Suleman Miah

Despite specific laws against child marriage and many awareness campaigns and ongoing efforts to prevent this practice across the country, the harsh reality is that child marriage is a curse that still persists. In remote areas like Char, where life is particularly difficult, the situation is even more dire. A report published in this newspaper on Saturday painted a horrifying picture of hundreds of child brides in Rasulpur Char in Barisal. Poverty and insecurity are forcing parents here to marry off their minor daughters. Needless to say, poverty has always been a major factor behind child marriage, which increased manifold during the pandemic but has continued in the following years as well. According to a recent report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 18…

Since 2011, Bangladesh has seen a 16% reduction in child marriage rates, or 2.1% per year. However, these improvements have not been evenly distributed across the country. Significant reductions have been observed among the wealthier and more educated segments of society, while the prevalence of child marriage among disadvantaged, uneducated, rural girls remains alarmingly high. Persistent economic inequality, unequal access to education, especially to completing secondary education, limited empowerment of girls, established gender norms, and slow changes in social mindsets – exacerbated by major factors such as climate change and inflation – pose serious threats to this hard-earned progress. Child brides are more likely to experience violence and childbearing than adult brides, and are less likely to have educational and decision-making…