Asia still needs 55 years to eliminate child marriage: UN

Anwar Iqbal 

Published May 4, 2023

 

UNITED NATIONS: South Asia leads global reductions in child marriage but still needs 55 years to eliminate the practice if it does not speed up the pace, says a UN report released on Wednesday.

To meet the UN target of eliminating child marriage by 2030; South Asia needs to accelerate the pace of reforms by seven times, says the report released by the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef).

Within South Asia, Pakistan is third in reductions, behind Maldives and Sri Lanka but ahead of India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan. About 18 per cent women in Pakistan are still married in childhood, which is slightly better than the global average of 19pc.

According to the statistics released on Wednesday, Pakistan still has nearly 19 million child brides as 1 in 6 young women in the country are married in childhood. The minimum legal age for marriage in Pakistan is 18 but about 18pc of girls are married before 18. The age gap between a child bride and her groom is often between 40 to 60 years. At 51pc, Bangladesh has the highest rate of child marriages in South Asia. Maldives has the lowest, only two per cent.

India is home to the largest number of women who married in childhood. One in three child bride lives in India. There are about 34pc women in India who married in childhood. The majority of Indian women married in childhood, gave birth as adolescents.

South Asia leads the world in progress on reducing child marriage. Yet, one in four young women in South Asia were first married or were in union before their 18th birthday.

The region is home to around 290 million child brides, accounting for 45 per cent of the global total. Levels of child marriage vary considerably across the region, from over 50pc in Bangladesh to 2pc in the Maldives.

In Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh child brides are more likely to report that wife-beating is justified, and they often experience such violence themselves.

In Pakistan, 55pc of child brides say that wife-beating is justified. In India, 41pc say the same thing. Thirty-three per cent and 28pc in Bangladesh also justify wife-beating. Child brides in South Asia are more likely to live in poor households, have less education and reside in rural areas.

SEE
https://www.academia.edu/2494539/Hegels_Master_Slave_Dialectics

Three in four child brides in the region give birth while they are still adolescents. The vast majority of child brides in South Asia are out of school.

Unicef, however, also reports that the practice of child marriage has continued to decline globally, driven predominantly by a decline in India, which is still home to the largest number of child brides worldwide.

Progress is also evident in other contexts, including in populous countries where the practice has historically been common, such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Some smaller countries, such as Maldives and Rwanda, are moving closer to elimination.

Commenting on the good news, Unicef observed that “the experiences of these countries illustrate that progress is possible in a variety of settings.”

But the UN agency warned that a ‘polycrisis’ — of war, climate shocks, and the Covid pandemic — threatens the fragile gains made towards ending the scourge.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2023

Boy Soldiers, Boy Brides

In Afghanistan child soldiers, boys, are increasingly being used and abused.

Afghanistan's Child Soldiers

And in another old tradition child brides are not just girls in Afghanistan but boys as well, who are used by patriarchal warlords, police chiefs and other older men as boy brides.

Young boys are being sexually abused in Afghanistan

"Some men enjoy playing with dogs, some with women. I enjoy playing with boys," said 44-year-old Allah Daad, a one-time Mujahedin commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz

The practice of "bacha baazi", meaning "boy-play", is enjoying a resurgence in the North of Afghanistan where ownership is seen as a status symbol by militia leaders according to Afghan news site, e-Ariana.

While condemned by clerics and human rights groups, authorities are doing little to end it.Dancers, known as "bacha bereesh" or "beardless boys", are under 18, with 14 being the "ideal" age.

Owners or "kaatah" meet at bacha baazi parties in large halls where the boys dance late into the night, before being sexually abused.

Of course these manly he men are not gay, since there are no homosexuals in Islam. Nope of course not after all these are just boys dancing in drag.

This is not a new phenomena but a rather old one nor is it restricted to Afghanistan.


It was first reported on in the 19th Century by Sir Captain Richard Burton, who went undercover into the Hindu Kush and discovered the tradition of boy brides amongst the peoples of the region. He also discovered that British officers were using boy brides for their entertainment. His report got him summarily punished by the High Command who were embarrassed by his findings.

In revenge it is told that Burton held a dinner party and invited his commanding officers to attend. When they did they were treated to boy brides being present. Typical of Burton's rapacious wit and nasty sense of humour when the officers protested that they were scandalized by his use of boy brides, he assured them they were no such thing. He revealed they were in fact monkeys in drag.

Burton had actually worked on developing an early form of communication with the monkeys, which was lost when his collected notes and works were burnt posthumously by his widow.

Boy brides, child brides, child labour and child soldiers, the legacy of our war in Afghanistan.

It reveals the hypocrisy of the Conservatives claim we are there fighting for the rights of women and children.

This sobering image, showing a 40-year-old groom sitting beside his 11-year-old future bride in Afghanistan, brought Stephanie Sinclair top honors in the annual Photo of the Year 2007 contest sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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The Philippines wants to outlaw child marriage. But in Muslim-majority Bangsamoro, change will be hard

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

ByRAISSA ROBLES

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Some 15 per cent of Filipino girls are married before their 18th birthday, and 2 per cent are married before the age of 15.
Reuters

Ayesha Merdeka wants child marriages to be a thing of the past. They aren’t an abstract concept to her – they are the reality she has lived with for more than three decades after her grand wedding at the age of 15 made a splash in newspapers and magazines across the Philippines .

She is a member of a politically influential clan in what is now the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) – where most of the 3.8 million residents are Muslim, in contrast with the rest of the predominantly Catholic country – and hers was the first Muslim Maranao-style wedding to be held in the capital, Manila.

Ayesha’s father, Abul Khayr Alonto, was the founding Vice-Chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front. He recruited Nur Misuari, who became the group’s leader, into the rebel movement. Her father, who was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority in 2016, died last year.

At the time of Ayesha’s wedding, then-president Corazon Aquino was seeking peace talks with the rebels. Several foreign diplomats from the US and Russian embassies attended the ceremony. But little did the guests know, the bride had no choice but to marry.

It was like having “an invisible gun on your head”, Ayesha, now 49, told This Week in Asia . She clarifies that she wasn’t forced into marriage – it was “more like [being] indoctrinated into the idea that marriage was a decision made by the elders. It’s like your mind was conditioned from the beginning that that area of your entire life is going to be decided by them.”

