My mother received a phone call from our former housekeeper to seek blessings for her daughter as she would be getting married. When asked about the daughter’s age, our former housekeeper said that she was only 14 years old.
My mother told them that child marriage was illegal and detrimental for the girl’s health and, fortunately, was able to convince her to postpone the marriage until the girl was 18 years old.
This time, the girl was lucky, but that is not always the case. It has been predicted that, during the pandemic, we will be seeing a rise in cases of child marriage. A recently published report by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) supports this prediction as they found our that, in May, according to a survey, 170 girls were married off whereas, in June, the number had increased to 462.
Child marriage is already a prevailing problem in our country. According to Unicef, Bangladesh has the fourth-highest rate of child marriage. Additionally, some factors which have arisen from the pandemic are contributing to an increased rate of child marriage.
For example, poor people become increasingly poorer amid the pandemic, which makes their future uncertain. Moreover, with schools closed for the last few months, it is leading to more and more guardians marrying their children off.
Undoubtedly, child marriage puts a girl at risk physically and mentally. By being married off at an early age, children face sexual and mental abuse, physical abuse, go through risky pregnancies, often giving birth to underweight children. Sometimes, they even die during childbirth.
Many awareness campaigns are currently being operated by both governments and NGOs to stop child marriage but, because of socio-economic reasons, they are not as successful as they should be. As a result, it is unsurprising to see a sharp increase during the pandemic.
Previously, newspapers and media had played a pivotal role to reduce the child marriage. They frequently published child marriage-related reports so that everyone would be aware of it. But this ongoing outbreak has moved their focus away from the issue of child marriage, with the media instead focusing on other problems such as the health and economic crises.
This condition will continue to worsen if the government, NGOs, and society do not take essential measures to stop this. The rate of child marriage can most definitely be reversed by taking strategic proper action before it is too late.
For one, the government should establish a special monitoring board that will keep a record of all students and monitor them during the outbreak over the phone, in addition to creating more awareness through media and social media. Enhanced law-enforcement with a focus on stopping child marriage would also go a long way.
Not only officials but society overall can play a vital role towards putting an end to this by recognizing child marriage as the evil that it is and taking appropriate action so that no child again becomes a victim of child marriage.
Sanzida Sharmin is a freelance contributor.
