65pc of girls married off early

Sixty-five percent of girls in Bangladesh are being married off in their childhood, trapping them in a ‘vicious cycle of poverty and ill health’, experts at a roundtable said, calling for action to break the cycle.

Married off before 18, the minimum age set for marriage by the country's law, one out of three child-wives become pregnant, contributing to the high maternal mortality rate, a study has found.

It is mainly worries of security and dowry that drive parents to marry off their daughters early, researchers said at a roundtable arranged by NGO Brac and the English daily The Independent.

They said education and employment could make a big difference.

“Employment alone would not be enough. They have to feel that they have a future career in the job they do, so that they continue (with the work),” Brac’s Director Kaosar Afsana said.

She suggested a ‘multi-sectoral’ approach to break the vicious cycle of child marriage, poverty and ill health.

Findings presented at meet showed that adolescent girls had poor knowledge of reproductive health.

They were further handicapped by traditional beliefs and practices dominating whatever little knowledge they had.

“They can’t talk freely,” a gynecologist Prof Samina Chowdhury said citing her personal experiences.

“In the school health programmes when we go students told us madam please tell our teachers go out then we will talk.

“After that they talk openly. And only then we learn that they basically have no knowledge about their adolescence”.

She also identified security as an issue. “Mostly poor parents think girls born as a burden. One parent abandoned their third child in the hospital because it was a girl child”.

An ICDDR,B scientist Dr Kamrun Nahar said even educated families married off their girls early “if they find a suitable bridegroom”.

“It’s all about security. They feel insecure as the girl grows”.

Actor Mamunur Rashid, however, said the fear was growing with the rise of radical Hifazat-e Islam Chief comparing women with ‘tamarind’, which usually causes drooling when people see it, and telling women not to come out of home.

“Child marriage is not only a social issue, it’s a very much a political issue to prevent,” he said, adding that politicians must have clear vision about “how they want to see our mothers”.