The curse of child marriage needs to be effectively addressed
Md. Aktar Hossain
Bangladesh has one of the worlds highest rates of early marriage. According to one survey, 66% of Bangladeshi girls are married before the age of 18 and approximately a third of women aged 20 to 24 are married by the age of 15.
The motives behind the elevated rate of child marriage stem from traditional Bangladeshi customs and moral codes. In Bangladesh, a patriarchal, asymmetrical society prevails. On top of this, poverty is a major underpinning factor encouraging early marriage. Young girls are often considered as an economic burden by their families and their marriage to an older man and into another family is often a family survival strategy in order to obtain financial security. Additionally, parents are attracted by the prospect of lower dowry payments if they marry their daughters off at an early age. Another root cause of child marriage in Bangladesh is the fear of sexual harassment of young daughters. Child marriage is seen as a way to protect a girls sexuality in an unsafe environment. Child marriage is known to have dangerous consequences for the health and development of girls.
Primarily, girls who are married in the childhood experience intense pressure to become pregnant. For example, in Bangladesh an anticipated third of all teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are mothers or pregnant. Early pregnancy is known to involve considerable health risks. Firstly, for younger mothers who are still in the process of maturation, maternal mortality rates are much higher. Teenage mothers are twice as likely as older mothers to die during childbirth. Secondly, for babies born to mothers younger than 14, it is 50% more likely for the baby to die than if born to a mother over 20 years of age.
Child marriage also contradicts and limits girls education possibilities, obliging them to drop out of school. Girls are subsequently lacking in skills and unable to integrate the labor market. As a result, their social status is lowered and mobility restricted, contributing to a society in which young women are lacking in agency, freedom of movement and power. Domestic violence is also believed to be more prevalent in the case of child marriage. Altogether, child marriage carries on an uneven society, increasing female vulnerability, powerlessness and wealthlessness, as well as restricting personal and psychological development and having hazardous health effects.
In Bangladesh the legal age for marriage is 21 for boys and 18 for girls. This was established with the national Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929. However, the authorities rarely intervene to stop child marriages and parents continue to marry off their daughters secretly. Despite this legislation, the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey have found that the average age for marriage of girls is 16.4 years. The latest is that the relevant ministry is pushing for lowering the minimum age of marriage of girls to 16 years though this move has understandably generated a great deal of resistance from conscious quarters in the country.
At the international level, there are several legal instruments, which suggest the illegality of child marriage. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that marriage can be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. Additionally, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) prohibits child marriage, stipulating 18 as the minimum age.
Bangladesh acceded to the CEDAW in the year 1984, the UN Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages in the year1998. This Convention requires signatory states to require consent from both parties entering into a marriage and to establish a legal minimum age for marriage. Nevertheless, Bangladesh signed on to these Conventions with reservations on particular aspects that were considered to conflict with the personal laws of different religious communities. Bangladeshs discriminatory personal laws on marriage, separation, and divorce trap many women and girls in abusive marriages or drive them into poverty when marriages fall apart. In
many cases these laws contribute to homelessness, hunger, and ill-health for divorced or separated women and their children. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have recorded significantly higher levels of food insecurity and poverty among female-headed Bangladeshi households.
There is limited enforcement of law relating to early marriage in Bangladesh. This is a principal area in which implementation and practice need to be adjusted in order to limit forced, child marriage and its negative effects. On top of this, advocacy is fundamental. Efforts must be improved to raise awareness and educate at all levels of society from grassroots initiatives to governmental policies.
Significant schemes have been set up in recent years in Bangladesh in order to limit the harmful practice of child marriage. Firstly, in 1994 the Female Stipend Program (FSP) was launched, issuing stipends to girls aged 11 to 14 in secondary education providing they had 75% attendance and a 45% score in year-final tests as well as providing they remain unmarried until sitting the Secondary School Certificate or reaching the age of 18. This scheme has been successful in delaying marriage and motherhood as well as increasing the possibility of access to the labor market for young women. In 1995 just 1.1 million Bangladeshi girls attended secondary school; by 2005, this had increased to 3.9 million. Moreover, a World Bank reports suggest that the proportion of married girls between 13 and 15 years of age dropped from 29% to 14%, whilst for those aged from 16 to 19 the proportion dropped from 72% to 65%, implying a significant effect of the stipend program on delaying marriage.
The GOB plays vital roles in the country running various projects with the help of donor agencies for adolescent empowerment, prevent child marriage, dowry and other forms of abuse and exploitation of adolescents, especially girls.
However, despite these initiatives, parents continue to marry off their underage daughters and survey suggests that there has been no significant change in the percentage of women married before the age of 18 in recent years. Measures to be taken from the end of the Government to eliminate the practice of child marriage, which may be both preventive and protective in nature, namely, encourage private sector to work, partnerships between NGOs and Government, highlight drawbacks of early marriage in textbooks, proper implementation of existing Laws, compulsory marriage registration, social awareness, capacity building of government institutions, data management system on marriage related issues, training facilities for policy makers, campaign through medias and rescue operation of adolescent girls from early marriage. Governmental and non-governmental bodies need to come together to being sure to reach out to the poorest and most rural communities in Bangladesh, in order to advance national as well as wider, global, development.
The writer is Deputy Project Director, Skills Training Enhancement Project (STEP),
Directorate of Technical Education
