Alaul Alam :
As of the report of 2019 the UNICEF found that 38 million women in Bangladesh were married before they were 18 and about 13 million were married before 15. The report also found that Bangladesh is ranked the 8th among the worst 10 countries with the highest rate of child marriage in the globe and the most vulnerable in South Asia.
Globally, Nigeria is the most vulnerable securing the number 1 position according to the status of child marriage along with other countries such as Niger, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Guyana and Somalia going consecutively.
Child marriage is a form of taboo marriage by the legislation. In most countries of the world marriage before the age of 18 is strictly prohibited as it violates the rights of the children.
It is nothing but a malpractice as it denies girls and boys from attaining health, education and many other opportunities exposing a dire consequence in their life. In Bangladesh context the minimum legal age for marriage is 18 for girls and 21 for boys.
Undoubtedly, things go tougher with the advent of the unprecedented corona crisis as child marriage has increased dramatically. Especially, the girls of the poor families bear the most brunt of it. Not only the child marriage is increasing along with this, many children are turning out to be child labors due tofamily insolvency.
Truly, corona has made a strong split among the haves and the haves not. The poor have become poorer due to enduring long-term economic recession along with many other who have lost their jobs or may be laid out since the start of the covid-19.
In most cases, the informal workers are found severely catastrophic. Many guardians in the rural areas hardly think of any scopes except marrying off their daughters as early as possible out of heavy worries.
School closures have had a dire impact on the girls making them more vulnerable and scary as many of them have hardly any scopes to return school after the Covid -19 crisis. Not only they are exposed to become the victims of child marriage, many have succumbed to their fate of working as domestic servants. According to UNICEF, around 10 million students will never come back to schools due to the unprecedented Covid-19.
The causes of child marriage are many. Different studies show that increasing joblessness, rise in poverty, growing food insecurity, school closure, and a sense of insecurity are some of the reasons of the recent surge in child marriage.
On top of that, conservative outlook of the rural people and religious miss- explanation usually contribute to worsening the situation. Misconception still prevails in the age of digitization as many living in the countryside think that if their daughters get older, it will be difficult to marry their daughters off. Still it is found that many parents are found to look for the younger brides for their sons.
It is no denial that some parents think girls’ education is wastage while boys’ education is an investment that accelerates discriminatory attitudes causing negative impacts on the lives of girls.
Child marriage exposes a serious threat making girls more vulnerable. Research shows that girls married off at the pre-matured age are five times more likely to die during delivery than mothers aged 20-24 years and the girls aged 15 -19 are twice likely to die during delivery .
On top of that, majority of the girls who are married off at the early stage of their life face many health related difficulties such as malnutrition and anemia before and after their motherhood. In some cases, in their later stage they are unable to produce any child that leads to increasing their untold sufferings.
Studies also reveal that the girls who are married off at their early age endure more violence in the families than other matured married women. Domestic violence along with sexual harassment, acid attacks and many more inequalities is also frequently found distressing them.
However, the government has enacted the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017 replacing the old act of 1929 which can contribute to the elimination of child marriage to some extent if this is properly implemented. But there are some areas where the law needs to be clarified.
This law confirms that in regard to special cases a court can allow child marriage but it is not clearly stated what those special cases are, that may allow a devastating rape culture and the perpetrator can be released of the crime if the girl is married to him.
To this end, in order to ensure women empowerment, child marriage must be eliminated. It is imperative to review the existing law to tackle child marriage strictly. Certainly, it will be next to impossible to prevent this malady from the society unless girls and their parents are ignited with the light of education and aware of the rights of girls.
(Mr. Alaul teaches at Prime University. Email: [email protected])
