‘Lower marriage age plan a bad signal’

The junior British minister for international development has said that the government’s proposal to lower the marriageable age for girls will send a “conflicting message” to a campaign to end child marriage.

Lynne Featherstone, a champion of international violence against women champion as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, said on Tuesday the idea also “contradicts” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s commitment to the London summit held this July.

She was speaking to the press before leaving Dhaka on Tuesday, ending her first visit to Bangladesh.

British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Gibson and Country Representative of the UK development agency, DFID, Sarah Cooke were present at the press briefing at the high commission.

Featherstone’s visit followed the July summit where Hasina had promised to eliminate marriage under 15 years of age by 2021 and under 18 by 2041.

Bangladesh, the law treats a person as a child until 18, is known for the highest percentage of child marriage in South Asia.

However, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has recently proposed lowering the age of marriage to 16. Junior health minister Zahid Maleque said the suggestion has been made because of the “tendency to elope” among many girls forces parents to marry them off.

Lynne Featherstone met with Shabnaz, one of the girls who lives at Rahmat Camp.

The proposal triggered widespread criticism, forcing the health ministry to say the matter would be discussed with all stakeholders and send a proposal to the cabinet, although it was not their proposal.

Featherstone said that during her three-day visit she had got the impression that many of the ministers in the cabinet are against lowering the marriage age.

That, she said, made her optimistic about the spirit of the Prime Minister being ultimately upheld.

She also asked youths to start a campaign against child and forced marriages which, she said, was “a universal problem”.

Featherstone also launched a campaign on “safe cities for women” in Bangladesh, in which the UK government will fund in four countries including Bangladesh.

Girls who marry early are more likely to experience domestic and sexual violence, and complications or death during childbirth.

Such violence had a significant impact on women and girls’ ability to get out of poverty, she said.

She said the UK’s commitments made at the Girl Summit to eliminate child marriage and all forms of violence must become a reality, in Bangladesh, in the UK, and in all other countries.

“It’s a global initiative to help solve an issue that undermines development and affects communities worldwide,” she said.

The UK government will give £25 million to Unicef for a programme to prevent child and forced marriage in 12 developing countries including Bangladesh.

She said they would identify priorities and actions in the next few months.

She also visited Manikganj on Tuesday and heard from women how the installation of a solar electricity system had changed their lives.

The junior minister also met a group of women and girls at a slum in Mirpur and learnt how they were working to prevent violence against women with the help of UK funded projects.