Pakistan's Sindh orders investigation into monsoon child brides August 21, 2024

Members of the NGO Sujag Sansar gave a presentation to raise awareness about underage marriages in Sindh province on August 4. AFP's report on the rise in the number of underage brides prompted an investigation by the provincial government (Asif HASSAN)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Pakistan's Sindh orders investigation into monsoon child brides

A provincial government in Pakistan has ordered an investigation into child marriages in flood-affected areas in 2022, following an exclusive AFP story on the subject.

The high rate of marriages of underage girls in Pakistan has been declining in recent years, but after the unprecedented floods of 2022, human rights defenders warned that such marriages were on the rise due to economic insecurity caused by the weather.

In a report published on August 16, AFP spoke to girls married off at the age of 13 and 14 in exchange for money in villages hit hard by the floods in Sindh province.

The chief minister of Sindh, Murad Ali Shah, has ordered an investigation into the matter, his spokesman Rasheed Channa told AFP.

“The chief minister wants to understand the social impact of the rains on the people of this area. After the report is submitted, he will visit the area and make recommendations.

“My personal opinion is that there has always been this tradition of early marriages, but the floods have made people very desperate.”

In the village of Khan Mohammad Mallah, 45 underage girls have been married off since last year's monsoon rains - 15 of them in May and June this year, NGO Sujag Sansar told AFP.

The summer monsoons, between July and September, are vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers and for food security, but scientists say climate change is making them heavier and longer, increasing the risk of landslides, floods, and long-term crop damage.

“This has led to a new trend of 'monsoon brides',” said Mashooque Birhmani, founder of Sujag Sansar, which works with religious scholars to combat child marriage.

Many villages in Sindh's agricultural belt have yet to recover from the 2022 floods, which submerged a third of the country, displaced millions of people, and ruined crops.

“Before the 2022 rains, there was no need to marry off girls so young in our region,” Mai Hajani, 65, a village elder, told AFP.

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