From Phulmoni to Islamabad: A Century of Struggles Over Child Marriage Laws

In May 2025, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law a long-awaited amendment raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 for both girls and boys within the Islamabad Capital Territory. While limited in geographical scope, this legal step has reignited a region-wide debate over child marriage, a practice that continues to thrive in many parts of India and Pakistan, despite decades of legal reform and mounting social resistance.

In South Asia, particularly in India and Pakistan, the issue of child marriage remains critical, where an intersection of centuries-old practices with evolving legal frameworks can be seen. Both states have made significant efforts on the legislative front to curb this practice by setting a minimum age for marriage and strengthening their enforcement mechanisms over the past decades. Therefore, it is pertinent to comprehend these legal developments to appreciate the fight against this menace in the region.

The tragic Phulmoni Dasi case (1890) played a pivotal role in drawing legislative attention to the dangers of early marriage. Phulmoni, a 10-year-old girl, died due to injuries sustained from forced intercourse with her significantly older husband. The case triggered widespread public anger in British India, leading to the Age of Consent Act, 1891. This act did not ban child marriage, but it criminalized sexual relations with those under 12 years old. It can be regarded as a groundbreaking step for that time, but this law permitted the continuation of child marriage with only a condition of restriction of intercourse before the age of 12, leaving a glaring loophole. (Lamb, 2000)

The first substantive law directly aimed at restraining child marriage came with the Child Marriage Restraint Act (CMRA), 1929. This Act set the minimum age of marriage at 14 for girls and 18 for boys and prescribed penal sanctions to deter the practice. It was applicable throughout British India and focused on everyone involved in solemnizing such unions, including parents and priests.  However, this law did not invalidate child marriage, nor did it empower the girls to annul such marriages on attaining majority. Therefore, its achievement was also limited. (Pande, 2017)

Following the partition of 1947, the political and legal trajectories of India and Pakistan diverged; however, both countries retained the 1929 CMRA as their starting point. In India, the law has steadily evolved with the increase of the minimum age to 15 in 1949 and to 18 in 1978, with the age for boys set at 21. In 2006, India enacted a more comprehensive law, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), which expanded the scope of the state’s powers, introduced Child Marriage Prohibition Officers, and made child marriages voidable at the option of the minor. The law provided for shelter homes and introduced civil protections alongside criminal penalties. In 2021, a bill was introduced in Parliament to raise the legal age for girls to 21, bringing parity with boys; however, this bill has faced scrutiny and is still pending. These changes reflect India’s piecemeal but evolving legislative commitment to addressing the issue, often in response to public health data, advocacy, and international human rights standards.

Legal Evolution and Resistance to Child Marriage Reforms in Pakistan

Pakistan’s legal response to child marriage has remained somewhat fragmented and reactive, framed by a complicated interplay of the federal-provincial divide and religious opposition. After independence, Pakistan kept the CMRA, 1929; however, the first significant amendment came through the Federal Laws (Revision and Declaration) Ordinance, 1981, under General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization drive. According to this amendment, the minimum age for girls was raised from 14 to 16 in the federal areas.

Provincial Developments

• Sindh passed the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013, setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 for both boys and girls, and also prescribed strict punishments. The offence of child marriage under this law is cognizable, non-bailable, and non-compoundable, opening a gateway for forward-looking legislation in Pakistan on this issue.
• Punjab followed with the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 2015, through which the punishments were increased, but the age of 16 is retained as the legal age of marriage for girls. In 2024, the province introduced a new amendment bill to raise the minimum age to 18; although approved by the standing committee, it remains stalled, awaiting tabling in the provincial assembly as of mid-2025.
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) currently follows the Federal CMRA, 1929, under which the minimum legal age of marriage is 16 for girls and 18 for boys. Although the province drafted the Child Marriage Restraint Bill in 2019 to raise the minimum age to 18 for both genders and to introduce enforcement mechanisms like CNIC verification, the bill has remained stalled.
• Balochistan, AJK, and Gilgit-Baltistan continue to operate under the same 1929 federal statute, with no province-specific laws or effective penalties in place.

Legal Challenges and Resistance

Just weeks following the ICT law’s enactment, the law is challenged before the Federal Shariat Court on the grounds of violating the Islamic injunctions, leading to a potential constitutional debate over the state’s power to legislate on personal laws versus religious interpretations.

In the wider scope, this reflects the continuity from the religious segments of the country. The role of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has historically remained prominent in blocking the efforts to amend these laws while contending that any age set beyond puberty is contrary to the principles of Islam. Although its stance has softened slightly, from absolute rejection in 2014 to labeling child marriage a “social and administrative” concern in 2023, the CII has not yet issued any absolute endorsement of the legal age across Pakistan.

The consequences caused by the incoherence of legal regimes across the state can be unhealthy, where progressive laws risk becoming symbolic wins rather than enforceable safeguards. On the issue of child marriage, in the absence of harmonized legislation, the state ends up sending mixed messages, allowing child marriage to persist under the guise of tradition, religion, or ambiguity. This weakens enforcement, along with undermining the capabilities for public awareness and institutional responses.

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References

1. Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025 (Pak.).
2. Queen Empress v Hurree Mohun Mythee, 16 ILR Cal 49 (1889).
3. Age of Consent Act 1891, No 10 (India).
4. John C Lamb, ‘From “Social Evil” to Social Problem: Child Marriage in Colonial India’ (2000) 26 J South Asian Stud 65.
5. Ishita Pande, Sex, Law, and the Politics of Age: Child Marriage in India, 1891–1937 (Cambridge University Press 2020).
6. Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, No XIX (India).
7. Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 1949, No. 34 (India).
8. Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act 1978, No 43 (India).
9. The Federal Laws (Revision and Declaration) Ordinance 1981, No XXVII of 1981, § 12 (Pak.) (amending Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929).
10. Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, Sindh Act No XV of 2014 (Pak.).
11. Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act 2015, Punjab Act No XIII of 2015 (Pak.).
12. Rihan Paracha, ‘KP Child Marriage Act: CII Review Stalls Progress’, Voice.pk (12 March 2025) https://voicepk.net/2025/03/kp-child-marriage-act-cii-review-stalls-progress/#google_vignette accessed 15 June 2025.
13. Rana Bilal, ‘Child Marriage Law Challenged in Federal Shariat Court’, Dawn (4 June 2025) https://www.dawn.com/news/1915367 accessed 15 June 2025.
14. Paracha, supra note 12.