Why Pakistan’s severe weather contributes to rise in child marriages in Pakistan?

Shamila, 14, and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money as the monsoon rains were set to arrive in Pakistan. Shamila, 14, and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money as the monsoon rains were set to arrive in Pakistan. Their parents took this decision to protect the family from the prospect of surviving the threat of flooding, highlighting the ongoing issue of child marriages in Pakistan.

“I was happy to hear I was getting married… I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila  told AFP after marrying a man twice her age in the hopes of living a better life. “But I have nothing more. And with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.”

Financial Desperation: Pushing Daughters into Marriage

Rights activists caution that although Pakistan’s high rate of underage girl marriages had been gradually declining, they are now increasing as a result of economic instability brought on by climate change, particularly in the wake of the country’s devastating floods in 2022.

Millions of farmers depend on the summer monsoon between July and September for their livelihoods and food security, but scientists claim that climate change is making the monsoon heavier and longer, increasing the risk of floods, landslides, and long-term crop damage. Many villages in Sindh’s agricultural belt still remain under water after the 2022 floods that destroyed millions of lives, destroyed crops, and submerged a third of the nation.

“This has led to a new trend of ‘monsoon brides,” stated Mashooque Birhmani, the founder of Sujag Sansar, an NGO that collaborates with religious academics to address child marriage. “Families will do whatever it takes to survive. Giving their daughters away in marriage in exchange for money is the first and most obvious method.”

According to Birhmani, child marriage has increased in Dadu district villages—one of the worst-hit places that for months looked like a lake—since the floods of 2022.

Vulnerability of Girls During Monsoons

45 minor girls were married off since the last monsoon, fifteen of them in May and June of this year, in the village of Khan Mohammad Mallah, where Shamila and Amina were joined in marriage in a joint ceremony in June. “There was no such need to get girls married so young in our area before the 2022 rains,” 65-year-old village elder Mai Hajani remarked.

The men would be engaged in agriculture and fishing while they worked the land and made rope for wooden beds. Work had to be done all the time. Parents told AFP that, typically in exchange for money, they pushed their daughters’ marriages to get them out of poverty. According to Bibi Sachal, Shamila’s mother-in-law, they paid the young bride’s parents 200,000 Pakistan Rupees ($720), a substantial amount in a country where most people make do with only $1 per day.

When Najma Ali got married in 2022 at the age of 14, she was first taken by surprise by the excitement of becoming a bride and moved in with her in-laws, as is customary in Pakistan. “My parents received 250,000 rupees from my spouse as a wedding gift. But he is currently unable to repay the debt (from a third party),” she remarked. Clutching her six-month-old child, she told AFP, “I thought I would get lipstick, makeup, clothes, and crockery.” “Now I am back home with a husband and a baby because we have nothing to eat.”

Their village, which is located in the Main Nara Valley on the banks of a canal, is desolate; the foul water has killed all of the fish, and the stink permeates the whole area.

“Girls used to work in our beautiful rice fields,” remarked Hakim Zaadi, 58, Najma’s mother and the local matron. “They used to cultivate a lot of veggies, but since the ground is poisonous, all of the plants have died. This has occurred, particularly after 2022,” she continued.

Before then, the girls weren’t a hardship for us. Girls who were once married at that age now have five children and return to live with their parents because their husbands are unemployed.” According to government data released in December, child marriages are not uncommon in some areas of Pakistan, which has the sixth-highest rate of girls getting married before turning 18 worldwide.

Various regions have diverse legal ages for marriage, ranging from 16 to 18, however the laws are rarely upheld.

While UNICEF reports “significant strides” in the fight against child marriage, data indicates that girls are more vulnerable during extreme weather events. In a report following the 2022 floods, it stated, “We would expect to see an 18% increase in the prevalence of child marriage, equivalent to erasing five years of progress.”

After being forced to flee his home due to flooding, Dildar Ali Sheikh, 31, had intended to marry off his oldest daughter Mehtab while residing in an assistance camp. “We should get our daughter married so at least she can eat and have basic facilities,” the daily wage labourer told AFP during his time there. Mehtab had recently turned ten. Sumbal Ali Sheikh, her mother, who was 18 when she was married, recalled, “I couldn’t sleep the night I decided to get her married.”

The wedding was postponed thanks to an intervention from the NGO Sujag Sansar, and Mehtab was able to continue her schooling while earning a little money by enrolling in a sewing workshop. But she fears that her promised wedding will become a reality when the monsoon rains begin to fall. “I have told my father I want to study,” she stated. “I see married girls around me who have very challenging lives and I don’t want this for myself.”

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