City Desk :
Integrated efforts of both senior and junior citizens can be the best ways of ending child marriage for the sake of protecting maternal and neonatal health everywhere in the society.
Simultaneously, all the government and non-government organizations concerned and the community as a whole should come forward and work together to combat child marriage and child pregnancy as it’s the precondition for improvement of child and maternal health.
The views were expressed at a consultation meeting on preventing child marriage by government officials, development activists and leaders of influence organised on the sixteenth instant at conference hall of Deputy Commissioner (DC) in Rajshahi.
Association for Community Development (ACD), a rights-based development entity, organized the meeting under its project titled “Ending Child Marriage through Adolescents Voice and Stakeholders Responsiveness” supported by UNICEF, reports BSS.
DC Abdul Jalil addressed the meeting as chief guest, while Additional Deputy Commissioner Kolyan Chowdhury was in the chair and ACD Executive Director Salima Sarwar welcomed the participants.
Prof Prodip Kumar Pandey from the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism in Rajshahi University gave an illustration on the child marriage situation in the region and the country as well during his keynote paper presentation.
Abdul Jalil said the present government under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been implementing diversified programmes to free the society from child marriage.
Terming child marriage as gross violation of human rights he also said it is vital to increase awareness regarding the negative impacts of child marriage with the help of the mass media.
DC Jalil also said responsive support from the community, especially local administration, public representatives, teachers, parents and influential leaders, has become indispensable to ensure adolescent-friendly reproductive health services for reducing child marriage and child pregnancy substantially and sustainable.
Ensuring equal rights on education, training, science and technology is also important to women empowerment.
Overall national development could be possible when the children coming from the poor and underprivileged families will be educated and ensure all other fundamental rights they deserve, he added.
Physical and mental development of children could be possible when they were protected from violence and deprivation.
District Family Planning Officer Dr Kustary Amina Queen, District Education Officer Nasir Uddin, Deputy Director of the Department of Women Affairs Shobnom Shirin and District Child Affairs Officer Monzur Quader also spoke.
