Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chowdury, Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad*, expressed her opinion on child marriage. During a virtual meeting at the Youth Health Care Conference, Dr Sharmin said among other things: “In this regard, guardians, teachers, officials, journalists and other concerned people should come forward with a positive attitude to eliminate child marriage.”
Sumi Kaiser, women’s representative of the upazila* Sundarganj office also spoke on the issue, saying that the rate of underage marriages has increased recently in rural areas. This has happened due to the closure of schools and universities in major cities due to the coronavirus outbreak. Thus, there has been an increase in the number of young people residing in rural areas, where consent for underage marriage is higher.
The speakers stressed that in view of the country’s prosperity and internal improvement, every effort should be made to combat the custom of child marriage.
Officially in Bangladesh, marriage can be performed by people aged 18 (women) and 21 (men). Marriages of people below this age limit are very popular, especially among the less wealthy and those living in small towns. According to UNICEF estimates, about 50% of women in Bangladesh marry before their 15th birthday and 60% give birth to their first child before the age of 19.
* Jatiya Sangsad – Bangladesh’s unicameral parliament, often referred to as “JS” for short. Parliament has 350 MPs, of which 50 seats are statutorily guaranteed for women.
* upazila – a unit of territorial division in Bangladesh. One Bangladeshi district (called zila) is divided into many upazilas.
Grzegorz Suchanicz
Source: www.bd24live.com
Photo source: pexels.com, photo by Farddin Protik