The Early Marriage Origin of Domestic Violence and Reproductive Health Challenges With Special Reference to Orangi Town –Karachi

Abstract

This traditional practice affecting not only the reproductive health of young girls but it is a major cause of domestic violence as well. This issue has been calling the care of national and international organizations in modern societies, containing Pakistan. Numerous issues which support this belief include poverty, lake of education, the perception of “virginity” of a single girl as key to a family’s honor, family building (whether joint family or nuclear family), spiritual clarification of being an adult, and short employment opportunities consequence in whole necessity of these girls on their manlike blood relatives. However, the present literature review revealed that there is no comprehensive study on child marriages and its impact on girls’ reproductive health common in Pakistan. The objectives of the present study were to study the causes of early marriages, domestic violence, and reproductive health problems as well as evaluate socio-economic features on this practice. Orangi Town then the oldest slum settlement of Karachi city was treated as the research universe in the present study while it’s UC-12 ‘Mujahidabad’ and UC-13 ‘Baloch Goth’ was the target areas. This research was a qualitative study where the researchers selected the mixed-method strategy for data collection. The snowball sampling and convenience sampling techniques were adopted. A tailor-made Questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analyzed in tabular form and relevant case studies were also incorporated.