Ayesha, who still lives in the BARMM, said suitors, including those from abroad, began circling when she was 13 years old and still “boyish looking”. But her father put his foot down and said she had to marry within the clan.

A handout photo. Ayesha Merdeka on her wedding day.
PHOTO: South China Morning Post

He warned her that if she committed “a moral mistake, then I will make an example [of you] to the Bangsamoro women”, Ayesha recalled.

“The one thing that really held me after he said that,” she said, was that “his voice became imploring as he said, ‘Please don’t make me do that to you’. The voice is still at the back of my head but I trusted that my dad would choose the best man among the Moros [for me].”

‘An act of child abuse’

According to Girls Not Brides, a partnership of civil society organisations committed to ending marriages involving children, 15 per cent of Filipino girls were married before their 18th birthday, and 2 per cent were married before the age of 15.

Boys in the Philippines are less likely to enter into child marriages – in 2017, there were 32,000 brides between the ages of 15 and 19, four times the number of grooms, according to official figures.

Part of the problem, Girls Not Brides points out, is the trafficking of women and girls from rural regions to urban cities, as well as forced marriages.


Read Also Social media couple in Indonesia slammed for touting child marriage


Another issue the group identifies is religion . Most registered child marriages in the Philippines take place in the BARMM – which is in Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island – where women can marry at a very young age under the 1977 Code of Muslim Personal Laws.

That legislation, enacted through a decree from then president Ferdinand Marcos, set the marrying age for Muslims at 15, but provided an exception – girls can be married as young as 13, provided they are menstruating, and a wali , or guardian, petitions for the marriage.

Last month, Senate Bill 1373, which criminalises marriages between an adult and a minor – defined as a person under the age of 18 – was unanimously approved by the Senate. A similar measure, House Bill 1486, has bipartisan support and is awaiting a nod from the House of Representatives that is expected to come by next year.

The Senate bill, which calls child marriage “an act of child abuse as it debases, degrades and demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of children”, aims to punish relatives, guardians and those who facilitate such marriages with a fine of not less than 50,000 pesos (S$1,400) and between six and 12 years in jail, as well as the “loss of parental authority” over the victim.

Its main sponsor, Senator Risa Hontiveros from the opposition Akbayan party, told local media after the vote that the issue of early and forced child marriages was “a tragic reality for scores of young girls who are forced by economic circumstances and cultural expectations to shelve their own dreams, begin families they are not ready for, and raise children even if their own childhoods have not yet ended”.

However, even if the law is passed, realities on the ground will make its implementation difficult, according to Muslim rights activists in the Philippines who are seeking to end the practice.


Read Also Indonesia inches closer to outlawing child marriage



A senior member of the National Ulama Conference of the Philippines, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he did not think the proposed child-marriage law was “automatic for Muslims” given the concurrent existence of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws.

He revealed that there was an ongoing discussion between the ulamas on the conflict between the Code and the impending congressional legislation banning child marriages.

“We are trying to reconcile the two views – the Code says 15 [is the marrying age], while the [proposed Congress legislation] says 18,” he said, explaining that some Islamic scholars put the age of marriage for women “from the time she starts menstruating, but the Koran itself has no provision regarding that”.
‘It stops with me’

Experts say decades of war in the BARMM – including in the province of Magindanao, and the 2017 battle to retake the city of Marawi from Islamic State -affiliated militants – have made the region the poorest in the country, and caused a spike in the number of child brides.

“It alarmed us,” said Sittie Jehanne Mutin, former chair of the Regional Commission on Bangsamoro Women, of the rise in child brides among tens of thousands of internally displaced persons or refugees due to the protracted war between government troops and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The rebellion officially ended last year after a peace deal that saw MILF rebel commanders become administrators of the newly formed BARMM.

Read Also UN moves to prevent child marriage


Mutin said the war had taken a toll on families taking care of young girls, and marrying them off meant fewer mouths to feed, while it was also a way of preventing possible sexual abuse since strangers were crammed together in refugee camps. The really poor families did not mind even if the groom was decades older, she said, so long as “they can afford the dowry”.

She pointed out that the situation could not be addressed simply by an outright ban since there were multiple laws that existed and were applicable, including international Islamic law; Philippine sharia law, as outlined under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws; as well as the various traditional and customary laws observed by the 13 Muslim-majority ethnic groups in Mindanao.

Ordinarily, Mutin added, arranged marriages were a custom with built-in protective mechanisms. For instance, “parents will never force a child to marry without really looking at the advantages for their own daughter. That’s usually very high on their list.”

This community aspect is also evident to columnist and peace advocate Samira Gutoc, who took part in drafting the Bangsamoro Basic Law for the BARMM. She said there were many instances when young couples were made to abstain from sexual relations until the girl reached “the age of maturity” or started menstruating

.

A handout photo. Ayesha Merdeka today.
PHOTO: South China Morning Post

“The purpose of marriage is not just to strengthen power relations; it also provides social protection [and] protection against family vendettas,” Gutoc said, pointing out that some marriages were arranged between clans after slights were exchanged so as to prevent the clans from warring.

She was almost made to marry young herself, and recalls “running away” to show her refusal to do so – following in the footsteps of her mother, who had flatly rejected the notion after seeing her older sister marry around the age of 13 and drop out of school to bear children.

As for Ayesha, when asked about her own marriage, she explained that there were some arranged marriages that worked because “Islam emphasises duty over individual rights”.

Read Also Yemen child brides the victims of poverty, tradition


“It gets more complex when you really look at the culture,” she said. “I chose to be happy every day. There are a lot of things to be grateful for.”

Her husband visited and wooed her daily for three months before their wedding, keeping to a condition imposed by a stern aunt. “My aunt was crying throughout her wedding day because [she had only seen her husband] on that day.”

Ayesha, whose early marriage did not stop her from finishing a history degree and teaching for nearly four years in Libya, said Filipino Muslim women were “far more empowered” than those in the Middle East. In Libya, she would be summoned by the school head to “stop your revolution” about Muslim women’s rights.

It’s a revolution she continued at home. None of her three daughters – who are still single in their 20s and 30s – were forced into arranged marriages, she said, and her eldest son married for love.

“It stops with me,” said Ayesha, whose second given name, “Merdeka”, means freedom.

