Combating child marriage
What is needed
now is to create awareness among the school
students about
the negative impacts of child marriage and
the new marriage
registration
system
That Kurigram district administration has taken an exceptional initiative to stop child marriage in the district by using digital device is a welcome piece of news. According to report in this newspaper yesterday, this district has achieved tremendous success by applying new thoughts and digital system in reducing child marriages, a longtime social menace of the region. It is heartening to note that for the first time in the country, the district administration started marriage registration through Short Message Service (SMS) after verifying the original age of the bride and groom.
Child marriage has been illegal in Bangladesh since 1929 and the minimum age of marriage has been set at 18 for women and 21 for men since the 1980s. Despite that, Bangladesh has the fourth-highest rate in the world of child marriage before age 18, after Niger, the Central African Republic, and Chad. Sixty-five per cent of girls in Bangladesh marry before age 18.
If girls are married off at age 16, it will contribute to reckless population growth in the country. It is known to all that females in their teens are most fertile to produce children. A girl may attain puberty even at age 12 or 13. This gives her physical ability to procreate. But procreation is not all. Physical, mental and intellectual maturity is needed. If a physically and mentally immature girl is given in marriage, she will not understand about a planned family life, about rearing her children properly for making them worthy citizens of the country. This kind of marriage will invite a lot of problems instead of happiness.
Nearly half of the total population of Bangladesh is women. Early marriage stops education of girls. It exposes girls to repeated child-bearing, malnutrition and broken health. It nips in the bud a girls dream of becoming self-reliant through proper education in the male-dominated society.
Bangladesh is already a too overpopulated country and freestyle breeding must be absolutely checked. To this end not only keeping the present minimum age law, we suggest that the minimum marriage age of girls should be moved up to at least 20 years. What is needed now is to create awareness among the school students about the negative impacts of child marriage and the new marriage registration system. Imams of mosques, priests, Muslim and Hindu marriage registrars and public representatives can play their roles in this regard.
