Photo courtesy PID
The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) on Wednesday kicked off in Islamabad a two-day conference on ending child marriage in Pakistan, with the organization’s chairperson lamenting that legislation aimed at ending the practice had failed to pass in Parliament six times.
Organized in collaboration with UNICEF, UNFPA, U.N. Women, FCDO and UKAid, the conference coincided with International Girl Child Day, annually marked on Oct. 11. Its objective, per a press release, was to evolve a national framework to end child marriage in consultation with all relevant stakeholders. It said the development partners would conduct provincial consultations after the Islamabad event and strive to develop consensus on required action plans.
In her opening remarks, NCSW Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar lamented that a bill seeking to end child marriage nationwide had failed to pass in Parliament despite being tabled six separate times. The bill, she stressed, sought to ensure the right to education and health of every young girl, adding it was a “tragedy” that millions of girls were denied access to education due to prevailing social and economic circumstances.
All girls, she said, deserved the support of family and society to achieve their goals. She further questioned the discrepancy between the legal age for marriage in all four provinces, adding policymakers must address this. Maintaining that she had faith that civil society could enact change if it worked in unison, she pledged to advance the agenda to end child marriage to end the cycle of discrimination.
Addressing the event, UNFPA Deputy Country Representative Laktika Maskey Pardhan noted the adolescent fertility rate in Pakistan was a worrying 46 per 1,000 girls aged 15-19. She said the school dropout rate for girls was 22.7 percent, one of the highest in the region, while 32 percent of married adolescents experienced gender-based violence.
Pardhan said the framework under discussion was necessary to provide proactive measures aimed at both eliminating and responding to child marriage, thereby enabling all children to realize their full childhood development. To achieve this, she said, a targeted, collective approach was required.
Similarly, UNICEF Child Protection Chief Daniela Luciana stressed on the importance of leadership and commitment to enacting policies and enforcing laws that protect children. She emphasized the need for a robust legal framework that not only prohibited child marriage, but also ensured accountability for those who violated laws. U.N. Women Deputy Country Representative Franklin Okumu said that apart from its impact on individuals, families and communities, child marriage also had a high economic cost.
Referring to a nationwide study conducted by NCSW and U.N. Women, he said it had found that child marriage cost Pakistan $0.8 billion or 0.42% of GDP. He regretted that child brides were deprived of their fundamental rights to health, noting complications in pregnancy and childbirth were the leading cause of deaths in girls aged 15-19 globally.
Special guest Jo Moir, the development director of FCDO, delivered the closing remarks, stressing that child marriage had severe consequences, impacting generations and impeding equality. She said a national framework to end child marriage was essential for coordination between federal and provincial stakeholders, adding failure to achieve this would lead to a failure to overcome social and political resistance to raising the age of marriage. She noted the timing of the conference was important, because it could lay the ground for securing the support for reforms from the new government that would emerge after elections.