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.

North Carolina is child bride destination; bill could end it

THERE ARE 13 STATES WHERE CHILD MARRIAGE IS LEGAL!

Gary D. Robertson
The Associated Press

Stafft

Published Sunday, August 15, 2021 


Judy Wiegand speaks during a House Judiciary Committee meeting in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Wiegand, who was married when she was 13, was speaking in favor of Senate Bill 35, which would raise the minimum age to be married to 16. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Known for its coastlines, mountains and the state that was "first in flight," North Carolina has also developed a more dubious reputation recently: as a regional destination for adults who want to marry children.

State lawmakers are nearing passage of a bill that could dampen the state's appeal as the go-to place to bring child brides -- but would still leave it short of a national push to increase the age to 18. The proposed legislation would raise the minimum marriage age from 14 to 16 and limit the age difference between a 16-year-old and their spouse to four years.

"We will have moved the needle and made North Carolina no longer at the very bottom of the barrel of states," said Drew Reisinger, the register of deeds in Buncombe County. But, he said, "we're still going to be putting a lot of children in harm's way."

Reisinger said the county, which includes the popular tourist city of Asheville, is a destination for many adults and child brides from nearby states such as Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee -- all of which have raised the minimum marriage age in recent years.

Two-thirds of the marriage applications in Buncombe County last year that involved at least one person under 18 originated from people who lived outside of North Carolina, Reisinger said, noting that a 49-year-old man and 17-year-old girl recently came from Kentucky seeking a license.

"North Carolina is one of the friendliest states in the South to give them safe haven," he remarked.

The state is currently one of 13 that allow children under 16 to wed, according to Unchained at Last, a nonprofit organization that advocates ending child and forced marriages in the U.S. Nine of those states have no set minimum age, the group says, relying instead on case law or a judge's ruling.

Under current North Carolina law, children as young as 14 can get married if they become pregnant and if a judge allows it. Otherwise, children can wed as young as 16 with parental permission. Alaska is the only other state whose law expressly allows marriages as young as 14.

A study by the International Center for Research on Women, a research institute and rights group for women and children, estimates that nearly 8,800 minors were listed on marriage licenses in North Carolina from 2000-2015 -- placing the state among the top five with child marriages during that period. The group said that 93% of the marriage applications it reviewed for the years 2000-2019 involved a marriage between a minor and an adult.

"It disrupts the notion that if child marriage happens, it is the Romeo-and-Juliet scenario of two 17-year-olds who just can't wait to love each other," said Lyric Thompson, one of the study's co-authors.

But change has been slow in North Carolina, where some lawmakers still remain convinced that certain marriages involving a child are still acceptable.

"It's a generational divide," said Sen. Vickie Sawyer, a Davidson County Republican. "It was older members -- both Democrat and Republicans -- that had those personal stories of family members who had been married and it turned out OK."

Sawyer sponsored a bill that would have raised the age to 18. Instead, a compromise measure that won unanimous support from the Senate in May and the House this week would raise the minimum marriage age to 16 with no exceptions, including pregnancy. And even those 16 or 17 would need parental permission or a judge's decision that the marriage would "serve the best interest of an underage party."

Rep. Kristin Baker of Cabarrus County, who helped shepherd the bill through the House, explained that "as a conservative Christian, I am a strong supporter of the sacrament of marriage."

"As a child psychiatrist, I am determined to protect our vulnerable youth, enhancing their chances for healthy, happy futures," she said. "I believe this bill works to achieve those ends."

The bill's proposed maximum age gap of four years partially mimics statutory rape laws that make it a serious felony for a minor to have sexual intercourse with someone who is significantly older. The legislation needs one more Senate vote before heading to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk, probably this week, where it's likely to be signed into law.

Unchained at Last and the International Center for Research on Women are among groups pushing states to raise the marriage age to 18, with no exceptions. Six states have reached that standard -- most recently New York last month.

The groups have enlisted the help of former child brides including Judy Wiegand of Kentucky, who appeared before a North Carolina House committee in June to encourage legislators to change the law.

"It is the responsibility of the government to protect all of the children," Wiegand told lawmakers. Wiegand was 13 when she and an older teenage boy -- the father of her baby -- married in the 1970s. She said that until she became an adult, the law left her largely unprotected against an abusive spouse.

Lobbyists working on changing the law say former child brides in North Carolina whom they have contacted remain too traumatized by their experiences to speak before legislators publicly. Women like Wiegand have filled in instead: "I'm speaking in favor of the bill because I feel nobody did it for me," she said.


Another woman willing to speak out is Jean Fields, who in 1965, at age 15, married a man in his 20s. Fields had three children by the time she was 21. She eventually got divorced after what she said was years of her husband's verbal abuse and belittlement.

Fields, now 72, goes by another married name but doesn't want to disclose it to spare her extended family any anguish. In a phone interview, she said that after leaving her marriage, she raised her children, returned to school and has since owned two businesses. Despite her ultimate success, however, she discourages others from marrying young.

"I regret I never had the opportunity to be a teenager," she said.

'I feel trapped': Scores of underage Rohingya girls forced into abusive marriages in Malaysia

Malaysia Rohingya Child Brides
Rohingya child bride, B, age 14, sits on a bed in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Oct. 4, 2023. B came to Malaysia in 2023 to marry an older man. Her husband wants her to get pregnant, but she says she doesn't feel ready. "I still feel like a girl." Deteriorating conditions in Myanmar and in neighboring Bangladesh’s refugee camps are driving scores of underage Rohingya girls to Malaysia for arranged marriages with Rohingya men who frequently abuse them, The Associated Press found in interviews with 12 young Rohingya brides who have arrived in Malaysia since 2022. The youngest was 13. (AP Photo/Victoria Milko)

KRISTEN GELINEAU
Updated Wed, December 13, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — In a bedroom in Malaysia that has become a prison, the 14-year-old girl wipes away tears as she sits cross-legged on the concrete floor. It is here, she says, where her 35-year-old husband rapes her nearly every night.

Last year, the Rohingya girl sacrificed herself to save her family, embarking on a terrifying journey from her homeland of Myanmar to a country she had never seen, to marry a man she had never met.

