Situation of Early Marriage of Working Area

Early Marriage in Bangladesh

We became worried to know the painful memories of victims and guardians of early marriage through 4 public dialogues at 4 unions of Netrakona sadr upazila and Kendua upazila of Netrakona district. A total of 552 women attended the dialogues. Out of which 50 victim women of early marriage also participated in the dialogues. During the marriage, the age of 24 women was 12-14 years and age of 26 women was 11 only. According to the discussion with them, the following scenario of early marriage came out:

If a woman is married before 18 years, waist bones do not grow properly. Risk of death of mother and child become higher during delivery. They are not matured enough to be a mother. Both mother and child become deprived of nutrition and health service. The family conflict increases and they suffer from anemia and give birth to a disabled child. 45% victim women of early marriage give birth to underweight children. 10-18 years old pregnant mothers remain under the risk of death 5 times higher than 20-24 years old pregnant mothers. Weak children are the barrier of the progress of the nation. The participants of dialogue thought that a nation can go forward more and more if a woman becomes educated. At the end of dialogue session, the participants made a commitment, “We make a commitment that we will not arrange the early marriage of our children and we will protect early marriage socially and if needed, we will take shelter of law”.

The recommendations regarding early marriage are as follows:

·         Reflection of law by determining the age through national ID or voter ID card is essential in case of marriage.

·         It is necessary to include 2 years jail and penalty of 50 thousand taka instead of changing and reforming the existing law of early marriage i.e. one month jail and penalty of one thousand taka.

·         In existing law, there is a provision to file a case against early marriage by the respective chairman as the complainant. But other than the chairman, other institution or authority may be the complainant to protect early marriage. In case of early marriage, it is essential to make the age certificate from the headmaster of educational institution compulsory.

·         It is essential to take awareness-raising initiative at family, society and national level to protect early marriage.

·         It is essential to send each of the boy and girl of the family to school with a view to transforming them into the human resource of the country.

·         The Kazi does not perform the marriage registration without birth registration but illegal birth registration is happening in different ways. The respective departments eg. Union Parishad (UP)/Municipality should play the vital role to stop this illegal process. On the other hand, the lawful action may be incorporated.

·         It is essential to make the role of the notary public effective and positive so that no underaged will be allowed to take the certificate as an adult.

·         It is necessary to move together to protect early marriage. At the same time, it is also essential to bring back social discipline and social security to stop eve teasing and sexual harassment.     

·         It is essential to make a consensus against early marriage by increasing economic empowerment as well as social awareness among the poor and oppressed people.