Achi news desk-
In a small hut at the foot of a large desert dune near the town of Diplo in the south-eastern district of Tharparkar, a mother of two children feels that her life is slow. She was in her early teens when she had her first child. She then had a second child but has now lost her third child and could soon lose her life.
Kamla Kolhi*, who hails from the poor Dalit Hindu caste, lost her unborn child a few months ago while working in the fields. She remembered how she suddenly started to bleed. Her in-laws rushed her to a nearby hospital, where a doctor said she had bled so much that it would be a miracle if she survived. What baffles her more than the loss of her unborn child is how she is still alive. But Kolhi is one of the lucky survivors despite being a teenage bride in Sindh’s Hindu community. Most of Tharparkar’s population consists of diverse communities, including Muslims and Hindus, spread over castes and tribes. Dalits, who are classified among scheduled castes, are historically the poorest and most disadvantaged in terms of social status and access to resources among Hindus.
“I was 14 years old when I got married to my then 24-year-old husband,” said Kolhi, adding that she used to study in eighth grade at a school in Diplo when she was married. After her marriage, she had to give up her studies and settle in her husband’s home.
According to the Annual Status of Education Report 2021, approximately 20% of children between the ages of six and 16 are out of school in Tharparkar (Mithi), with girls accounting for 12% and boys accounting for the remaining 8%. The percentage of children out of school rises sharply from 4.2% (never enrolled) and 6.7% (dropped out of school) between the ages of six and ten, to 9.1% (never enrolled ) and 9.3% (dropout) for children aged 11-13 and then to 16.1% (never enrolled) and 14.8% (dropout) for children aged 14-16.
When Kolhi got married, she was so young that she could not understand the issues of married life. Her husband would often beat her. As she came to grips with being a victim of domestic violence, Kolhi became a mother to a daughter. Like other mothers and children in the area, neither she nor her daughter received adequate nutrition or care during her pregnancy. Her young age affected her ability to properly care for herself and her baby. As a result, their health declined.
Around 89.18% of children aged between six and 59 months suffer from global acute malnutrition (GAM), with 69.42% suffering from moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and 19.76% suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM ).
“I have been forced to act much older than my age,” says Kolhi. “Every morning, I wake up and clean the house, take care of the cows, and walk four kilometers to fetch drinking water. I spend the rest of the day working in the fields,” he added.
Child marriage or early marriage is a serious problem in Pakistan, which has serious repercussions for child brides and the children they bear later. According to a report from the United Nations, one in three girls in Pakistan is married before they turn 18 years old.
Speaking to The Friday Times, Gynecologist Dr Hem Pushpa said the consequences of early marriage are far-reaching. He said it affects not only the health of the young women who become mothers but also their whole lives. He added that early marriages push young women into poverty, and that the limited opportunities for education lead to limited employment and increased maternal and neonatal deaths.
The UNICEF country profile from 2024 states that the neonatal mortality rate for mothers under 20 is 79 per 1,000 live births; this is 1.5 times higher than for mothers aged 20-29, which is 52 per 1,000 live births.
A World Bank fact sheet from 2022 noted that Sindh has higher levels of pregnancy-related deaths at 345 per 100,000 live births, while maternal mortality is 224 per 100,000 live births, while its under-five mortality is at 77% , higher than the national average of 74%.
“Around 90% of teenage births are a result of complications from early marriage and pregnancy, while childbirth is one of the leading causes of death among 15-19 year old girls,” said Dr Pushpa. UNICEF says newborns born to mothers with less education are 2.4 times more likely to die in the first month compared to those born to mothers with higher education
She added that girls who are married before the age of 15 are 50% more likely to experience intimate partner violence than those who marry later. Teenage brides also face barriers to accessing contraception or safe abortion practices. This reduces their options to limit or manage their pregnancy.
Other barriers that teenage mothers face include judgment from health care providers and physical barriers such as long distances to clinics or limited mobility.
“Many women die in childbirth,” added Dr Pushpa.
In Pakistan, a colonial-era law was adopted (which took effect when the country’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, married), which stated that boys had to be at least 18 years old while girls had to be 16 years old . to marry. After the introduction of the 18th Amendment, marriage and family matters became the subject of individual states to govern, and they were required to legislate on it. In Sindh, where most of the country’s Hindu population lives, the Sindh Child Marriage Prevention Act was introduced in 2013. Under the law, a boy or girl under 18 cannot marry. The penalty for breaking this law is three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs45,000.
Unlike other parts of Pakistan, Sindh has enacted laws regulating marriages between Hindus. The Sindh Assembly passed the Hindu marriage law in 2016. Two years later, it was amended as the Sindh Hindu Marriage Amendment Act, 2018.
Advocate Sunil Kumar explained that under these laws, the marriage of a Hindu couple must be registered with the state within 45 days. This applied not only to new marriages after the promulgation of the law but also to all those marriages that took place before the law was enacted. The law also designates two Pandits (Hindu priests) as Hindu marriage registrars for each union council. The law mandated that only registered pandits would be able to perform marriage ceremonies among Hindus and would be authorized to issue marriage certificates, which the appropriate union council and other legal bodies would accept. This system followed the system for the Muslims, with two nikkahkhwans (marriage registrars) authorized to officiate marriages in each Union Council.
However, Kumar claimed that the law is not being implemented.
“The community is facing serious problems due to the non-implementation of the Sindh Hindu Marriage Act 2018,” said Kumar, who also belongs to the Hindu community.
He said that despite the passage of the law, there are still many marriages performed by unregistered Pandits and as a result, these marriages are not legally recognised. Kumar explained that one reason for the lack of implementation of the law is that the Hindu community remains very unaware of it.
Years have passed since the promulgation of the registration of Pandits under the Sindh Hindu Marriage Act, but the process remains slow or non-existent, the lawyer said, adding that it has led to various complications and obstacles in implementation the law.
Speaking to the The Friday Times, social activist Pawan Kumar said there are many reasons for child marriages in Pakistan. Most of these are related to either weak or unenforced laws. Other issues are social, such as considering children as objects or at the level of slaves, he said, adding that the tribal and feudal structure of society, lack of awareness among the public about the dangers caused by early marriage, severe poverty, illiteracy, religious beliefs, social practices and a general lack of human rights are major contributors. Trafficking, conversions and lack of commitment at the government level also lead to child marriages.
Another major reason is the ineffective and unresponsive registration system, which is supposed to prevent child marriages.
The activist said that recording the age of children correctly, especially girls, is not a priority in our society, because the age of the girls is misstated at the time of marriage.
“Another major reason for early child marriages among Scheduled Castes is the fear of forced conversion of young Hindu girls”, she told The Friday Times.
* The victim’s name has been changed to protect his privacy