It wasn’t her choice. But her family, she says, was impoverished, hungry and terrified of Myanmar’s military, which attacked the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017. In desperation, a neighbor found a man in Malaysia who would pay the 18,000 ringgit ($3,800) fee for the girl’s passage and — after she married him — send money to her family for food.

And so, the teenager — identified along with all the girls in this story by her first initial to protect her from retaliation — hugged her parents goodbye. Then M climbed into a trafficker’s car packed with children.

Deteriorating conditions in Myanmar and in neighboring Bangladesh’s refugee camps are driving scores of underage Rohingya girls to Malaysia for arranged marriages with Rohingya men who frequently abuse them, The Associated Press found in interviews with 12 young Rohingya brides who have arrived in Malaysia since 2022. The youngest was 13.

All the girls interviewed by the AP said their controlling husbands rarely let them outside. Several said they were beaten and raped during the journey to Malaysia, and five said they were abused by their husbands. Half the girls are pregnant or have babies, despite most saying they were not prepared for motherhood.

“This was my only way out,” says 16-year-old F, who in 2017 watched as Myanmar’s soldiers burned her house and killed her aunt. “I wasn’t ready to be married, but I didn’t have a choice.”

These unwanted marriages are the latest atrocity bestowed upon Rohingya girls: from childhoods marred by violence to attacks where security forces systematically raped them to years of hunger in Bangladesh’s squalid refugee camps.

Global apathy toward the Rohingya crisis and strict migration policies have left these girls with almost no options. The military that attacked the Rohingya overthrew Myanmar’s government in 2021, making any return home a life-threatening proposition. Bangladesh has refused to grant citizenship or working rights to the million stateless Rohingya languishing in its camps. And no country is offering large-scale resettlement opportunities.

And so the Rohingya are increasingly fleeing — and those who are fleeing are increasingly female. During the 2015 Andaman Sea boat crisis, in which thousands of Rohingya refugees were stranded at sea, the vast majority of passengers were men. This year, more than 60% of the Rohingya who have survived the Andaman crossing have been women and children, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.

In Bangladesh, Save the Children says child marriage is one of the agency’s most reported worries among camp residents.

“We are seeing a rise in cases of child trafficking,” says Shaheen Chughtai, Save the Children’s Regional Advocacy and Campaigns Director for Asia. “Girls are more vulnerable to this, and often this is linked to being married off in different territories.”

Accurate statistics on how many Rohingya child brides live in Malaysia don’t exist. But local advocates who work with the girls say they have seen a spike in arrivals over the past two years.

“There are really a lot of Rohingyas coming in to get married,” says Nasha Nik, executive director of the Rohingya Women Development Network, which has worked with hundreds of child brides in recent years.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the United Nations’ refugee convention, so the girls — who enter the country without permission — are less likely to report their assaults to authorities. Doing so could put them at risk of being thrown into one of Malaysia’s detention centers, which have long been plagued by reports of abuse.

Malaysia’s government did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment.

M didn’t even know her future husband’s name when she climbed into the trafficker’s car alongside several other girls headed to Malaysia for marriage.

For a week, they traveled through Myanmar and Thailand. After crossing into Malaysia, they stopped at a house. Four of the trafficker’s friends arrived and each selected a girl.

The man who chose M — who looked to be around 50 — drove her to another house. When they got inside, she says, he raped her.

In the morning, he locked her in the bedroom and left her there all day with no water or food. The next night, he returned and raped her again. She was terrified he would kill her.

M was then handed over to another man who drove her to her fiancé’s apartment.

She didn’t dare tell her fiancé she’d been raped, because then he would reject her.

Her fiancé insisted they get married that day. In agony and bleeding from the rapes, M told her husband she had her period, so he wouldn’t touch her.

A Rohingya women’s advocate, who confirmed M’s account to the AP, heard about the situation and brought M to the hospital for treatment.

When M returned to her husband, she learned he was already married with two children. She had no power to object to the situation, or to the beatings, cruel taunts and rapes she regularly endures. She said nothing about the abuse to her parents, lest her husband stop sending them 300 ringgit ($64) a month.

She sits now in her bedroom, her thin frame cloaked in teddy bear pajamas. Dangling from the ceiling is a rope designed to hold a hammock for any babies her husband forces her to bear.

She once dreamed of going to school and becoming a teacher or a doctor. But she has stopped thinking of her future. For now, she just tries to survive her present.

“I want to go back home, but I can’t,” she says. “I feel trapped.”

Editorial Comment

I see my editorial comment on Peter MacKay's secret surprise unannounced propaganda visit to Afghanistan has upset some partisan Blogging Tories, in particular BBS and Steve Janke. Hello its called editorial comment.

And Mr. Janke is concerned I am implying Peter MacKay is a pedophile. But child brides are ok in Afghanistan. That is the real crime. Which was my point, stated in a pointed way.

You can't be a pedophile if its ok in the country you are in to marry a child bride can you? And if it is pedophilia then I would expect Janke to be outraged, as I was, over the conditions of exploitation girls and women still suffer under the Karzai regime. But of course Janke wasn't nor was MacKay.

Janke would rather attack me personally and then attack the NDP as if I was a partisan blog for the NDP, which I am not. Missed my post on partisan blogging did we Steve. Missed Libertarian Communist Blog in my header did we.

The Harper government continues to prop up a misogynist anti-women regime that allows child brides. But the silence of the Harper government over the lack of womens rights in Afghanistan is deafening. But then they don't believe women's equality is important in Canada so why should it be important in Afghanistan.

Peter MacKay zooms over for a Harper propaganda photo op handing out some token funds to women, while avoiding the issue of the current famine and drought and families selling off child brides to survive.

Of course child brides are an offense to all right thinking folks, which was my point. But clearly my supposedly besmirching Mr. MacKays reputation is more important to a partisan hack like Janke than the condition of girls and women in Afghanistan.

Nothing new there, both BBS and Janke are Blogging Tories.


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Stalled progress toward eliminating child marriage in India

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Friday, December 15, 6:30 PM ET

Key points:

• Using national data between 1993 and 2021, researchers observed that India’s national prevalence of child marriage—defined by the study as marriage before age 18—declined throughout the study period. 

• The decade between 2006 and 2016 saw the largest magnitude of reduction in child marriage, while the years between 2016 and 2021 saw the smallest. During these latter years, six Indian states/union territories saw increases in the prevalence of girl child marriage and eight saw increases in boy child marriage.

