HYDERABAD: Issues relating to child marriages and their adverse effect on society were highlighted at a programme held on Saturday in connection with the International Women`s Day.

The event was organised by theMehranRuralDevelopment Organisation in collaboration with the Jamshoro District Bar Association.

Briefing the audience about the Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, Iqbal Detho of the Save the Children said that the law prohibited marriage of a person not having attained the age of 18 years and made it a cognisable offence if the condition was violated. `Still challenges at the implementation stage are there,` he observed, saying that the policemen dealing with such offences were yet to have full awareness ofthe law and its various provisions. He discussed instances of exploitation on the basis of gender, and said that discrimination against womenfolk was not confined to a particular culture, civilisation, continent or period of time. He talked about various aspects of women`s rights and expressed the view that indirect discrimination against women continued despite the constitutional guarantees mentioned in Article 25, which provided for equal treatment without discrimination of gender.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan activists Dr Ashothama and Sadia Baloch said that dynamics of society had changed now and, as such, society must see a change in the biased attitudes.

He said governments and civil society should realise the importance of women`s rights and play their role in promoting and protecting the rights.