Poverty, child marriage and family tragedy

It is an emotion-packed suicide note. The writer is a teenager named Israfil Hossain aged 17. Now deceased, the teenager betrothed his sweetheart Rokeya Khatun only 15 years old, whose suicide apparently prompted him to take his own life. Based on the suicide note, at least the police suspect that the underage married couple committed suicide---first the girl and then the boy. In his suicide note left on the table the young lover sought pardon from his parents for not staying by them. Addressing his beloved as his 'heart', he wrote, "it is for me my 'jan' (life) has hanged herself". So he could live no longer. She is waiting for him. Wishing everyone well, he made his last request to bury her Rokeya beside him.
Neither of the duo reached the legal age of marriage. But they were in a serious relationship like Romeo and Juliet, both of whom were also teenagers. They were not from aristocratic but working class background and yet they faced opposition to their union from their families like the Montague and Capulet. But both of them were employed---the boy working at a workshop in Shripur's Maona and the girl at a garment factory in the area. With enough financial independence, they decided to marry in secret away from their parents. At one stage both families accepted their marriage and the couple came to live in a flat of the same building the boy's family lived in.
So, what led the young wife to end her life when she was accepted by her father-in-law's family? The report does not indicate any family dispute. If there was an issue, it might have been between the two. Can it be it is raw emotion that actually was responsible for this tragedy? Yes, passion and emotion at their ages can be overwhelming. This is exactly why child marriage has been legally prohibited not only in this country but also worldwide. This is a terrible loss of two golden souls. At a time when teenage gangs are involved in horrible crimes, at least this young soul was faithful to a girl until his death. He also believed that in the afterlife, he must join with her.
Contrast this with a mother in her mid-20s who threw herself along with her one and a half years old son under a moving train on Wednesday last. She was divorced by her husband who had gone to Kuwait as a migrant worker with Tk500,000 from her father. No alimony did she receive and she tried her best to have a settlement. Before her suicide, she posted on the Facebook what she was going to do. Earlier she also submitted a written complaint with the local police station against her ex-husband and his family but to no avail. Her husband returned home but was in hiding. Her frustration led her to take the ultimate decision.
This is, however, not the only tragedy families in Bangladesh suffer. Child marriage, the primary reasons behind which are poverty and insecurity of a girl child, is a sure recipe for such tragedies. Heart-wrenching tragic news exposes from time to time the regressive social journey to the pit of frustration where a mother or a couple poisons her/its children to death before doing the same to herself or itself.
After the pandemic, pauperisation of some well-off families happened and soaring inflation in the aftermath of Ukraine war has only exacerbated many such families' financial condition. Globally, 282 million suffered from acute hunger in 2023 and the number of people who suffered high levels of acute food insecurity in Bangladesh was 11.9 million people, according to the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) of which 16 international organisations including the Food and Agriculture Organisastion (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are members. It is indeed a shame that food security for so many people is still illusive at a time when the world produces more than its population needs and also wastes a colossal amount.

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