SWABI: The speakers in a gathering organised by a welfare body said on Sunday that child marriage had badly affected the lives of the young generation and their families, so it was important that the entire society should work together to collectively address the complicated issue.

The gathering was organised by Samaji Behbood Rabita Council (SBRC) and it was attended by jirga members, officials of various departments, educationists, experts, religious scholars and media persons.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution, they demanded that there was need of a comprehensive strategy to eradicate the menace from the society while educating people and all stakeholders to work with a complete determination to address the root cause of child marriage, to achieve the desired results.

They called for launching a result-oriented awareness campaign, involving educationists, society, religious scholars, public sector officials and illiterate families, and through a comprehensive dialogue and full-fledged monitoring, identify the loopholes in the policy to address the surfacing issues and create an environment of coordination and collaboration in the best interest of the country.

The resolution said that a detailed study was required to comprehend why they had failed in the past in addressing the child marriage issues, and after figuring out the roots causes, those should be addressed one by one in a productive way.

Mukhtiar Khan, former adviser to the chief minister said: “Only through collective struggle we could achieve the outlined objectives and once everybody was on board we would be in a strong position to achieve the desired objectives and preventing the society from more economic backwardness, ensuring a prosperous future.”

Javid Iqbal Inqilabi, divisional president of Pakistan People’s Party said that child marriage was a sensitive issue related to the family affairs, and it should be tackled with great care.

Rohul Amin, the SBRC chairman, said that said that they lived in a male dominant society and there was a dire need of imparting quality education and once the male and female acquired contemporary education they would be well aware of the consequences of the child marriage.

The jirga members expressed their readiness in plyaing a role to discourage child marriages but demanded the government support in this regard.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025