Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (CEFM) in Baluchistan
Child Marriage is one of the most widespread human rights violations that exist in the country. Girls from poor households are more likely to be married as children. Being forced into marriage before one is able to give consent violates the basic human rights of boys and girls.
Each day, more than 25,000 young girls around the world become child brides, joining almost 60 million girls who have married before their eighteenth birthday.
In particular, girls from the poorest quintile are three times more likely to be married as children than girls from the richest quintile. Prevailing gender inequality practiced through the custom of dowry, poverty, and the supposed ‘social security that child marriages bring are important reasons as to why child marriages are still so widely practiced.
The physical, social, and emotional consequences of child marriages are multiple and severe, ranging from lack of access to education, leading to limited literacy and employment opportunities, exposure to unprotected sexual relations, pregnancy, and childbirth before being physically or psychologically ready, and high rates of female poverty.
Child Marriage is often associated with multiple health risks. This is because young brides have limited access to, and use of contraception and reproductive health services and information. The majority are exposed to early and frequent sexual relations and to repeated pregnancies and childbirth before they are physically mature and psychologically ready.
Furthermore, it is a harmful practice that deprives girls of their dignity and human rights. Maternal deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are an important component of mortality of girls aged 15-19 worldwide. 18% of Pakistani girls have had their first birth by age 18; 9% have begun childbearing between 15-19 years and 7% are already mothers in those ages (Within in Pakistan the situation of Baluchistan province more alarming being lagging behind an under-privileged province in Pakistan).
In Pakistan, legally Child Marriages are prohibited under the Child Marriages Restraint Act, 1929 (CMRA), so for in Baluchistan province the CMRA is 1929 and no policy did so for this bill not amended so for after the 18th amendment the provinces are responsible for their own legislation and the legislation matter/subject decentralized the power of legislation shifted from federal to provinces. Although CMRA makes child marriages illegal, the punishment under this law act is minimal. A conviction under this law does not serve to nullify the marriage.