The way early marriage aids poverty

Early marriage is a grave concern in our country. Mostly girls are falling victim to the social ills. They are bearing the brunt of it on different fronts including health, education, policy making and social, political, cultural and economic empowerment.
There are 32 million adolescent people in Bangladesh, 51 per cent of them are girls. A half of them aged 15-19 years are married. According to a report of the UNICEF launched in 2014, Bangladesh sees the highest rate of early marriage in the South Asian region (3rd in the world: UNFPA). In the country 50 per cent girls are married before 18. Seventy per cent are in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas). Thirty-nine per cent are married before 15. Twenty per cent girls are married between 15-24 years. They give birth to three or more children. One in every three mothers who are 20 years old is prone to the high maternal mortality risk, pregnancy complications and health-related vulnerabilities. Forty-eight per cent married girls take treatment on advice of their husbands.
Early marriage leaves women dispirited socially, politically, culturally and also economically and ultimately sees them caught in the quagmire of poverty. Such marriages go against the international standard, international human rights and also the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 or its proposed reformed version.
When a girl is married earlier, she has the less opportunity to go to school, to take higher education and be aware of her own rights and responsibilities. It increases violence against women in society. It weakens our social structure in the sense that an educated mother can socialise her offsprings. She can teach them good norms, values, ideals and belief. But an uneducated mother cannot do it. Napoleon says, "Give me a good mother, I shall give you a good nation."  The child of a qualified mother is comparatively better than that of an unqualified one.
Early marriage is a great barrier to women's empowerment. This leaves the girls fully dependent on husbands morally and economically due to the lack of education because of dropping out of school. They run the risk of developing health vulnerabilities like uterus cancer and giving birth to more than one child due to dependence on the family for every decision. That leads to a rise in population in our country. They are less capable of facing natural and other disasters due to their physical weakness.
We need to take appropriate measures for removing the curse of early marriage in our country by sending our girls to school so that they become more aware of their rights and responsibilities for their families, society and finally the state. National and international laws should be accurately implemented to lift them out of the quagmire of early marriage to ensure the social security and thus develop our society. Our patriarchal outlook should be shunned and we should show respect to women as human beings and ensure their rights and dignity in society. Women should enjoy equal justice and rights in society.
In the perspective of Bangladesh the following steps can help us get rid of the curse of early marriage: a) sending girls to school; b) increasing stipends to inspire them to get admitted to schools; c) raising awareness of guardians about the bad impacts of early marriage and changing their outlook on their girls that the girls are not a burden for a family but blessing for them; d) severe punishment for people like marriage registrars, guardians and the local influential people indulging in early marriage; e) ensuring local government involvement to stop it; f) arrangement of dialogue with religious leaders like Imams or prayer leaders at mosques, priests, local politicians and the elite.
After all, culture and religions have their immense impact on marriages in South Asia, including Bangladesh.

The writer is Assistant Manager at the Social Advocacy & Knowledge Dissemination Unit of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) at Agargaon in Dhaka.
 dumarashid@gmail.com