OUTCOME AND ROOTS OF EARLY MARRIAGES IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN: A QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find out the causes and outcome of the early marriages in the light of victims and gatekeepers observations. However, one-third of under-aged girls in the developing countries are married before the age of 18 years. Although in Northern areas of Pakistan, early marriage is a very common problem in both gender, especially, in Gilgit-Baltistan and the ratio is higher than any other part of the country. Moreover, in this region, early marriage is prevailed due to traditional customs, religious dominance and supernatural evil. The present study chose two categories, first category for victims which includes respondents of age group from 10 to 40 years old and married before 18 years of age. The second category was chosen for interpretation of the community gatekeepers. We utilized a quantitative survey method to collect data from each district and examined 200 sample. A sample is divided into two groups, the victim's group includes 150 respondents and the group of gatekeepers includes 50 sample size. The tailor-made close-ended questionnaire was designed for the collection of data. Beside this, a Likert scale was also used for Professionals.  There is a need to take some serious steps to eliminate this social disease which promotes the illiteracy, poverty, crime, economic burden, terrorism, domestic violence and rapid increase in population which is surmounting challenges in the pathway of regional development. Early marriage has psychological, physical and economic consequences; most girls remain unable to complete their primary and secondary education and also have the negative impact on their health.