Disadvantages of underage marriages highlighted

PESHAWAR: Students, academics and civil society activists got together at a seminar on underage marriages at the University of Peshawar campus on Monday.

The event was held at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication under the aegis of Centre for Communication Programmes Pakistan, an advocacy and rights organisation.

Tahir Abbas, the CCPP advocacy specialist, said "We are working with different universities through seminars to raise awareness on the issue of child marriages." he said. The event's keynote speaker Shagufta Hameed said that as per the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey, one out of four girls is married under the age of 18 years in the country.

She added that rural areas have reported 14 percent of the underage marriages cases while the urban areas have witnessed 12 percent cases.

Shagufta said that the underage marriages often result in miscarriages, lack of mental health of the young parent, divorces, higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, malnutrition and other health issues. She said that according to the PDHS, the maternal mortality rate in Pakistan is 276 per 100,000 births while the infant mortality rate is 74 per 1000 live births.

The keynote speaker said the major causes behind child marriages are poverty, crisis situation when families may want to marry off even young girls due to emergency situation.