Analysis of Child Marriages in Pakistan in the year 2019-2020

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted to see the incidences of child marriages in Pakistan; gender division of child marriages and also the ages of the victims belonging to different provinces. It was also reported that how many child marriages registration cases were being noted.
Materials and Methods: The present study involved an extensive search of a series of data of children aged 11-15 collected by an NGO Sahil. Data was compiled to see the gender division, urban-rural division, different factors influencing child marriages and provincial division of child marriages.
Results: It was seen that following the year 2020, 119 cases of child marriage were reported. From the previous year, the number of cases have increased by 14%. It was also noted that the ages of child marriages are mostly from the age of 11-15 years. There were different categories which were made to describe the different circumstances in which child marriages took place. It was seen that there was an increase in vanni by 5 cases and 2 new categories were noted as Sawara and Wattasatta. A decrease was seen in abduction and child marriages by 3 cases and sangchatti by 5 cases. It was seen that the child marriages registration status was recorded as 85% out of the total 119 cases. While talking about the provincial division of child marriages cases, it was seen that 79 cases were from Sindh while in Punjab, there was a decline in cases from 18 to 16 cases in one year. While talking about Rural-Urban division of child marriages, 75% cases were reported in rural sectors and 25 % in urban sectors
Conclusion: It was seen that in almost all the age groups, only girls were forced in the child marriages. This shows that more girls are not only being married at very young age but also with the grooms who are much older than them.