Overcoming the Curse of Early Marriage in Bangladesh

Abstract

For building a sturdy and powerful nation, the environment for children should be suitable for them. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), up to 18 years a human being should be treated as a child, because up to that age his or her physical, physiological and psychological growth is not complete. However, the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey revealed that the average age for marriage of girls is 16.4 years in Bangladesh. This means that girls are getting married before their own growth is completed. And within one or two years, they become mothers of a second child. So, they are giving birth to children with their immature wombs and it is obvious that the child will suffer from malnutrition. If the baby is a girl, again she will get married before her own growth is complete, thus the “vicious circle of malnutrition’ will continue. This is the way child marriage is making the whole nation subject to the awful curse of malnutrition. If we want our nation to be prosperous we have to take the initiative to prevent it. There are international and national laws for preventing this but these have limited implementation in reality. This paper will reflect on this situation and the negative impact of child marriage in Bangladesh. The development community is working in Bangladesh to reduce the number of child marriages. One such organization is the Hunger Project, Bangladesh. It is working through more than a hundred thousand volunteers nationwide. They conduct courtyard meetings and campaigns to mobilize communities to prevent early marriage at the community level.

Abstract in Bengali

Keywords:

• The Hunger Project
• youth unit
• child marriage
• child rights
• active citizens
• violence against women

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