Says 15-year-old Aisha. She is one of the victims of early marriage. She elaborates further, “I was scared when the news came to me and I even could not know how to behave well with my family members and was totally far from well-mannered in speaking, but I was given the responsibility of a house. So, dealing with this situation was out of my capacity and I was depressed since I found no right person to listen to my grumble and grievances.”
According to the current records, Pakistan has an embarrassing record, especially in Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Since, everyday the proportion of child marriage is increasing rapidly.
Pakistan Penal code’s section number 498B strictly prohibits a child Marriage and announces this act as illegal throughout the country. There are sanctions of seven years imprisonment and Rs 50,000 if one promotes this.
Aisha is not the only unheard story, there are millions of unheard stories like Aisha who have no voice to raise.
According to the current records, Pakistan has an embarrassing record, especially in Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Since, everyday the proportion of child marriage is increasing rapidly. A research based upon child marriage said that in most of the societies, girls, 16 or lower than it, are married to the men who are 25 to 27 years old. Child marriage is likely to develop negative thoughts, violence and bad relations with the people since it creates troubles for girl in the pregnancy. While giving birth to a child, most of them die.
On the other hand, covid-19 has affected the families of low income, due to which parents pushed their young daughters towards marriage. In that time, the poverty was the main reason for child marriage since they were hit by financial problems. From 2020 to 2022, people suffered from inflation and poverty during these two years, a great number of child marriages were reported.
Thus, the government has to fix strict rules for saving the new generation and should produce a TV ad to provide information. Everyone’s children are abnormal, they are dependent as well. An abnormal child cannot control this situation. Apart from this, parents should have the concept that getting their children married early is not the solution to their problems.
