Saima (name changed) was just 15 when she was married last summer to a man twice her age in the Dadu district of southern Sindh province.
The wedding takes place shortly before, which brings with it torrential rains and floods.
The family worried that there could be a repeat of this, displacing millions of people and ruining crops.
Saima’s family was also displaced and her father, Allah Bukhsh, an agricultural worker, lost his livelihood.
Unable to feed the family, Bukhsh decides to marry Saima in exchange for 200,000 Pakistani rupees (€650/$720).
“We took the decision to avoid monsoon rains and problems in the camps. It’s not easy to do,” Bukhsh told DW.
Saima said she was initially “happy to be married but things are not as easy as I expected.”
This 16-year-old girl has given birth to a child this year. “My responsibilities are now doubled.”
A life-sustaining marriage
In various regions of the Islamic nation.
Pakistan is home to the sixth highest number of girls married before the age of 18 in the world, according to government data released in December.
But the law is rarely enforced.
Rights groups have said girls are increasingly being put at risk.
“Forty-five cases of child marriage have been reported in Dadu in the last one year and I believe there could be dozens more that are not reported,” Niaz Ahmed Chandio, coordinator of the local NGO Child Rights Committee, told DW.
Activists said marriage in these cases is often about survival, with families desperate to find any means to get by.
Mashook Birhmani, founder of Sujag Samsar, an NGO that works with religious scholars to fight child marriage, said poverty and displacement force families to give their daughters in marriage in exchange for money.
“These are survival marriages that are motivated by the monsoon season and the reason behind marrying a girl is to reduce food costs at home during a climate disaster,” Sansar said.
Osama Malik, a lawyer, shares a similar view.
“The floods of recent years have been extremely destructive, destroying crops and livestock, and forcing poor farmers to marry off their daughters as soon as they reach puberty,” Malik said.
Extreme weather ‘raises risk of child marriage’
Pakistan has made “significant strides” in reducing child marriage over the past two decades, the United Nations Children’s Fund said.
However, the country has suffered significantly from the effects of severe flooding in 2022, he noted.
“Evidence shows that extreme weather events like this are associated with an increased risk of child marriage,” UNICEF said in a report after the floods.
“In a year with an event of this severity, we expect to see an 18% increase in the prevalence of child marriage, equivalent to erasing five years of progress.”
However, the Sindh government has denied reports that climate-related economic insecurity is causing child marriages in the province.
“There are no child marriages in Dadu and the girls who marry are adults, not child brides,” Hidayat Ali Shah, deputy director of the Child Protection Authority in Dadu district, told DW.
Call for awareness
Only exacerbated the problem.
“In large families, girls are seen as a burden, and one is quickly discarded,” said Afia Salam.
“This patriarchal thinking must be addressed through awareness,” she stressed.
Child marriage often leads girls to face early motherhood and lifelong reproductive health problems. They also have no education and employment prospects, making them vulnerable and completely dependent on their families for survival.
Chandio of the Child Rights Committee said parents and local communities must be educated about the dangers of child marriage and its impact on young girls’ lives.
“Strengthening and implementing laws and social protection measures from governments and aid groups is key to addressing the issue among vulnerable communities.”
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru
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