Pakistan Sees Surge In Child Marriages Amid Extreme Weather. Here's Why

As the monsoon rains loomed over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a desperate move by their parents to survive the impending floods.

Shamila, initially optimistic, thought marriage would bring her a better life.

"I was happy to hear I was getting married... I thought my life would become easier," she shared. However, after her wedding to a man twice her age, she quickly realised the harsh reality. "But I have nothing more. And with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible."

Pakistan's already high rate of child marriages had been gradually decreasing in recent years, reported AFP. However, after the unprecedented floods in 2022, rights activists warn that such marriages are now on the rise due to the economic insecurity driven by climate change.

The summer monsoon, crucial for farmers and food security, is becoming increasingly severe and prolonged, leading to landslides, floods, and long-term damage to crops.

Many villages in Sindh, particularly in the agricultural belt, have yet to recover from the 2022 floods, which submerged a third of the country, displaced millions, and devastated harvests.

"This has led to a new trend of 'monsoon brides'," explained Mashooque Birhmani, the founder of the NGO Sujag Sansar, which works with religious scholars to combat child marriage.

"Families will find any means of survival. The first and most obvious way is to give their daughters away in marriage in exchange for money." Birhmani noted a sharp increase in child marriages in Dadu district, one of the worst-hit areas, since the 2022 floods.

In Khan Mohammad Mallah village, where Shamila and Amina were married in a joint ceremony in June, 45 underage girls have been married off since the last monsoon, with 15 of them married in just May and June of this year.

Village elder Mai Hajani, 65, recalled, "Before the 2022 rains, there was no such need to get girls married so young in our area. They would work on the land, make rope for wooden beds, the men would be busy with fishing and agriculture. There was always work to be done."

Parents in the village, facing severe poverty, rushed to marry off their daughters, often in exchange for money. Shamila's mother-in-law, Bibi Sachal, confirmed they paid 200,000 Pakistani Rupees ($720) to the young bride's parents, a good enough sum in a region where most families survive on about one dollar a day.

Najma Ali, who married at 14 in 2022, was initially excited about her new life.

"I thought I would get lipstick, makeup, clothes, and crockery," she said, now cradling her six-month-old baby. However, the reality was far bleaker.

"Now I am back home with a husband and a baby because we have nothing to eat."

Her village, once lush with rice fields, is now barren, with no fish left in the polluted water.

"The girls were not a burden on us before then," said Hakim Zaadi, 58, the village matron and Najma's mother.

"At the age girls used to get married, they now have five children, and they come back to live with their parents because their husbands are jobless."

Child marriages are prevalent in parts of Pakistan, which ranks sixth globally in the number of girls married before the age of 18, according to government data.

While the legal age for marriage varies across regions, from 16 to 18, enforcement of these laws is rare. Despite significant progress reported by UNICEF in reducing child marriage, extreme weather events like the 2022 floods have put many girls at increased risk.

"We would expect to see an 18 percent increase in the prevalence of child marriage, equivalent to erasing five years of progress," UNICEF warned in a report after the floods.

For some families, the economic desperation is overwhelming. Dildar Ali Sheikh, 31, had planned to marry off his eldest daughter Mehtab while living in an aid camp after being displaced by the floods.

"When I was there, I thought to myself 'we should get our daughter married so at least she can eat and have basic facilities'," he said. Mehtab was just 10 years old. Her mother, Sumbal Ali Sheikh, who married at 18, couldn't sleep the night they decided to arrange her daughter's marriage.

An intervention by the NGO Sujag Sansar postponed the wedding, allowing Mehtab to continue her education and earn a small income through a sewing workshop.

Despite this, the fear of her impending marriage still haunts Mehtab.

"I have told my father I want to study," she said. "I see married girls around me who have very challenging lives and I don't want this for myself."