Around 2m adolescent girls fell victim to early marriage in the country’s northern region.
According to a Unicef survey, early marriage is a common phenomenon there and it is prevailing because of various reasons, especially due to lack of awareness among parents, so-called activities of dishonest matchmakers, marriage without birth registration, absence of social security, illiteracy and poverty.
A good number of girls of middle-class families are being forced to get married at an immature age.
And many of them are divorced not long after their marriage because of dowry, premature motherhood, diverse health risks, dropping out of schools and mainly repression at their in-laws’ houses.
This propensity is on the sharp rise even after various interventions from the government and non-government organisations in addition to local administrations.
Early marriage has a bearing on development of Bangladesh where it still remains a big challenge, according to a report of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
The report said one-third of girls get married at age 15-19 and this rate is highest in the world. The rate of early marriage between the age 15 and 19 declined by 5% to 37.5% in the 10 years to 2011.
According to findings of several reports, girls’ education helps check early marriage.
Girls fall prey to early marriage in the country’s northern districts, including Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram as they are unaware of their reproductive health risks.
“Child marriage is a serious problem for the country. Maternal death cannot be reduced without checking early marriage,” said Giasuddin, project manager of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh.
Adviser of Plan International Bangladesh Zinat Afroz identified dowry and risk of sexual repression as key reasons behind early marriage in Bangladesh. Many mothers marry off their children at an early age thinking that they will have to give smaller amount of dowries at that age and their children will not have to be harassed sexually.
Early marriage means early pregnancy and girls who become mothers face manifold health complications, including malnutrition.
According to a statistic, there are now 6m adolescent girls among a total population of 31m in the northern districts of the country.
Irin Akhter Akhi, 15, who got married at this early age in the village of Shikarpur in Bogra district, said her family married her off to Jamiul, 20, of Fulbari Uttarpara area and the marriage took place on her first visit to her relative’s house.
After a few months of the marriage, Jamiul and his family members put pressure on Akhi and her family for dowry and threatened to divorce if dowry is not given. One day Akhi was forced out of the residence after physical assault. She is now residing at her parents’ home.
Akhi is struggling to survive with a dream. She is now taking preparation to sit for the coming SSC exam.
Such a picture could be found in many areas, especially in Kahalu Sadar upazila of Bogra district. Like Akhi, Shilpi, Sabina, Rani, Bobita, Lipi and Rakhi returned to their parents’ homes after being repressed by husbands for dowry.
Light House, an NGO, has been working for checking early marriage since 2002. Harun-or-Rashid, chief executive officer of the organisation, said the tendency of early marriage is on the rise in northern districts due to lack of social security.
Poor families compel to marry their children off there due to financial problems.