• The study is among the first to examine how the prevalence of child marriage has changed over time at a state/union territory level. 

Boston, MA—Child marriage has declined in India—but across the country, one in five girls and nearly one in six boys are still married as children, and in recent years the practice has become more prevalent in some states/union territories, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Child marriage is a human rights violation and a recognized form of gender- and sexual-based violence. India’s success in reaching zero child marriage is critical to achieving United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 5.3.

The study will be published on December 15, 2023, in The Lancet Global Health.

“This study is among the first to estimate how rates of girl and boy child marriage have changed over time at a state/union territory level. Boy child marriage in particular is often overlooked; to date, there’s been almost no research estimating its prevalence,” said lead author S. V. Subramanian, professor of population health and geography. “Our findings offer a big step forward in understanding the burden of child marriage in India—one that will be critical to effective policymaking.”

Though India legally defines child marriage as marriage before age 18 for girls and before age 21 for boys, for the purposes of the study the researchers defined it as marriage before age 18 for both sexes. Using data from all five waves of India’s National Family Health Survey, from 1993, 1999, 2006, 2016, and 2021, they estimated the number of men and women ages 20-24 who met that definition across state/union territories. 

The study found that between 1993 and 2021, child marriage declined nationally. The prevalence of girl child marriage decreased from 49% in 1993 to 22% in 2021, while boy child marriage decreased from 7% in 2006 to 2% in 2021. (Using the Indian legal definition of boy child marriage, the prevalence was much higher: 29% in 2006 and 15% in 2022.) However, progress towards stopping the practice of child marriage has stalled in recent years: The largest reductions in child marriage prevalence occurred between 2006 and 2016, with the lowest magnitude of reduction occurring between 2016 and 2021. In fact, during these later years, six states/union territories (including Manipur, Punjab, Tripura, and West Bengal) saw an increase in girl child marriage and eight (including Chhattisgarh, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab) saw an increase in boy child marriage.

By 2021, the researchers counted more than 13.4 million women and more than 1.4 million men ages 20-24 who were married as children. The results showed that one in five girls and nearly one in six boys are still married below India’s legal age of marriage.

“Child marriage is a human rights violation,” said first author Jewel Gausman, research associate in the Department of Global Health and Population. “It is both a cause and a consequence of social and economic vulnerability that leads to a range of poor health outcomes. The state/union territory stagnation in reaching zero child marriage that we observed is a significant concern—and is a call for India to reignite progress.”

Rockli Kim, visiting scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, was also a co-author.

Funding for the study came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-002992).

“Prevalence of Girl and Boy Child Marriage: A Repeated Cross-sectional Study Examining the Subnational Variation across States and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021,” Jewel Gausman, Rockli Kim, Akhil Kumar, Shamika Ravi, S.V. Subramanian, The Lancet Global Health, December 15, 2023, doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00470-9

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Global Health

DOI

10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00470-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Prevalence of Girl and Boy Child Marriage: A Repeated Cross-sectional Study Examining the Subnational Variation across States and Union Territories in India, 1993-2021

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Dec-2023

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CHILD BRIDE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BOY BRIDES 

Child marriage in decline – but will take 300 years to eliminate

13 U$ STATES ALLOW IT

Haroon Janjua in Islamabad
Thu, 4 May 2023 

Photograph: Ami Vitale/Alamy

The number of child marriages is declining worldwide, but at too slow a pace for any hope of eliminating the practice this century, Unicef, the UN children’s agency, has said.

In a new report, Unicef tentatively welcomed the reduction but warned that it was nowhere close to meeting its sustainable development goal of ridding the world of the practice by 2030.

“The good news is that child marriage has been declining all over the world,” said Claudia Cappa, the lead author of the report. “In the last 10 years, the percentage of child marriages has dropped from 23% to 19% [of all marriages]. However, this isn’t fast enough to achieve the goal of eliminating child marriage by 2030, with more than 12 million girls under 18 still getting married every year. So, if things don’t change, we’ll need around 300 more years to eliminate child marriage completely.”

The UN estimates that 640 million girls and women who are alive today married before they were 18, and that 12 million girls become new child brides each year.

“Child marriage has different causes in different places, but there are often commonalities linked to poverty and limited opportunities for girls,” said Cappa. “Gender inequality, stereotypes, weak laws and the fear of pregnancy outside of marriage also contribute.”

The report warned that the climate crisis could leave families with few options but to marry off their children. “Health crises, conflict and natural disasters increase the risk to girls as they interrupt their education and add financial stress to households,” said Cappa. “Some families in these difficult situations falsely view [marriage] as a way to protect their girls financially, socially and physically. While we can’t always predict these crises, we can look back to understand how they might affect girls.

Related: Ethiopian drought leading to ‘dramatic’ increase in child marriage, Unicef warns

Declining rates of child marriage in south Asia, home to 45% of the world’s underage brides, underpinned the overall trend. India in particular is making progress in reducing child marriage. But in sub-Saharan Africa, one in three girls are marrying before the age of 18. Child marriage rates are highest in west and central Africa, home to seven out of the 10 countries with the highest prevalence globally.

“Despite some progress over 25 years, it only benefited the wealthiest, as child marriage increased among the poorest,” said Cappa. “[Sub-Saharan Africa] also faces a particular challenge: in addition to conflict, climate shocks and Covid, it’s seeing its population grow faster than anywhere else in the world, outpacing its progress to end child marriage.”

Child marriage and having sex too young causes myriad health problems and carries increased risks of death during childbirth and serious complications in pregnancy.

“But we know progress is possible in Africa, and the report lists Rwanda and Ethiopia as examples. Ending child marriage is possible with income and economic interventions,” said Cappa.

HINDUTVA ATTACK ON MUSLIMS

Indian child marriage crackdown leaves families in anguish
 

A girl child plays with a doll sitting under a tree at a roadside, in Guwahati, in Indian northeastern state of Assam, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. In India, the legal marriageable age is 21 for men and 18 for women. Poverty, lack of education, and social norms and practices, particularly in rural areas, are considered reasons for child marriages across the country. UNICEF estimates that at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India every year, making it home to the largest number of child brides in the world, accounting for a third of the global total. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)


PIYUSH NAGPAL
Thu, February 16, 2023 

MORIGAON, India (AP) — Standing outside the local police station in her village in northeast India, 19-year-old Nureja Khatun is anxious. Cradling her 6-month-old baby in her arms, she has been waiting to catch a glimpse of her husband before the police take him away to court.

