Clearly, we are trapped in a vicious cycle. Too many young girls -- many of them anemic -- are being married off early as child brides. These girls, barely having reached adulthood or still in their late teens, soon become young mothers, giving birth to children who are often nutritionally deficient.
The consequences are obvious: Bangladesh continues to see a high number of children born with low birth weight, stunting, and wasting. Adding to this, a recently conducted nationwide survey found elevated lead levels in the blood of many children -- a complete recipe for potential loss in intelligence quotient (IQ).
If we fail to break free from the curses of child marriage, early pregnancy, and lead pollution, we cannot expect to raise a future generation with sharp intelligence. This will only weaken our ability to carry forward our nation-building and reform agendas.
Using the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2025, published last week, as a guide, we see a scenario in which half of our girls still become victims of early marriage and early pregnancy, two out of every five children have high levels of lead in their blood, and nearly one-tenth of Bangladesh’s children are entering an expanding child labour force.
Alarmingly, child labour now involves 9.2% of children aged 5-17 -- up from 6.8% in 2019 -- placing an additional 1.2 million children at risk. Boys remain more likely to work than girls, while children in rural areas and those out of school face the highest risk. Children who are not attending school are four times more likely to be engaged in labour.
New findings reveal that 38% of children aged one to five years, and 7.5% of pregnant women, have blood lead levels above safe thresholds. Even more alarming, in the capital region the prevalence of elevated lead levels among children is as high as 65%.
Lead poisoning threatens children’s brain development across all socio-economic groups: Over half of affected children belong to the richest quintile, while 30% are from poorer households.
Elevated lead levels can cause serious health issues, including brain and nervous system damage, learning and behavioural problems, and stunted growth. Because lead poisoning often has no visible symptoms, only a blood test can confirm exposure. Lead can come from old paint, contaminated dust, soil, water, and certain consumer products. Its effects are irreversible -- harming intelligence, behaviour, growth, hearing, and even causing anemia, kidney damage, and high blood pressure.
MICS 2025 breaks new ground. For the first time, blood lead level testing gives us a clearer picture of environmental threats facing children. Data on nutrition, disability, learning, and water and sanitation deepen our understanding of what children need to grow up healthy and strong.
These insights must now drive targeted investments in maternal and newborn care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation, education, and child protection -- so that every child, in every community, can survive and thrive in a safe, healthy environment, leaving no one behind.
The survey also highlights rising malnutrition. Wasting increased from 9.8% in 2019 to 12.9% in 2025. Maternal anemia remains high at 52.8%, and the adolescent birth rate rose from 83 to 92 per 1,000 girls. These trends underscore the urgent need to improve maternal and child nutrition, breastfeeding practices, and access to health services.
We will not be able to break free from the vicious cycle of early marriage and the birth of malnourished children -- thereby producing generations with diminished IQ -- unless we stop the rot of child marriage, which, though declining, remains widespread.
The 2025 survey found that among women aged 20–24, 47% were married before 18 and 13% before 15, a slight improvement since 2019. Poverty and education explain much of the disparity. Women with no schooling (69%) or from the poorest households (65%) are twice as likely to marry early as those from the richest households (41%). Rural girls remain at higher risk, with a prevalence of 59% compared to 50% in urban areas.
Progress varies across divisions. Early marriage rates have fallen in Dhaka and Sylhet but remain high in Rajshahi and Khulna. Sylhet, notably, recorded only 29% of women aged 18-49 who were married before age 18 -- compared to the national figure of 56%. This means Sylhet’s prevalence is nearly half the national rate. It raises important questions about what is working in Sylhet and how it can be replicated elsewhere. MICS 2025 does not explain this, but the survey agencies surely have insights worth exploring.
Child marriage violates girls’ rights and prevents them from realising their full potential. It results in early pregnancies, contributes to maternal mortality, and perpetuates inter-generational cycles of poverty. More work is needed in Bangladesh to break this vicious cycle of child marriage, early pregnancy, malnutrition, reduced IQ, and poverty.
The rise in the adolescent birth rate -- from 83 to 92 per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 -- highlights the strong link between early marriage, early childbearing, and poor health and social outcomes. UNFPA notes that, with the proportion of married girls aged 15–19 rising from 32.9% to 38.9%, and at the current pace of reduction, Bangladesh would need over 200 years to eliminate child marriage -- a timeline incompatible with the nation’s aspirations for gender equality and sustainable development.
We must commit to and invest more in changing long-standing cultural practices surrounding child marriage and ensure effective enforcement of policies that create an enabling environment for girls in Bangladesh.
Reaz Ahmad is Editor, Dhaka Tribune.
