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Abstract
The problem of Child Marriages is quite common and pervasivepractice and an instrumentof gender based violence against women and high population growth rate in South Asia including Pakistan. Though Child Marriages Restraint Act, 1929 (CMRA) got reformed in India and Bangladesh, but remained toothless and out-dated in Pakistan. In fact Pakistan had accepted UNCRC way back in 1990 buther law on child marriage has not been harmonized with it. Child marriages take place mostly in the pretext of poverty, illiteracy and gender inequality. The physical, social, psychological and economic consequences of child marriage are severeongirls,who are generally pulled out of primary/secondary education and more likely confront physical,emotional and sexual violence. Pakistan is in the midst of demographic transition and a big portion of the population comprises of children. This 'youth bulge' withoutample opportunities poses a threat to the social fabric, if not tackled appropriately. A serious attention is needed to transform this bulge into a productive future resource of the country only if this portion of the population is properly guided and educated in a healthy and constructive environment.
Keywords: Child marriage, human rights, child rights, gender based violence, poverty, gender inequality, social problems, youth bulge, illiteracy, legislative reforms, environment.
Introduction
Child marriage is one of common practices in South Asian region generally and in Pakistan particularly. Numerous young girls are married in this region in the pretext of social, cultural and religious traditions and they remain disadvantaged physically, educationally, psychologically, and economically thus keep on suffering for whole of their life. Child Marriage is definedwhere both or one of the couple is under the age of 18, "Child marriage disproportionately and negatively affects girls who are more likely to be married as children than boys" (Khanna, Verma, &Weiss, 2011).The UNCRC defines child, "every human being below the age of eighteen years" (UNGA, 1989). It is stated, "While attaining the age of maturityunder national law may give additional rights to the individual, itcannot take away the protection of the CRC forindividuals below the age of 18 years" (Brett, 2009, p. 231).Moreover, the CRC Committee strongly recommended that
"the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent be set at 18 years, regardless of the sex of the individual involved" (UNCRC, 2003, Para....