RANGPUR, Mar 20: The trend of child marriage is going on unabated in rural areas of the district. Consequently a good number of children especially, girls are deprived of education and undergo severe health hazards.
According to sources, the incidence of child marriage is still alarming in the remote and char areas at different upazilas under the district. Illiteracy and poverty and are the main reasons of this kind of matrimony.
Acute poverty compels many parents across the char areas to stop their children's education, sources said.
It is alleged that many parents of the boys and girls aged below 18 years perform the marriage of their children in collusion with a section of greedy marriage registrars (Kazi) who are involved in registering marriage violating laws, showing fake ages as there is no sufficient pragmatic steps in this regard.
These early married children suffer from different health problems owing to giving early birth and bearing huge family load at a very early age.
Aklima Khatun of Char Ekota under Kawnia upazila in Rangpur told FE that she was forced to get married when she was only a student of class IV. She was compelled to stop her educational activities after her marriage, though she was eager about achieving higher education, she said.
All her hopes of being higher educated got shattered because of early marriage caused by abject poverty, Aklima added.
Many other children like Aklima at different rural areas in the district are being compelled to get married before completing primary education. It is very common feature of the char areas in the district, sources said wishing anonymity.
Teachers of many primary schools of rural areas in the district said, the enrollment rate is satisfactory but only a limited number of students are able continue their primary education due to this menace.
Nazrul Mia, a former union council chairman under Kawnia upazila, said, child marriage is still going on in the remote char areas of the upazila, though it is forbidden by law.
It is not possible for the government to solve this problem alone. People also should be more conscious about the harmful effects of early marriage, he added.
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