Brussels, July 12 (IANS) The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling on the Pakistani authorities to end the abduction and forced conversion to Islam of girls belonging to religious minority communities, according to a latest report. Citing United Nations data for 2025, the resolution stated that Christian girls account for nearly 25 per cent of cases involving forced religious conversion through marriage. In the resolution, Members of the European Parliament urged Pakistan to estab…
Latest Child Marriage News & Updates
Brussels, July 10 (IANS) The European Parliament has adopted a resolution condemning the abduction, forced conversion, and child marriage of underage girls from religious minorities in Pakistan, while expressing concerns over the broader pattern of such abuses.According to the European Parliament, the resolution particularly highlighted the case of Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Pakistani Christian girl who was abducted, converted to Islam, and forcibly married to her abductor in March 2026.The Me…
Mumbai, June 23 (IANS) Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare on Wednesday told the State Assembly that the state government is implementing necessary actions and effective measures to prevent child marriage in the state.The target is to bring the rate of child marriage below 10 per cent in the next five years. Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar raised a query on this subject and Congress member Nana Patole participated in the discussion.Minister Tatkare said tha…
Bhopal, June 9 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday extended the ‘Shaurya Dal’ initiative for five years, from 2026–27 to 2030–31, after the women-led network grew into a 2.25 million-strong force credited with preventing crimes and shifting empowerment “from paperwork to action.” Started in 2013 across six districts, the dal now operates in every district of the state. The Department of Women and Child Development said the extension recognises how the initiative has turne…
Geneva, June 2 (IANS) The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has strongly condemned a new Taliban decree in Afghanistan that legitimises child marriage and considers a girl’s silence as consent to marriage, describing it as a “grave and systematic violation of international human rights law”.”Child marriage, where at least one party is under 18, constitutes a harmful practice and is a form of forced marriage, given that children inherently lack the capacity to give full, free and info…
Islamabad, May 15 (IANS) A leading minority rights organisation in Pakistan has raised grave concerns over the persistence of child marriage across the country’s Punjab province, warning that discriminatory laws and entrenched social norms continue to deny countless girls their childhood, education, and basic rights. Citing Pakistan’s Bureau of Statistics, the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM) said on Friday that 15 per cent of children in Punjab province are married before turning 18, describin…
Islamabad, May 14 (IANS) Roughly 1,000 girls, many of whom are Christians, are kidnapped from their homes every year in Pakistan. These girls are found months later, after they have been forced to convert to Islam and marry older Muslim men, a report has stated. When a girl’s parents approach the court, they are often not able to provide a birth certificate to prove that she is underage, resulting in judges often giving the custody of the girl to man and not offering the parents any chance to me…
Pune, May 12 (IANS) A shocking incident of child marriage has emerged from Pune, a city widely regarded as a hub of modernity and education. The marriage of a minor girl was allegedly forcibly solemnised in Balewadi, one of the city’s upscale localities. Taking a stern stance on the matter, the police have registered a case against 35 individuals, including the groom, his parents, and the girl’s relatives. According to information received from the police, the marriage took place on Sunday, …
London, May 3 (IANS) Pakistan’s legal system continues to treat child marriage as a procedural irregularity and not a substantive violation of rights, with the Federal Constitutional Court’s judgement in the Maria Shahbaz case on March 30 once again highlighting how this phenomenon is being treated in it, according to a report. In the verdict, the court upheld the marriage of a minor Christian girl to a Muslim man, grounding its reasoning in Islamic jurisprudence that allows marriage between a M…
Islamabad, April 21 (IANS) A leading minority rights organisation on Tuesday strongly condemned the forced conversion and marriage of a minor Hindu girl in Pakistan’s Sindh province, raising concerns over the safety of the minority communities across the country. According to the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM), Pooja, a ninth-grade girl and daughter of Ramsun Thakur, was allegedly abducted and thrust into a “nightmare” of forced conversion.The organisation claimed that she was renamed ‘Du…