Call for joint efforts to end child marriages

With the objective of spreading awareness regarding early child marriages and implementation of the recently passed bill against them, the Sujagh Theatre group has performed several theatre plays in different districts of Sindh, including: Dadu, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Umerkot and Tharparkar.

A social activist and the CEO of Sujagh Sansar Organisation, Mashoque Brahmani, has stressed the need to work in collaboration with the police department, social organisations and other institutions to educate the people about the dangers of early marriages.

Speaking on the sidelines of a stage play, Paras Soomro said that early marriage not only ruined children’s education, but also affected their health negatively, but organisations like this were playing their part positively in imparting essential information to the masses.

Following the series of plays, Sujagh Theatre recently performed in a village in Sanghar district, where, in the end, the audience vowed to stop early marriages.

“Now, we will arrange a meeting every weak so that this practice of early marriages could be stopped,” said Chetab Baat, one of the residents of the village, after watching the performance.

Speaking on the occasion, a local, Chetan Bhat, shared that they in their village would call upon the dwellers to create awareness to overcome the issue.

A stakeholder of the village, Soormo, appreciated these efforts and said that the message being spread through theatre was admirable. “The masses can be made aware by such initiatives and they also put in their possible efforts to get the attention of more people.”

He said the impact of early marriages should be discussed, saying these negative effects on children could not be reduced without taking any action. In Hyderabad, a seminar was arranged against early marriages. The seminar was organised in coordination with the Sujagh Sansar Organisation Apply for Change.

Meanwhile, a documentary was displayed in which activities, including walks, interviews and reports, highlighted by news channels against early marriage were shown to the participants.

Commenting on the role of theatre, human rights activist Dr Ashothama said that the way Sujagh Sansar was conveying the message to stop early marriages was appreciable, but still they needed to put in more characters and elements to make it strong.

A number of issues were not reaching the media because they were not reported, and collective approach and contribution could make a difference, the activist said. Musrat Brihamani shared that arranging such types of activities, including theatre performances, would create awareness about the masses.