Early marriage ghost still haunts char people of Rangpur

RANGPUR, Jan 30: Parvin Akhter of Char Nazirdaho village under Kawnia upazila in the district got married when she was only a student of class IV. She became the victim of early marriage due to religious superstition and acute poverty.
"I couldn't continue my study due to early marriage, though I had a desire to get higher education", Parvin said.
Parvin, is not alone who got married before completing primary education. It is a very common matter of the rural areas, especially char areas in the district.
According to sources the enrollment of female students is not poor in char areas. The problem is that these children cannot continue their study for long as most parents believe that one or two years of education is enough.
According sources the propensity of child marriage is on the increase especially at remote and char areas at different upazilas under the district. Religious superstition, Illiteracy, poverty and over population are the main reasons of this kind of matrimony.
Many guardians think that it is not permissible in religion to continue study of a female student when she becomes adult. Some parents think that if they fail to arrange early marriage their daughters they will be sinners.
It is also alleged that due to religious superstition many poor families of rural areas do not adopt family planning methods, as a result they give birth to many children. Moreover, in such families most of the poor parents have at least 3 or 4 daughters. Failing to combat acute poverty they compel their daughters to become victim of early marriage.
Sources also alleged that many parents of the boys and girls perform the marriage of their under aged children in collusion with a section of greedy marriage registrars (Kazi) who are registering marriage by violating wedding laws showing false ages as there is no sufficient pragmatic steps in this regard.
Senior Female Right Officer of Rangpur Dinajpur Rural service (RDRS), Rangpur Samse Ara Bilkis said the propensity of early marriage is still going on in char areas of the district.
Due to religious misinterpretation many parents prefer early marriage of their female children instead of continuing their study. Consequently a lot of girls are being deprived of education and are undergoing serious health hazards, she said. Beside religious superstition, acute poverty and ignorance are also the main reasons of such matrimony, she further said.
Though several occasion local administrations stopped such incidents, it is still unabated. In some cases they achieved success to make people aware of the negative impact of child marriage, she said.
The government cannot solve this problem alone as people also should be aware of the detrimental effects of child marriage, she added.

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