Adolescent Marriage in Pakistan: Process, Timing, and Consequences for Girls

Judith A. Diers, Population Council
Zeba A. Sathar, Population Council

Age at marriage for girls in Pakistan has increased steadily over the past 50 years, a pattern observed in much of the developing world. Despite this trend, in 2002 one in two girls is married before she reaches her 20th birthday. Early marriage can have far-reaching consequences for adolescent girls’ future well-being, as the transition in Pakistan typically marks an end to formal education, the beginning of childbearing and parenthood, and the onset of economic challenges that these transitions imply. Employing a new national adolescent data set from Pakistan, the authors seek to understand the transition to marriage, tracking pertinent cultural and economic processes and their consequences for married adolescent girls’ lives. Using retrospective data for girls aged 20-24, individual life histories are tracked to look at the timing of engagement, the economic terms around engagement, and the timing of marriage relative to other factors in adolescent girls’ lives. Data Our analysis is based on a nationally representative Adolescent and Youth Survey in Pakistan (AYSP) conducted by the Population Council and fielded from October 2001 to March 2002. The sample was drawn in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Statistics and was based on the sampling frame from the 1998 census. Using a two-step stratified sampling procedure, 254 primary sampling units were selected. Within each PSU, households were chosen at random after a preliminary listing and all households with a resident adolescent were visited. Interviewers visited 6812 households and interviewed 8076 young people aged 15-24. The household survey includes the usual household roster of individuals, supplemented by the listing of household children aged 15-24 who live elsewhere. It also includes adults’ (mostly parents’) attitudes toward the education, work and marriage of adolescent boys and girls. The questionnaires for young people include background information, life-event histories and time use profiles as well as information on decision-making, mobility, and gender role attitudes. A new feature of this questionnaire is the detailed attention to the process of marriage, including the economic aspects of the marriage arrangements. The household and young people’s questionnaires are supplemented by community profiles for each of the 254 communities, administered through a group discussion with key informants (teachers, village leaders and elders, headmen, and chawki dar (guards)). The community data provide details on each community, such as infrastructure, schools, and other facilities. It has been argued that the increase in age at marriage is often driven by a transfer of spousal choice decisions from parents to children (Hull 2002, Malhotra/Tsui 1996). However, in Pakistan, arranged marriages continue to constitute the large majority of unions, even after fifty years of increasing age at marriage. Ninety percent of marriages are arranged by parents and/or family with no consultation with the child. In only three percent of marriages do girls report having any say in spousal choice. Not only are marriages largely arranged, but most of them (78 % in the AYSP) are also consanguineous (with daughters often promised in marriage to a relative while still an infant). The degree to which this is driven by economic concerns of the family will be examined, along with the degree to which a girl’s and parents’ input in the marriage process differs across educational attainment, socio-economic status, and residence. What are the strongest factors that determine whether the voice of an adolescent girl is heard in the marriage process? Are they the same factors that influence age at marriage? Although one in two girls is married by the age of twenty, one in two girls is also unmarried. As age at marriage increases worldwide, understanding the lives of the unmarried adolescent girl is also critical. Are these newly added adolescent years seen as a time for enhanced personal development or are they years passed in a state of “waiting?” In looking at the consequences of adolescent marriage, we have the opportunity to compare and contrast the life histories of girls who completed their adolescent years and were either married (n = 1010) or remained unmarried (n = 1009). The two groups will be compared on a number of factors, including mobility, time use, migration patterns, living arrangements, access to health care, and work opportunities. Contribution This paper concentrates on the under-researched population of married adolescents and contributes a unique insight into the process, timing, and consequences of adolescent marriage in Pakistan. The understanding of this transition is deepened as we expose the meaning and implication of marriage, along with the freedoms and constraints, rights and responsibilities, that distinguish married girls from their unmarried peers. The analysis will inform future adolescent policy, interventions, and programs for married and unmarried adolescent girls in Pakistan that go beyond the health sector to situate them as critical players in an ever-changing economic and political environment. References Durrant, Valerie L. 2000. Adolescent Girls and Boys in Pakistan: Opportunities and Constraints in the Transition to Adulthood. Islamabad: Population Council Pakistan Office. Hakim, Abdul, John Cleland, and Mansoor ul Hassan Bhatti. 1998. Pakistan Fertility and Family Planning Survey 1996-97, Main Report. Islamabad: National Institute for Population Studies and London: London: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Hull, Terence. 2002. “The Marriage Revolution in Indonesia.” Paper presented at the Population Association of America annual meeting. The Australian National University. Malhotra S., And Tsui A.O. 1996. “Marriage Timing in Sri Lanka: The Role of Modern Norms and Ideas.” Journal of Marriage and the Family. 58(2): 476-90. Rindfuss, Ronald R. 1991. “The Young Adult Years: Diversity, Structural Change, and Fertility.” Demography. 28(4):493-512. Sathar, Zeba A. and Framurz Kiani. 1999. “Some Consequences of Marriage Changes in Pakistan.” Paper presented at the 14th annual meeting of the Pakistani Society of Development Economists, January, Islamabad. Singh, Shusheela and Renee Samara. 1996. “Early Marriage Among Women in Developing Countries.” International Family Planning Perspectives, 22:148-157, 175.