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THE EFFECT OF EARLY MARRIAGE

The studies show that the early marriage has inflicted dangerous and devastating effects on young children who are compelled to tie the knot in most cases. According to survey, “One of the main reasons for child labour, unemployment, low literacy rate and poor health standards in Pakistan is the early marriage” (Early marriages in Pakistan). These dangerous effects of early marriages are not only in Pakistan but in all the areas of the world where early marriages are practised. Early marriage deprives the child of their basic education and learning. For example, in Karachi a girl named Sassi was forcefully married to a 70 year-old man by her father when she was just 11 and was a school student in the government school. After the marriage, she was forced to quit her school and was several times sexually abused by her husband. Luckily she escaped from the custody of her husband and is now working with an NGO (Latif). This is not the only case; there are thousands of cases where girls have to give up their studies for their households that leave them with little ability to earn their own living. Similarly married boys have to give up their education in order to earn for their families. (Bayisenge)

Moreover, one of the main effects of early marriage is the increase in the number of children. An early married couple is usually expected to have more children than a relatively late married couple (Early marriage).The study, by UNICEF, show that there is always a negative correlation between the time of marriage and the number of children, the early the marriage is larger will be the size of the family. This causes an increase in the size of the overall population which worsens the social life of the common people and increase unemployment, child labour and poverty in the society. In Pakistan, for example, early marriages are mostly practised in the rural areas where the average children per couple are 7.49 and these rural areas are...