Child marriage is a plague for our society. If that wasn’t clear enough, recent events should shed light on this: A girl committed suicide by hanging herself to protect herself from child marriage in Dinajpur. The victim was a student of class eight and she was pressurized by her family to marry a 40-year-old man.
Even though there appears to be a growing presence of awareness against it, child marriage remains one of the most prominent issues in this country. A Unicef report has stated that 51.4% of girls are getting married before turning 18 in Bangladesh -- a truly staggering number that ought to give us pause.
The issues that spring from such an incident should be obvious. From the physical and reproductive health of female victims, to the mental torture that such a practice afflicts on them, to situations like the one mentioned earlier where victims outright commit suicide -- the many consequences of child marriage is inexhaustible.
Most importantly, it robs its victims of the right to live their lives as any child deserves to. No amount of economic freedom can make up for the fact that a huge portion of the population is still subjugated and forced to go through this heinous arrangement due to abhorrent cultural practices. In keeping with the notion of justice we want to imbue within us, the authorities need to crack down on this plague.
There has been sufficient ink that has been spilled to delineate the ills of child marriage. Now is the time to act. Failure to act should now be regarded tantamount to actually consenting to this heinous practice. The authorities must make this issue a priority; we are depriving too many children in our country of a fulfilling childhood and life.