Ali Nawaz Rahimoo
Child marriage remains a persistent social issue in Sindh, despite progressive laws and constitutional protections. The practice, deeply embedded in cultural, economic, and gender norms, continues to undermine the health, education, and rights of girls across rural and tribal communities. This article aims to unpack the political economy of child marriage in Sindh, explore the key challenges in eradicating it, and propose actionable steps forward.
The Legal Framework and Its Gaps
Sindh made a pioneering move in 2013 by enacting the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, setting the minimum legal marriage age at 18 for both boys and girls the first province in Pakistan to do so. However, despite this legal advancement: Enforcement remains weak due to lack of awareness among law enforcement, judiciary, and local communities. Cultural resistance undermines legal action; tribal councils (jirgas) and customary laws often override state laws. Low reporting rates mean many cases go unpunished, perpetuating the cycle of impunity.
With the 2013 Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, Sindh became the first province in Pakistan to establish a minimum legal age of marriage at 18 years old for both boys and girls. Unfortunately, despite this legislative milestone, enforcement remains challenging because of insufficient awareness among law enforcement officials, the judiciary, and local communities. In Pakistan, child marriage affects children of both genders, but girls are often the ones to suffer disproportionately. Child brides usually face domestic abuse and health hazards. However, child marriage is not solely about girls and women; it affects everyone, not just the children directly involved.
Socioeconomic Factors That Cause Early Marriage: Poverty, Economic Pressures, Education Barriers, Gender Inequality, and Insecurity and Customary Practices
Poverty and Economic Pressures: Many families believe that an early marriage can lessen the family’s financial burden, or they marry their daughter into a wealthier household in order to secure her future.
Education Barriers: Girls in rural areas have limited access to secondary education. For this reason, marriage can be their only realistic path in life.
Gender Inequality: Due to deeply entrenched patriarchal values, women have limited autonomy and are viewed as either a burden or a commodity.
Insecurity and Customary Practices: In some regions, practices like vani (settling disputes by marrying off girls) are still commonplace, and local power structures help perpetuate them.
The political economy dimensions of the persistence of child marriage in Sindh cannot be separated from its broader political economy. Specifically, the persistence of child marriage in Sindh is a challenge not just for the people but for the state. The state faces significant hurdles in enforcing laws and implementing reforms due to a number of political economy factors:
Local Political Patronage. Feudal lords and tribal leaders wield significant influence over their communities, even sometimes serving as elected representatives. This makes reform politically sensitive. They often use customary practices, such as child marriage, to maintain control and “resolve” disputes. These patrons typically have a vested interest in maintaining social and economic hierarchies that they can control and exploit.
Administrative Apathy. Weak governance and a lack of coordination between government departments such as education, social welfare, police, and the judiciary significantly obstruct effective systemic solutions.
Tokenism over Reform. Although Sindh has progressive laws, their implementation often stops at symbolic gestures. Budget allocations for things like awareness campaigns, legal aid, and rehabilitation of child brides remain negligible. As a result, the status quo of child marriage continues largely unchallenged.
The Way Forward: Ending Child Marriage in Sindh
This policy brief is for those who wish to help end the problem of child marriage in Sindh. Child marriage can have serious negative impacts on a child’s overall health and well-being. To end child marriage in Sindh, the following is necessary:
Strengthening enforcement of the Child Marriage Restraint Act. The Child Marriage Restraint Act should be more strictly enforced and there should be more public announcements about the penalties of violating it. Community leaders and influential people in the area could help enforce it by informing the local population of the dangers of child marriage and promoting alternative solutions.
Community engagement and awareness. Education and awareness campaigns could promote more positive attitudes towards girls and their education. These campaigns should be carried out at the community level and include religious leaders, traditional leaders, and other influential people in the area. Local communities and faith leaders should be brought together to help end child marriage in Sindh.
Improved girls’ education and protection. Many of the girls who become child brides never go to school. If they are given the opportunity to go to school, they will have a better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and abuse. Improving girls’ education and protection should be a top priority. The government should provide more education opportunities for girls to improve their future prospects and reduce the economic incentive of marrying them off early. The education system should include comprehensive sex education to help them avoid early marriage and pregnancy.
Conditional cash transfers. Conditional cash transfers, where the government transfers money to the poor on the condition that they meet certain milestones, such as making sure their child goes to school or that the child is given the opportunity to seek out health and reproductive services. These cash transfers are a great way to reduce child marriage because families can use the money to take better care of their children instead of marrying them off.
Empowered local governments. If local governments had more authority to implement programs that benefit children, they would be more effective at ending child marriage. Sindh is not the only place where child marriage is a problem. In many places around the world, there are similar issues, and often, these problems are connected to poverty, violence, or religious traditions. Local governments should be given more authority to implement programs that benefit children and to end the social and economic pressure to marry them off.
The writer is a social development professional. He can be contacted on anrahimoo@gmail.com
