According to the report of UNICEF and Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), about 21% of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18 years. This number is even more in rural areas.

Reports say that there are laws to stop child marriage in Pakistan, but they are not followed. Provinces like Punjab and Sindh have fixed the minimum age of marriage 18 years, while in areas like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan this age is still considered 16 years.

UNICEF’s 2023 report states that a large number of girls in Pakistan become the mother of one or two children by the age of 20. According to World Bank data, the teenage maternity rate in Pakistan is much higher than the average of South Asia.

About 8% of adolescents between the ages of 15 to 19 years have become mothers. The biggest danger of early motherhood is that neither the mother’s body develops completely nor does she get full facility of education and health services.

Marriage and early maternity at an early age also increases maternal mortality rate. According to the World Health Organization, the risk of death due to complications of 15 to 19 years of girls between 15 to 19 years of pregnancy and delivery is doubled compared to women between 20 to 30 years.

On the other hand, early marriage leaves the education of girls in the middle and they are not financially independent.

According to reports, poverty, religious traditions and social pressure are the biggest reasons for early marriage in Pakistan.