Impacts of Child Marriages on Girl’s Health and her Children: A Case Study of District Jaffarabad, Balochistan
Keywords:
Child marriages, Health Impacts, Jaffarabad, Legal & Social Barriers etc.Abstract
Early age marriages (before the age of 18) has been a common practice in
many developing countries around the world. Most parents consider that
marriage is a social security and a social responsibility towards their
children. However, these early marriages can cause a number of social,
physical, health and economic problems for the affected girls. Pakistan has
high child marriage rates among developing countries. Despite many
initiatives to address this practice in all provinces of Pakistan, little
progress has been observed on the ground. The problem of child marriage
is common in rural areas of Balochistan as well, especially in district
Jaffarabad. This article examines the impacts of child marriages on child
brides and their children in terms of their health. The study is qualitative in
nature as it needed a deeper insight into the situation in district Jaffarabad.
For that purpose, in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group
discussions were conducted with affected child brides, psychologists,
community elders, lawyers, religious scholars, civil society and women
groups, and intellectuals. The findings of research suggest that the situation
of child marriages is improving but with very slow progress. My analyses
show that socioeconomic status of a family, religion and customs of the area
are the main determinants of child marriages. In addition, poor health
outcomes of both mother and child were common findings, which leads to
severe health problems such as increased infant mortality, maternal
mortality and sezophenia as well as other social issues such as psychosocial issues within the family. It also has been observed that family
institution as a whole is at a greater risk because of unexperienced, less
educated and early age brides who face challenges in upbringing their
children. The research recommends targeted awareness creation in areas where this practice is common, especially on health issues, legislative
reforms with strict implementation and monitoring mechanisms ingrained
in legal instruments as well as institutional support through sustained
capacity building of relevant departments, advocacy and other reforms to
prevent the practice of child marriages.
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