Nearly an hour later, she sees her husband, Akbar Ali, for just a few seconds when he is shuffled into a police van. An officer slams the door in her face before she is able to get any answers.

“Please release my husband. Otherwise take me into custody as well,” she pleaded.

Khatun’s husband is one of more than 3,000 men, including Hindu and Muslim priests, who were arrested nearly two weeks ago in the northeastern state of Assam under a wide crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18.

The action has left her — and hundreds of other women like her who got married under 18 — in anguish. Many of the women, who are now adults, say their families have been torn apart, leaving them angry and helpless.

Khatun relied on Ali, with whom she eloped in 2021 when she was 17, to take care of her. Earning 400 rupees ($5) a day as a laborer, Ali was the sole breadwinner in their family, and the couple had a baby girl six months ago.

“Now there is no one to feed us. I don’t know if my family can survive,” Khatun said.

The stringent measures are being carried out in a state, home to 35 million people, where many cases of child marriage go unreported. Only 155 cases of child marriages in Assam were registered in 2021, and 138 in 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

In India, the legal marriageable age is 21 for men and 18 for women. Poverty, lack of education, and social norms and practices, particularly in rural areas, are considered reasons for child marriages across the country.

UNICEF estimates that at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India every year, making it home to the largest number of child brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total. India’s National Health Family Survey data shows that more than 31% of marriages registered in Assam involve the prohibited age group.

The state government passed a resolution last month to completely eradicate the practice of child marriage by 2026.

In some districts, teenage pregnancies are as high as 26%, said Assam’s additional director general of police AVY Krishna. “These child marriages have become a social evil and as a result the mortality rates have been quite high,” he said.

While the arrests have sparked massive distress among families, with women sobbing outside police stations across the state, the punitive action has also drawn scrutiny from lawyers and activists.

Some men, accused of marrying girls aged between 14 and 18, are being charged under India’s law banning child marriage, which carries a jail term of two years. Other men, accused of marrying girls below 14 years, have been charged under a more stringent law that protects children from sexual offenses. This is non-bailable, with jail terms ranging from seven years to life.

Assam police defended their actions as legal under both of these laws, but the High Court in the state’s capital, Guwahati, has questioned the arrests. “At the moment, the court thinks that these are not matters for custodial interrogation,” it said on Tuesday.

Others said the government should raise awareness through education and social campaigns instead of arrests. “According to Supreme Court guidelines, arrests should be the last resort,” said senior advocate Anshuman Bora. “Out of the blue, they decide to start making mass arrests to tackle the problem. Instead, they should focus on social reforms to stop it."

Activists and political opponents in the state have accused the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party — in power in Assam of carrying out arrests in districts and areas home to many of the state’s Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Critics say the community, which migrated over the years from neighboring Bangladesh, has often been marginalized by authorities, including a contentious citizenship registry in the state that they say discriminated against Muslims.

“We have found that people of all religions have been involved in child marriages,” said lawyer and social activist Hasina Ahmed. “We must not judge communities like this. We must not see caste and religion. We must focus on the investigations and proceed legally to solve the issues."

Officials have denied the accusations and say hundreds of Hindu men have also been arrested.

Ahmed said the arrests were doing more harm than good in Assam’s communities. A majority of the affected wives were uneducated, unemployed and came from poor families where their husbands were the sole earners.

“The government could have penalized people for engaging in the practice starting from today. Punishing people now for old child marriages is not appropriate,” she said.

Radha Rani Mondal, 50, is determined to get her son out of jail, but says she doesn’t have the money or the know-how to navigate the legal system. Her 20-year-old son was arrested on Feb. 4 and her 17-year-old daughter-in-law is pregnant. She spent her last 500 rupees ($6) to hire a lawyer, whom she owes 20,000 rupees ($250) more.

“I have been going to the police station and to the lawyer every day on an empty stomach. On one hand, I have to arrange money for legal expenses and on the other, I have to run my home and take care of my daughter-in-law. It is very difficult. I feel helpless,” she said, crying.

 

CHILD BRIDES OK IN U$A
Idaho Supreme Court won't weigh legality of child marriage

Erin Carver stands outside her attorney's office in Boise, Idaho, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. A legal loophole that allows parents of teens to nullify child custody agreements by arranging child marriages will remain in effect under a ruling from the Idaho Supreme Court on Tuesday, Oct. 18. The case arose from a custody battle between Carver and her ex-husband, William Hornish, who planned to move to Florida and wanted to take their 16-year-old daughter along. Hornish was accused of setting up a “sham marriage” between his daughter and another teen as a way to end the custody fight.

AP Photo/Rebecca Boone

REBECCA BOONE
Tue, October 18, 2022

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A legal loophole in Idaho that allows parents of teens to nullify child custody agreements by arranging child marriages will remain in effect, under a ruling from the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.

In a split decision, the high court declined to decide whether Idaho's child marriage law — which allows 16- and 17-year-olds to marry if one parent agrees to the union — is unconstitutional. Instead, the justices said that once a child is emancipated by marriage, the family court loses jurisdiction over custody matters.

The case arose from a custody battle between a Boise woman and her ex-husband, who planned to move to Florida and wanted to take their 16-year-old daughter along. The ex-husband was accused of setting up a “sham marriage” between his daughter and another teen as a way to end the custody fight.

It's not a rare scenario — all but seven states allow minors below the age of 18 to marry, according to Unchained At Last, an organization that opposes child marriage. Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas and Kentucky have the highest rates of child marriage per capita, according to the organization. Although minors are generally considered legally emancipated once they are married, they generally still have limited legal rights and so may be unable to file for divorce or seek a protective order.


Erin Carver and William Hornish divorced in 2012, and only their youngest was still living at home last year when both sides began disputing the custody arrangements.

Carver said she learned Hornish was planning a “sham marriage” for the teen to end the custody battle, and asked the family court magistrate to stop the marriage plans. Several days later, the magistrate judge agreed, but it was too late. The teen had already married.

