APROPOS the report ‘Senate body unanimously passes amendment to raise marriageable age’ (Jan 31). It is satisfying to see the proposed legislation pass its first hurdle. The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights unanimously passed a bill to increase the marriageable age to 18 years.

Such measures will positively delay the tendency to have a large number of children, especially in relatively economically challenged segments of the society, where such practices are prevalent.

While debating this legislation the senate should consider addressing the parents directly. Parents who educate their daughters up to college level and beyond and also comply with the minimum marriageable age should be entitled to some sort of financial assistance.

The legislation should link female education with their marriage after a certain age so as to ensure a better family life for them. Let us try incentives rather than punishment for a change.

One prays that the senate passes the proposed amendment and the rest of the legislative process is expedited at the earliest.

Altaf Noor Ali

Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2019