Child Marriage, A Culturally Accepted Privilege of Orthodoxies: The Case of Pakistan

Abstract

Child marriage is universally believed to be the marriage under the age of eighteen. In other words, an immature or irresponsible person that has no ability to act independently. Child marriage practice is rampant in several countries. Poverty, illiteracy and gender inequality are the main causes of child marriages which affect the victims physically, socially, psychologically and economically. Apart from these reasons, a traditional assembly of leaders (Jirgas) in Pakistan endorses the practice of wedding off a minor girl to a boy, young or elderly man of the grieved party as a compensation for heinous crimes. These crimes include murder, kidnapping, befriending women, adultery and debt payments; exchange marriages at times take place without age consideration. The unholy nexus of religious conservatives and cultural orthodoxies is studied in the paper. This research employed qualitative method in which five persons from three districts of Sindh were interviewed who were married off as a child; secondary sources of data are also taken. It seeks to explore values, norms and social attitudes concerning child marriage practices in Pakistan. INTRODUCTION Human exploitation can be dated back to the early beginning of civilization era. Child marriage has been one of the tools to silence the victim’s voice. The targeted class enlists the lesser human gender (females), poor peasants, child laborers and other weak people. Many national and international organizations have admitted that it is very difficult to get exact percentage of early marriages in several developing countries as many people do not go for marriage registration. In most of the rural areas of these countries, most of the child births remain unregistered which make this problem more International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 8 , No. 12, Dec, 2018, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2018 HRMARS 1529 severe because it’s difficult to determine the age at the time of marriage. According to UNICEF, 64 million young women (aged 20-24) are married before the age of 18 (Sibanda, 2011). 14.2 million girls are forcefully married every year(Greene, 2014). In South Asia, child marriage is one of the common practices and second highest in the world (Naveed & Butt, 2015). In this region, nearly half of all girls marry before they reach the age of 18. According to UNICEF’s 2016 statistics of Pakistan, 3% girls got married at the age of 15 and 21% at the age of 18(Brides, 2017) . The percentage of child marriages in rural areas of Pakistan is higher (37 percent) than urban areas (21 percent). Child marriage is a cultural and traditional norm in Pakistan and this practice has continued across generations leaving behind devastating effects on the lives of the girls, families and society. It is not only a human rights issue or a missing opportunity for those young girls, these marriages have serious consequences. People do not talk about it because they view it as a family matter. Cultural legacies don’t allow the practice to be considered a violation of the human rights. Child marriages affect victims badly and injure them emotionally and physically. It impedes their overall development, education and employment opportunities and they suffer for their whole lives. It has transcended from a human rights into a developmental issue. Women are considered financial burdens in most of the South Asian countries: marrying them off at a premature age is considered as an economic relief. Most studies conclude that child marriages are mostly practiced by poor and uneducated families. Pakistan’s child marriage restraint act (CMRA) 1929 is the primary law that defines the age restrictions and penalties related to the notion of child marriages. It sets the minimum age limit: 18 for boys and 16 for girls . Child marriage problem has been hurting Pakistan in many ways and is raising serious questions. Girls are more than half of the population of Pakistan(Nasrullah, Zakar, Zakar, & Krämer, 2014). so how can you improve females’ education when they are taken out of schools to be married? How can you control maternal and child mortality when girls are giving births at the age of 12 or 13? How can you reduce poverty when child marriage perpetuates poverty? Most of the studies show that child marriages affect girls far more than boys in Pakistan. Lawmakers have made strong laws to curtail child marriages though intentions can’t be measured. A proposal for making the age barrier same for both the genders was initiated i-e 18 for all, but the National Assembly, dominated by the conservative landlords, rejected the draft in May, 2017. Harsher penalties were passed, but the age enhancement wasn’t compromised. The interesting fact is that the Sindh Assembly had already passed a bill for ‘18 for all’ in April, 2014, but the ground situation isn’t satisfactory(Jillani, 2015). Jirga customs have also maligned family relationships in Pakistan. Village councils don’t consider child marriages a violation of human rights. They take pride in early marriages since women aren’t considered worthy enough to be given such a luxurious right: these Jirga councils don’t have any woman member and they are not allowed to give their consent on any issue. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 8 , No. 12, Dec, 2018, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2018 HRMARS