Staff Reporter :
Disadvantaged Adolescent Working NGOs (DAWN) forum arranged a press conference titled “Child Marriage Prevention: Not to Lower the Minimum Age of Marriage” held at the National Press Club on Monday.
Quazi Baby, Executive Director, PDAP and Secretary General of DAWN forum presented the keynote paper.
She mentioned that in South Asia, there are 48 percent girls are getting married before 18 and in Bangladesh 65.3 percent are getting married before 18 (source- Unicef, 2005). She also informed, few days ago, it was discussed from Government side that minimum marriage age will be 16 for girls and 18 for boys. We do not agree with this. We do not want to change the present law about the minimum age of marriage she added.
About one hundred journalists, NGOs, and adolescents were present, among others in the press conference.
Quazi Rownak Hossain, Senior-Vice President of the National Press Club was present as the chief guest while HIV/AIDS Alliance International Project Director Dr Najmus Sahar Sadek and Senior Reporter of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) Khairuzzaman Kamal were present as the special guests. President of DAWN forum Md Mahbubul Haq presided over the conference.
