Staff Reporter :
Opposing the government’s move to re-fix the minimum of age of marriage through amending law, right activists in the country have opined that if the minimum age of girls’ marriage is legitimized to drop to 16, it would increase the rate of maternal death.
It will also increase the number of child mothers in the country, the right activists said this at a press Conference at the National Press Club in the city on Tuesday.
‘National Committee to Observe International Rural Women’s Day’ arranged the press conference on “No Marriage before 18 to Save Women’s Health: Stop Legitimizing Child Marriage” to mark the day to be observed across the country as elsewhere in the world today (Wednesday).
The Bangladesh government is considering lowering the age of marriage to 16 years for girls. The current legal age of marriage is 18 years when a girl is no longer a child. That is in keeping with the UN Child Rights Convention that Bangladesh ratified.
The changing of legal age means the government will have to depart from all international commitments to prevent child marriage, said the right activists.
Shamima Akhter, Vice President of the National Committee and Executive Director of Eso Foundation, read out the position paper of the group while Ferdaus Ara Rumee, Policy Research and Campaign Coordinator of EquityBD, executive members of the National Committee Nazma Begum, Nahid Sultana and Asif Iqbal also addressed the press conference.
On the occasion of the International Rural Women’s Day, rallies, discussions, seminars and different other programmes will organised in 60 districts of the country, the press conference was told.
Shamima Akhter said that the tradition of child marriage exists in the rural areas of the country in spite of the presence of law where marriage of girls under 18 is prohibited.
In this backdrop, she said, if the minimum age of girls’ marriage is legitimized to drop to 16, it would deteriorate the situation and ultimately increase the rate of the maternal death. It will also be conflicting with the MDG target of reversing the mother’s mortality rate, she said.
Ferdaus Ara Rumee said that Bangladesh has ratified CEDAW, CRC and other UN conventions where all under 18 is declared as children. So setting the minimum age for girls’ marriage should not go below this level, she said.
Nazma Begum said that a number of rural guardians are marrying off their daughters within 16 although the exiting law doesn’t allow girls marriage before 18. If the minimum age is fixed at 16, then girls of even 12-13 years will also be married off.
“Nobody will be able to stop this child marriage. It will also increase the number of child mothers in the society,” she said.
Nahid Sultana strongly opposed the move of the government and urged the government to follow the international law and conventions where it was declared that all under the age of 18 are children.
Asif Iqbal demanded of the government to observe the International Rural Women’s Day officially, as the UN has already recognized the day.
