For social campaign against child marriage
Mere enactment of law
for reducing the rate of child marriage will do little if the overall mindset of the people of the country is not changed. We believe a massive social campaign against child marriage is overdue
Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury Wednesday called for creating awareness at the grassroots level with the help of peoples representatives to prevent early marriage in the country. We thank the Speaker for her timely call.
It is clear as the daylight that there is no alternative to creation of mass awareness to prevent this malaise that has penetrated deep into the society and is doing a lot of harm. Mere enactment of law for reducing the rate of child marriage will do little if the overall mindset of the people of the country is not changed. How many people are showing respect to the law of the land and are refraining from giving their underage daughters in marriage ?
The Speaker wants that the MPs should play their roles in preventing early marriage of girls. But how much can they contribute to this issue as they have to remain busy with so many things of their constituencies apart from attending the parliament sessions from time to time and paying attention to development activities of the areas they represent ? There is no dearth of unscrupulous people who hardly care about the law and hence underage marriages are taking place frequently in different places in the country.
Under the prevailing law, the minimum marriage age for girls is 18. But government was reportedly considering an amendment in the law or a remake of the law that would allow girls to be married off at 16 in special cases.
Needless to say, taking advantage of this amendment (if adopted) , more underage girls can be married off in the future only to contribute to unbridled population
growth. The government must stick to the present minimum age of 18 years for marriage of girls. In fact, even further raising of the ceiling to 20 years have been expertly recommended.
Illiteracy, social discrimination, lack of moral education, age-old superstition and insecurity of girls are mainly responsible for early marriage. As about 90 per cent of the total population live in rural areas, underage marriages are being solemnized there rampantly unlike in urban areas. There are people at villages who are steeped in age-old ignorance and superstition. They hardly bother to take a look at the ills of early marriage.
We believe a massive social campaign against child marriage is overdue. Teachers, UP chairmen and members, village leaders, religious leaders like imams of mosques, all should be engaged to fight the menace of early marriage. These persons can be utilized to create opinion and sensitize people about the demerits of early marriage.
