South Asia and Child Marriages

There are many pressing social issues in developing countries. South Asia has many such countries that are still building themselves. The issue which is on my pen point right now is child marriage. The meaning of child marriage is the marriage that takes place before the marrying couple is 18 years old. In South Asian regions, 48% (10 million) of girls are married before they reach the age of 18. In the world, 24% marry before they reach 18 and 15 million girls marry before they even reach the age of 15. According to the UNFPA, if the current rate of child marriages remains the same, 14.20 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young till 2020.

The rate of child marriage in India is 47%. 24% of world’s child marriages occurr in this country. Bangladesh is on 8th number with child marriages taking place in 66% of all marriages. In Pakistan, 30% of marriages come under the category of child marriages in which 24% are from rural area and 18 % from urban area. Africa is on 2nd number on the list of child marriages, after South Asia.
Child marriages have a lot of adverse consequences like violation of human rights, woman rights and child rights. It has also health concerns. Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die during child birth than older woman and their child is 60% more likely die in its first year of life. The mothers don’t have physical growth and maturity. Due to this, she can't perform the role of a responsible house wife or mother. She can't get compulsory education which increases the rate of illiteracy.

There are many reasons for child marriages like lack of awareness and ignorance of human rights law, poor legislative laws. Poverty, cultures and traditions, religion, enmity resolving in the shape of Vani, Savara are some of the other causes. Many international, national and local organizations are working on putting an end to child marriages, but now it is time for youth to come forward and take steps. It is the time for youth to stand up as active citizens and bring the change from lower to upper level.



Tajdar Alam

Agency FATA Pakistan

Email: tajdaralam2@gmail.com