By Ali Hassan

Child marriage is inversely proportional to the literacy rate of any society which further leads to economic crises. Bangladesh is maintaining highest rates of child marriage in the world and is rated among the top 10 countries in the world for child marriage. According to a report, 59% of girls in Bangladesh are married before their 18th birthday and 22% are married before the age of 15. Bangladesh has the third highest prevalence of child marriage in the world, and the second highest absolute number of women married or in a union before the age of 18 globally as 4,382,000. 4% of boys are married before the age of 18.

Child marriage is moderately more common in rural areas where 60% of girls are married before they reach the age of 18 years as compared to 55% in urban areas, the metropolitan area of Rajshahi has the highest proportion of child marriage in Bangladesh which is seven out of ten girls are married by the age of 18.

The circumstances under this particular issue and different other issues enhanced and started attacking on the economy of Bangladesh are lack of policy formulations and implementations, lack of implementing  rule of law, bad governance and carelessness which further led state to face different crises. Moreover, according to the reports and direct interviews MOWCA currently has limited capacity to convene other ministries and ensure implementation of the National Action Plan. The institutional strengthening of this body should focus on improving its internal tracking of the monitoring & evaluation framework and encouraging its consultation with civil society. Government agencies, donors, implementing organizations, researchers, and advocates appear to be addressing CEFM in an uncoordinated way that can generate misunderstanding, resentment, confusion, and inefficiencies. Current consultative bodies include only some of these actors, missing an opportunity for a fully coordinated approach.

Furthermore, there is a leading factor of forced marriages in the child marriage where the young girls who are under age of 18 are forced to marry an old aged man which also resulted in many suicide incidents which is again an alarming situation. Most importantly Bangladesh is an Islamic state with the Muslim majority and hence forced marriage is not allowed in Islam. Both the groom and the bride must consent to the marriage. The consent of the woman is essential, and must be obtained, and any marriage which is forced is considered to be batil or void. In addition, child marriages lead to the faster population growth which results in consumption of more resources than production which consequently leads to the economic crises. The same is the case with Bangladesh. 

However, in response to address this particular issue, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina committed to end child marriage by 2041, but her government has not sought civil society input and is unhelpful in affirming loopholes in child marriage laws. Bangladesh’s move towards middle income status is seen as making them less responsive to international pressure. Moreover, Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs Ministry Of Women And Children Affairs (MOWCA) is in charge of the National Plan of Action to End Child Marriage which is currently  working closely with UNICEF and UNFPA on child marriage. Moreover, Education Ministry also collaborates on child marriage projects and Ministry of Home Affairs set up women’s helpdesk in a police station in Jamalpur in 2015 with support from UNFPA to respond to gender-based violence (GBV) (UNFPA & UNICEF).

UNICEF/UNFPA through Global Programme support a number of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), including Plan, Population Council; helped the government with National Action Plan, now helping to get monitoring & evaluation plan finished and released but yet the government of Bangladesh does not have a standing coordinating body on CEFM that includes civil society District/Local Governments. Bangladesh’s village or union level councils must include at least 3 women; some of these councils are forming standing committees on GBV and CEFM Local governments are commonly engaged in child marriage projects, but do not have an integrated approach across sectors.

However, the public awareness has taken this particular issue into account as recently on 8^th August 2022, BBC highlighted a Bangladeshi student named Sanjida Islam Choya who has also been named to the list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2022 for her role in the fight against child marriage in Bangladesh which a very positive gesture for Bangladesh generally and particularly for the women empowerment in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, but students like Sanjida will soon change the fate of Bangladesh and upcoming government is also expected to take this issue into serious accounts and get resolved as soon as possible.