State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki on Monday said child marriage aged under 15 would be eliminated by 2021 to make the country free from the menace of early marriage.
“The rate of early marriage has reduced significantly as the government has taken massive initiative including awareness campaign and affirmative policy action,” she told a press conference on “Child Marriage Prevention” in the conference room of the Women and Children Affairs Ministry here. Secretary of the Women and Children Affairs Ministry Nasima Begum and senior officials of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and UNICEF, among others, were present at the press conference.
Referring to the statistics of BBS, Chumki said, “The rate of child marriage aged under 18 stands at 47 while the figure of early marriage aged under 15 is 10.70 percent.”
She said, “A report claimed that the rate of child marriage has increased in the country. But it is not true…. I have checked sources of the report, which has been prepared on old data.
According to the BBS multiple cluster survey of 2015, the proportion of the child marriage has reduced. The survey said the rate of child marriage was 64.1 percent in 2006 while it stood at 52.3 percent in 2014. Poverty, illiteracy and lack of awareness are responsible for the high rate of child marriage in the country.
The state minister said the government is sincerely working to stop child marriage from the society as it hinders the development process in the country.