The high court heard arguments in March, and Carver's attorney contended that the child marriage law is unconstitutional because it allows one parent to terminate another parent's rights without due process. Hornish's attorney, Geoffrey Goss, countered that his client had acted legally and followed state law.

In Tuesday's ruling, a majority of the Supreme Court justices said that because the marriage had occurred before an initial ruling was made, the family court lost jurisdiction. Once a child is married, they are emancipated and no longer subject to child custody arrangements, the high court said.

The justices also declined to weigh whether the law is legal under the state constitution, saying in part that neither side provided enough legal arguments on the matter. The high court did find, however, that the law was not clearly unconstitutional.

Justices Gregory Moeller and John Stegner dissented from the majority opinion, finding that the lower court could have done more to “address the outrageous actions of a father,” by making the initial order retroactive. That would have allowed Carver to seek an annulment of the marriage as the custodial parent.

“Father has not only made a mockery of our marriage laws, he has also exposed his 16-year-old Daughter to the potential life altering consequences of an ill-conceived and hasty marriage of convenience,” Moeller wrote in the dissent.

The Associated Press could not find contact information for Hornish, and his attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Carver nor her attorney immediately responded to a request for comment.

Other Idaho families have been watching the case closely.

Ryan Small, a Boise man who has been embroiled in a similar custody battle, said he was disappointed by the ruling. Small was trying to keep his ex-wife from moving out of state with their son last winter when he learned the 16-year-old boy had been secretly married off to another teen with his mother's permission.

Small hasn't seen the teen since Nov. 15, 2021, and because the boy is considered self-emancipated, Small has little ability to track him down or bring him back to Idaho.

“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court decided to punt the issue of the constitutionality of the law,” Small said on Tuesday. “The role of a parent is to protect their child, and the court not taking up the constitutionality of the law will allow abusive parents to use their children as pawns to sidestep the protection of the court.”

FEMICIDE PATRIARCHY MISOGYNY
UN calls for end to child marriages as Zimbabwe mourns 14-year-old child bride

TUESDAY AUGUST 10 2021

A girl carries water. Zimbabweans have expressed outrage after a 14-year-old child bride died while giving birth. PHOTO | FILE | NMG

Summary

The girl’s death in rural Marange in the eastern parts of the country has brought back into the spotlight the scourge of child marriages in Zimbabwe, especially among indigenous religious sects.

Memory was allegedly forced out of school and into marriage at age 13. She died on July 15 and was secretly buried two hours later by the church.

Her death was only exposed last week because the church was allegedly offering Memory’s nine-year-old sister as a replacement to her “husband.

By KITSEPILE NYATHI
More by this Author

The United Nations has condemned the practice of child marriage in Zimbabwe after a 14-year-old girl died while giving birth at a church shrine.

Zimbabweans have also expressed outrage about the girl’s death online with a petition demanding justice for Memory Machaya garnering nearly 40,000 signatures in a few days.

The girl’s death in rural Marange in the eastern parts of the country has brought back into the spotlight the scourge of child marriages in Zimbabwe, especially among indigenous religious sects.

Memory was allegedly forced out of school and into marriage at age 13. She died on July 15 and was secretly buried two hours later by the church.

Her death was only exposed last week because the church was allegedly offering Memory’s nine-year-old sister as a replacement to her “husband.”

The UN in Zimbabwe said it “notes with deep concern and condemns strongly the circumstances leading to the death of Memory Machaya.”

“Sadly, disturbing reports of the sexual violation of underage girls, including forced child marriages, continue to surface and indeed this is another sad case,” the UN in Zimbabwe, which represents all 25 UN agencies in the country, said in a statement.

It said one in three girls in Zimbabwe is likely to be married before turning 18.

This is despite the fact that Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court in 2016 banned child marriages after two former child brides challenged the country’s Marriage Act.

The judges struck down a section of the law that allowed girls to marry at 16, but boys at 18.

“A situation where one out of three girls in Zimbabwe will be married before the age of 18 years is also not acceptable,” the UN added.

“The current trend of unresolved cases of violence against women and girls in Zimbabwe, including marriages of minors cannot continue with impunity.

“All forms of violence and early forced marriages severely affect the mental and physical health of girls and is a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Zimbabwe is a signatory.”

Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch, said millions of girls in Zimbabwe continue to suffer in forced marriages because the government was failing to enforce the Constitutional Court ruling.

“Child marriage is rampant in Zimbabwe, especially among indigenous apostolic churches, an evangelical group that mixes Christian beliefs with traditional cultures and has millions of followers across the country,” Mr Mavhinga said.

“Girls are often sexually abused, beaten by their husbands and in-laws, confined in their homes, forced into pregnancy and labour, exposed to serious reproductive health risks, including risk of death, and denied an education.

“Millions of Zimbabwean girls like Memory Machaya continue to suffer abuse because of the authorities’ inaction.

“The future of millions of girls depends on Zimbabwe’s government ensuring the ban on child marriages is fully enforced.”

Fistula and child marriages: The two epidemics plaguing Pak women in Gilgit-Baltistan

Seema's battle with fistula unveils the tragedy of early marriage, urging society to confront the intertwined dangers of child marriage and women's health crises.

Shereen Karim

Published May 3, 2024

Seema, a resident of Astore District of Gilgit-Baltistan, received the title, ‘Woman of the Year’, not for her achievements, but for a fate imposed upon her at a tender age: child marriage. One can’t help but wonder how entering into a marriage contract at a tender age warrants this title.

Visibly upset, Seema recounted her story, explaining why she received the honour. Married at the tender age of 13 and diagnosed with vaginal fistula when she was 16 years old, Seema’s existence has since become synonymous with agony.

Every villager, out of pity for her deteriorating health, would visit her, oblivious to the struggle she bore in silence. With no funds for treatment, her father-in-law had even asked the doctor to give her poison — a desperate plea for relief.

Before delving further into Seema’s story, it is important to understand what vaginal fistula is.

The condition occurs when an abnormal passage is created between the vagina and neighbouring pelvic organs like the bladder or rectum. This can lead to numerous complications, including urinary and faecal leakage, abnormal vaginal discharge, tissue damage, kidney infections, and various other symptoms. Doctors warn that untreated fistulas can escalate to reproductive system cancers, potentially even leading to death.

