Harmful practices prevail despite legal knowledge: a mixed-method study on the paradox of child marriage in Bangladesh

Figures & data

Table 1. Distribution of respondents

Observation units	Number
No. of total households	1164
No. of total respondents	4434
Parents	2241
Fathers	1122
Mothers	1119
Adolescent girls	1100
Adolescent boys	1093
District-wise distribution of the respondents	Frequency (%)
Tangail (sadar)	1089 (24.6)
Nilphamari	1682 (37.9)
Dimla	833 (49.5)
Domar	849 (50.5)
Kushtia	1663 (37.5)
Kumarkhali	828 (49.8)
Mirpur	835 (50.2)

Table 2. Characteristics of the respondents

	Father (n = 1122)	Mother (n = 1119)	Adolescent girl (n = 1100)	Adolescent boy (n = 1093)
Mean (±SD) age (in years)	45.1 (±7.1)	36.6 (±5.3)	13.9 (±2.4)	14.1 (±2.8)
Marital status
Married	–		0.6	0.7
Unmarried			99.4	99.3
Education
No education	33.6	25.0	–	0.3
Primary and below	27.3	34.6	31.6	39.0
Above primary up to SSC	27.8	36.2	63.0	57.0
Higher secondary	5.2	2.1	5.2	3.0
Above higher secondary	6.1	2.1	0.2	0.7
Occupation
Wage worker	50.2	2.0	5.8	0.1
Self employed	35.3	1.9	1.1	–
Service	11.5	3.7	1.2	0.1
Homemakers	0.4	90.4	–	0.2
Student	0.3	0.6	90.4	98.7
Others	2.4	1.4	1.6	1.0
Household socioeconomic features
Monthly household income (in BDT), mean (±SD)	20,118.0 (±15,687.7)
Access to mobile phone	96.4
Access to smart phone	29.0

Note: Unless specified otherwise, % of respondents in each category is reported.

Table 3. Consequences of practising and preventing child marriage (respondents’ perception in percentage)

	For parents who practice	For those who prevent
Legal punishments
Imprisonment	86.7	–
Monetary penalty	4.2
Shameful to the society	1.4
Social sanctions
No consequence	87.9	71.5
Social isolation	4.8	4.3
Threat of violence	2.7	17.8
Considered shameful to the society	6.9	9.5

Note: Respondents did not mention any legal punishment for those who try to prevent child marriage.

Table 4. Perception regarding approval of child marriage (respondents’ perception in percentage)

Do you approve child marriage?	Father	Mother		Father	Mother		Girl	Boy
	For girls only			For boys only			For both boys and girls
Approve/neutral	7.3	5.5	P-value^†: .088	6.4	3.8	P-value^†,*: .004	1.6	2.8	P-value^†,*: .039
Disapprove	92.7	94.5		93.6	96.3		98.5	97.2
Do your family, friends, and community approve child marriage?	Respondents’ perception about their family’s approval			Respondents’ perception about their friends’ approval			Respondents’ perception about their communities’ approval
Approve child marriage	1.8			1.5			7.5
Neutral	3.2			6.0			12.1
Disapprove child marriage	95.0			92.5			80.4

*Statistically significant (P-value < .05).

^† Chi-squared test of independence was performed to assess the possible relationship between type of respondent and perception.

Table 5. Perceived reasons to marry off adolescents (respondents’ perception in percentage)

	Father	Mother	Adolescents^a
Perceived reasons to marry off adolescent girls early
Avoid criticism from society	10.4	11.3	14.8
Protect from sexual harassment	7.7	11.1	14.3
Reduce financial burden	13.5	9.5	12.4
Good marriage proposals	13.4	15.1	7.4
Perceived reasons to marry off adolescent boys early
Good marriage proposals	4.0	3.7	3.8
Improve sense of responsibility	23.3	27.6	33.8

Note: The percentages within the table represent proportions that gave the mentioned responses.

^a Adolescent girls were asked about girls’ marriage and boys were asked about boys’ marriage.

Table 6. Prevention of child marriage (respondents’ perception in percentage)

Will you prevent child marriage around you?	In my family				In my community
Yes, I will stop child marriage	87.9				83.2
No/not my concern	12.4				16.8
My community expects the kazis (marriage registrars) to stop child marriage	Father	Mother	Boy	Girl	P-value^†,*
Does not expect so	30.0	26.6	34.1	30.4	.002
Expects so	70.1	73.4	65.9	69.6

*Statistically significant (P-value < .05).

^† Chi-squared test of independence was performed to assess the possible relationship between type of respondent and perception.

Table 7. Perception on exchanging dowry (respondents’ perception in percentage)

	Father	Mother	Girl	Boy
Community expects dowry from bride					P-value^†
	65.8	68.0	66.6	65.3	.558
Perception of dowry practices in last 5 years in their community					P-value^†*
Increased	46.7	65.0	60.5	43.6	.000
Decreased	29.8	23.0	22.6	30.5
Remained same	23.2	11.5	13.6	21.2
No idea	0.4	0.5	3.4	4.8
Perception on punishments for exchanging dowry					P-value^‡
No punishment	4.1	7.1	3.9	4.4	.001*
Considered shameful to society	12.8	5.6	5.5	10.4	.000*
Imprisonment	83.6	81.8	83.1	79.9	.101
Monetary penalty	65.8	53.0	51.2	56.5	.000*
Community arbitration	10.7	8.0	6.3	10.0	.001*
Formal warning	15.7	7.2	5.8	11.6	.000*

*Statistically significant (P-value < .05).

^† Chi-squared test of independence was performed to assess the possible relationship between type of respondent and perception.

^‡ Chi-squared test of homogeneity was performed to assess the possible variation among different respondent categories by each response.

Data availability statement

The anonymised dataset used during the study is available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.