How Climate Change Is Fueling The Surge In Child Marriages In Pakistan

As monsoon rains approached Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the flood threat. “I was happy to hear I was getting married… I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila told AFP after her wedding to a man twice her age, hoping for a better life. “But I have nothing more. And with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.”

Pakistan‘s rate of child marriages had been decreasing in recent years, but rights workers warn that such marriages are now on the rise due to economic hardship driven by climate change. The summer monsoon, crucial for millions of farmers and food security, has been increasingly severe due to climate change, leading to landslides, floods, and long-term crop damage.

Many villages in Sindh, severely impacted by the 2022 floods that submerged a third of the country, have not yet recovered. This has led to a rise in “monsoon brides,” as families turn to marrying off their daughters for financial relief. Mashooque Birhmani, founder of the NGO Sujag Sansar, noted that child marriage has surged in areas like Dadu district, one of the worst-hit regions. In Khan Mohammad Mallah village, where Shamila and Amina were married in June, 45 underage girls have been married off since the last monsoon, 15 of them in May and June this year.

“Before the 2022 rains, there was no such need to get girls married so young in our area,” said Mai Hajani, a village elder. “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 who rushed their daughters’ marriages often did so in exchange for money. Shamila’s mother-in-law, Bibi Sachal, said they paid 200,000 Pakistani Rupees ($720) to Shamila’s parents, a significant sum in a region where many families live on about one dollar a day.

Najma Ali, married at 14 in 2022, initially looked forward to her new life but now struggles with reality. “My husband gave my parents 250,000 rupees for our wedding. But it was on loan (from a third party) that he has no way of paying back now,” she said. “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.”

The flooding has devastated agricultural areas, leaving villages barren. Hakim Zaadi, the village matron and Najma’s mother, described how once-thriving rice fields are now dead due to contaminated water, exacerbating the financial strain on families.

Child marriages remain common in Pakistan, which has the sixth-highest rate of girls married before 18 globally. Although legal marriage ages range from 16 to 18 in different regions, enforcement is lax. UNICEF reports that extreme weather events could increase child marriage rates by 18 percent, potentially reversing years of progress.

Dildar Ali Sheikh, a displaced daily wage laborer, considered marrying off his eldest daughter Mehtab while living in an aid camp. “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, only 10 years old at the time, was saved from this fate through intervention from Sujag Sansar and enrolled in a sewing workshop, allowing her to earn and continue her education. Despite this, Mehtab fears that her wedding might still be imminent. “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.”