Seema described the pain to be so agonising that she wished for a quick death on several occasions. It’s a stark contrast to the dreams that typically fill the heart of a 16-year-old girl — dreams of a future adorned with aspirations and possibilities. However, Seema found herself teetering on the precipice of despair, grappling with the grim reality of her life-long disease.

It only makes sense for her to be called the ‘Woman of the Year,’ doesn’t it? Her journey isn’t merely reflective of the far-reaching consequences of fistula but is also a testament to the devastating consequences of child marriage.

Perils of child marriage

According to a Unicef report an estimated 18 per cent of young girls are wed before reaching adulthood [18 years of age], amounting to almost 19 million child brides in the country. The number of unreported instances is believed to be even higher.

As per the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC), Pakistan has the sixth highest number of women married before the age of 18 in the world.

The adverse impacts of early marriage are manifold, encompassing the deteriorating health of the young bride, high-risk pregnancy, and impediments to both her education and personal growth. Moreover, in developing countries such as Pakistan, the unregulated cycle of childbirth places a heavy financial strain on parents, as they struggle to support multiple children, ultimately perpetuating poverty within these families.

Despite tireless global campaigns and legal enforcement in these countries, the insidious practice of child marriage persists. This prevalence is fuelled by a glaring lack of awareness regarding the severe repercussions of such unions, amplifying the issue.

The plight of girls under 18 is particularly dire, as depicted in Seema’s case. Her story serves as a stark reminder of the health complications faced by these young brides face. From debilitating conditions like fistula to a myriad of other ailments, many women are condemned to a lifetime of anguish. While some manage to recover through treatment, others suffer without ever experiencing improvement in their health.

What medical experts say

Dr Sajjad Ahmed, who offers free treatment to patients at Koohi Goth Hospital in Karachi, said that a significant number of women travel long distances from remote areas to seek treatment at the hospital located in the port city’s Bin Qasim Town. This reality underscores the inadequacy of basic facilities accessible to women in Pakistan.

At the other end of the country, Dr Sher Shah and his dedicated team annually organise medical camps in Gilgit, offering treatment and performing surgeries for fistula patients free of cost. While minor cases receive care at City Hospital Gilgit, those requiring more intensive procedures are referred to Koohi Goth Hospital in Karachi.

Dr Sher Shah mentioned how the hospital serves patients not only from across the country but also extends care to individuals from Afghanistan, Iran, Sharjah, and Yemen. Drawing patients from the farthest corners of Sindh, Punjab, Chitral, and Gilgit-Baltistan, including the remote locales of Skardu, Diamir, and Ghizar, individuals recover under their expertise. The hospital has provided free surgeries to almost 40 patients from Gilgit-Baltistan alone.

Despite the invaluable services rendered, the absence of more specialised hospitals for the condition remains a gap in the country’s healthcare infrastructure, he added.

Dr Nazneen Zamir Farooqi, a gynaecologist at City Hospital Gilgit, gets patients from remote areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, including Diamer, Astor, Skardu, Kharmang, Darel, and Ghizar. In many of these regions, the scarcity of healthcare facilities and the absence of skilled attendants during childbirth worsen the problem.

“The pervasive practice of child marriage significantly contributes to this crisis. When young girls are married off, their bodies are ill-equipped for childbirth — a biological reality — as physical maturity is typically achieved post-puberty,” she explained. Consequently, girls under 18 years face heightened risks of complications, and if they contract fistula, their suffering is only magnified.

The impact on women

Throughout pregnancy and childbirth, the absence of adequate treatment can result in a spectrum of deformities in women’s bodies, often leading to the onset of debilitating diseases. Among these, fistula stands out as one of the most distressing, inflicting not only physical discomfort but also profound psychological and social ramifications.

Girls married off at a young age have underdeveloped bodies and fragile bones. If they undergo childbirth before their bodies have fully matured, they are at risk of developing fistula. Similarly, older women who have borne numerous children may experience weakened muscles, rendering them incapable of delivering the baby during childbirth. In some cases, it may also lead them to develop this condition.

In both scenarios, giving birth to a child becomes an excruciating process for the woman, wherein the pressure exerted by the baby’s head against the muscles between the bladder and the vagina may result in the formation of a fistula. In many cases, the babies are stillborn. Without immediate medical intervention, the affected woman is condemned to endure the pain.

What does the Child Marriage Act say?

The Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929, a federal law in Pakistan in alignment with international conventions on children’s rights, unequivocally condemns a marriage involving a girl under 16 years of age and a boy under 18 years of age as a violation of fundamental rights. Although each province in Pakistan has established its own regulations, in the absence of specific provincial guidelines, national law takes precedence.

Any breach of this law carries severe penalties, including imprisonment for up to six months and fines reaching up to Rs50,000, meant to serve as a deterrent against such grave infringements.

As per the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted in 2016-17, the prevalence of child marriages in Gilgit-Baltistan, especially in areas such as Chilas, Darel, Tangir, and Kharmang, stands alarmingly high, soaring to approximately 26pc. Despite concerted efforts to tackle the issue, including the introduction of legislation in 2015, progress has been hindered by opposition within the legislative assembly, leading to delays in its enactment.

While the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 is in place, its enforcement in these regions falls well short of the mark. And without a legal mandate imposing age restrictions, many see no obligation to adhere to the law. Subsequently, the absence of robust legislation and effective enforcement mechanisms perpetuates the cycle of child marriages, leaving the issue entirely unresolved.

It’s time to break the cycle

Child marriage is not merely a tradition; it has a direct bearing on human health and development. While marriage may bring a sense of satisfaction for many, it also entails significant responsibilities, demanding mental, physical, and financial preparedness. Experts argue that minors lack the maturity essential for a thriving marriage, posing potential health risks.

We cannot afford the luxury of complacency while the innocence of our children is sacrificed at the altar of an archaic practice. It falls upon each of us, as guardians of our collective conscience, to demand comprehensive legislation that will dismantle the structures perpetuating child marriages.

For the sake of our daughters and sons, for the preservation of their health, dignity, and dreams, we must act decisively. The time for rhetoric has passed; it is now time for action.

Header image — taken from Reuters

Shereen Karim is a freelance journalist from Gilgit-Baltistan. She has worked with local and international media platforms.