Early marriage on the rise in Bogra

According to local sources, there are no higher secondary schools in Tekanichukainagar and Pakullaya union councils in the Jamuna River basin area. The students of the two unions dropped out alarmingly in last several years. Extreme poverty and child marriage are the root causes of students discontinuing their education. The students in the areas have to go to six-mile distance-school at western side of the Jamuna River. The poor parents are not interested to send their daughters to send school as it is expensive for them. Rather they arrange marriage for them. While most ultra-poor parents are aware of both the importance of education and the ill-effects of early marriage, practical circumstances can appear an unbeatable influence on the decision not to continue their child’s education. Many families simply cannot provide study materials for their children and at the same time, often rely on their children to either work for the family. Day labourer Hatem Ali at Khatiamari village is struggling to lead his family. His only daughter Sampa studied at Pachhgachhi Govt Primary School. But after completing the primary education, she could not continue her secondary education as thee is no institution. Hatem married off Sampa to day-labourer Belal Hossain few years back. Now she is the mother of four children. Rebeka Khatun, daughter of Rezaul Karim in Shimulbari area, Roma Akter, daughter of Abdur Rashid in Tekani Kachhari Bazar, also faced the same conditions. Habiba Khatun, daughter of Ferdous Hossain, is suffering from anemia as she became mother of four children in early age. Now she is also pregnant. Day labourer Zafor Molla said like him, maximum guardians fell in tension as their daughters had to attend the school at the another side of the river. He thought he would marry her daughter off soon. He added that most of the guardians thought like him in the basin area. Zulfikar Rahman Shanto, chairman of Pakullaya, said the union was among the worst in Bogra to suffer from land erosion caused by the Jamuna River. The people in the area could not earn bread regularly, let alone send their children to school, he added. He urged the government to take steps for removing the lack of education. UNO Mirza Shakila Din Hassan said a project for flood and erosion victims across the upazila was underway, with one of its aims to ensure the poverty stricken students of erosion-affected families could continue to study.