Srividhya Ganapathy, who together with Ajeet Kaur proposed the motion, said it was hoped the government would take steps to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 years for all.

“The law should provide protection to all children against child marriages and provide solutions and protection to victims of such marriages or any children born out of such marriages,” she said

Srividhya, who is the co-chair of the Child Rights Innovation and Betterment Foundation, said 462 lawyers supported the motion at the 75th annual general meeting of the Bar on Saturday.

“Last year, we withdrew the motion because we suspected many lawyers will not be present physically to attend the meeting due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she told FMT.

This year, the AGM was conducted virtually.

The motion also called on the government to adopt a multi stakeholder approach and take immediate measures to address the trigger factors leading to child marriages in Malaysia, which include poverty, pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancies, and a lack of access to education.

Currently, non-Muslims have to obtain consent from the menteri besar or chief minister to have marriages conducted if the bride is between 16 and 18 years of age and the groom is less than 18.

Muslim marriages are governed by state shariah laws and differ from one state to another.

Child marriages came under the spotlight three years ago when a 41-year-old man in Gua Musang, Kelantan, had taken an 11-year-old girl as his third wife.

Rubber tapper Abdul Karim Che Abdul Hamid said he had received the blessings of the girl’s parents and planned to formalise the marriage by applying for a marriage certificate when his “wife” turned 16.

Then deputy prime minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had said the government would amend the law to raise the marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18.

The 11-year-old girl was eventually sent back to her birth country of Thailand, where she was said to have undergone mental health counselling because of the intense level of attention sparked by her marriage.

Srividya said she was made to understand that the religious court in the state only imposed a fine on the man for marrying the child in Thailand while there was no prosecution instituted under the federal penal law.