IT is heartening to know that, according to Unicef, child marriages in South Asia has halved in the last 25 years. However, in Pakistan, only Sindh has Child Marriage Restraint Act whereby the age of marriage has been increased to 18.

A young girl’s body is not ready to bear the burden of pregnancy and child birth. Teenage pregnancy is one of the important causes of infant mortality which is amongst the highest in Pakistan, for 44 out of 1,000 newborns die within first 28 days of life compared to many neighbouring countries with a lower GDP like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh that have a lower number of such deaths.

Other provinces need to come up with similar laws of increasing the age of marriage of a girl to 18 years. All provinces should ensure that laws are implemented in letter and in spirit.

Recently, I tried to convince a family whose daughter was getting married at 16 and told her about the law. The marriage was stopped but soon they were able to marry her off with the help of their religious leader. The girl, supported by her mother who is a domestic worker, now has two children before the age of 20. Of course, the children had a low birth weight and are vulnerable to all kinds of diseases.

I urge national and provincial governments to implement these laws so we can achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 of decreasing infant and neonatal mortality in Pakistan.

Dr Mumtaz Lakhani
Secretary General
Pakistan Pediatric Association
Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2019