Early Marriages And Its Impact On Fertility In Rawalakot Ajk, Pakistan

Abstract

Marriage is one of the universal social institutions established to control and regulate the life of mankind. It is the approved social pattern whereby two or more persons establish a family. However, marriage, which occur without natural way or which violate the basic principles of human rights, creates critical social problems with multifaceted consequences. The current study investigates into various causes and consequences of early marriages and its impact on fertility in Rawalakot Azad Kashmir in 2017. The study was undertaken in Rawalakot that focused on 50 female respondents who ever married at the age of 15-24. The specific objectives were to investigate and to determine the causes and effects of early marriages and its impact on fertility.  The study was guided by radical feminist theory which analyzes patriarchy as the cause of women’s oppression and this in turn hinders them from participating in different fields of lifethe data was collected with the help of survey methods. The analyses reflect that early marriage is practiced due to illiteracy, deeply rooted traditional social structure and economic insurance, which laid devastating impacts in terms of social, physiological and psychological problems for the individual, family and society as a whole. The study found that girls drop out of school at an early age due to poverty and end up marrying early because of not having anything meaningful to do. It is recommended that parent education, proper role of government and the media will assist in the elimination of the curses of early marriage.