Early marriage
Early marriage | Saturday, 27 April 2019
Bangladesh has one of the world's highest rates of early marriage. According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 66 per cent of Bangladeshi girls are married before the age of 18 and approximately one- third of women aged 20 to 24 are married by the age of 15.
Globally, one in five women are married before they turn 18 years old and a decade ago, the rate was one in four.
The reasons behind the early marriage are poverty, social norms, customs and religious laws. Poverty is a major underpinning factor encouraging early marriage. Young girls are often considered an economic burden by their families and their marriage to an older man and into another family is often a family survival strategy in order to obtain financial security. Additionally, parents are attracted by the prospect of lower dowry payments if they marry their daughters off at an early age. Another root cause of early marriage in Bangladesh is the fear of sexual harassment of young daughters. Early marriage is seen as a way to "protect" a girl's sexuality in an unsafe environment.
Recently the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA) released a report "State of World Population 2019" that stated nearly 0.75 million teenagers give birth every year in Bangladesh. That means these girls will most likely not continue with their education or enter the job market. The adolescent fertility levels have remained relatively unchanged during the past 25 years with the adolescent fertility percentage being 33 per cent in 1994 and it is 31 per cent in 2018.
The consequences of early marriage can be devastating for teenagers. Marriages can rob girls of their childhood, compromise their development and put them at risk of early and complicated pregnancies. They often pay a heavy price in not getting an education or access to proper healthcare and economic opportunities.
Early marriage is known to have dangerous consequences for health and development of girls. So, social consciousness and local administration surveillance are important to prevent teenagers' early marriage in our society.
Md Zillur Rahaman
Satish Sarker Road
Gandaria, Dhaka
zrbbbp@gmail.com