LAHORE: Activists held a discussion at the Lahore Press Club on Thursday on child marriage, in connection with the 16 days of activism, a campaign to highlight women’s and girls’ rights.

Child Rights Movement Punjab and Search for Justice activists urged political parties, especially the ruling PML-N, to fully support “The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act of 2017 introduced in the Senate of Pakistan by PPP’s Sehar Kamran.

The Bill will increase the minimum age of girls for marriage from 16 to 18 years while having stricter punishments for perpetrators involved in child marriage.

Child rights activist Iftikhar Mubarik said that in the sustainable development agenda (2016 to 2030), Pakistan had pledged to end all forms of discrimination and harmful practices against women and girls.

Nazeefa Fatima from the CRM said that early marriage was a clear violation of a child’s right to education recognised in the Constitution and also guaranteed under the provincial legislation.

“The Sindh government in ‘The Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act of 2013’ says that minimum age for both girls and boys is 18 years,” she said.

“Through early marriages not just education, but right to survival, right to development and to leisure and recreation were all violated. Besides fistula, maternal death, post-partum hemorrhage (excessive bleeding), sepsis (major infection) and eclampsia (hypertensive disorder) as well as early child births are all connected.”

She said that teenage mothers were in greater danger of not gaining sufficient weight, suffering from vitamin deficiencies, becoming anemic and developing preeclampsia and as their pelvic bones do not reach their maximum size until about the age of 18, the teenage mother may not be able to have normal delivery of a normal-size baby. Babies born to teenage mothers are more likely to die in the first year of life compared with babies born to mothers older than 20 years of age.

Nabila Shaheen from the Aurat Foundation said the Sindh Act made child marriages a cognizable offense which was non-bailable and non-compoundable. This was not the case in Punjab. She said in the Sindh Bill defined punishment to the culprits for maximum three years and minimum two years while giving discretionary powers to the judges regarding the fine charged. In Punjab, however, the punishment “may extend” to imprisonment for six months and a fine of maximum Rs50,000.

Nabila Bhatti referred to the Khartoum Declaration of 2009 which was made during the Second Islamic Conference of Ministers and where it was agreed that necessary measures would be taken to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls as well as against child marriages.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2017