Child marriage is a curse for our society. This presentation will give you an idea of child marriage, scenario of child marriage in Bangladesh and in the world, causes of child marriage and how we can prevent child marriage including some cases.

1. Dr. Shakil Ahmed
BDS, MPH

2. Every Year 15 million children is married
1 in 3 girls In the developing world are said
to be married before 18.
41000 Girls are married per day
28 Girls In every minutes
1 Girl in every 2 seconds
1.2 Billion
by 2050
650 million
Women alive
today
married as
Children
156 Million
Men alive
today
married as
children
1 in 5 girls
are married
before 18

3. Child marriage is any marriage, carried out below the age of 18 years,
before the girl is not physically and psychologically ready to shoulder the
responsibilities of marriage and child bearing.
Simply, “Child Marriage" means a marriage to which either of the
contracting parties is a child.
According to Child Marriage restrain act of Bangladesh, "child" means a
person who, if a male, is under 21 years of age, and if a female, is under 18
years of age.

4. Bangladesh has the fourth highest rate of child marriage in the world,
according to UNICEF between 2003-2015.
It occurs 80% in poor families and 53% in rich families.
Meherpur has the highest 57.3% of currently married female aged 15-19
years.
Sylhet has the lowest 11% of currently married female aged 15-19 years.
71%
35%

5. The incidence of child marriage 53% in urban areas and 70% in rural areas.
Surprisingly child marriage is less common (49.6%) in slum areas than the non
slum areas (56.4%)
In our country, it seems educated women (who have had secondary and higher
education) have lesser tendency (27.5%) to marry before 18 years than woman
with no education (52.4%).
Also Muslim population have higher rate (51.4%) of child marriage than Non-
Muslim population (32%)

7. Child marriage (marriage before age 18 years) is an internationally
recognized health and human rights violation disproportionately affecting
girls, globally-
According to the UN, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the
leading causes of death for girls aged 15-19 years in developing countries.
UNICEF estimates Stillbirths and newborn deaths are 50 percent higher
among mothers under the age of 20 than in women who get pregnant in their
20s.
Child marriage affects more than the young girls; the next generation is also
at higher risk for illness and death.

8. Adolescent mothers have a 35%–55% higher risk than older women
for delivering infants who are preterm and of low birth weight.
Mortality rates are 73% higher for infants born to mothers <20 years of
age than for those born to older mothers
Nations with higher rates of girl child marriage are significantly more
likely to contend with higher rates of maternal and infant mortality and
non utilization of maternal health services( WHO)

9. Girls married young are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence
and sexual abuse than those who marry later. ( WHO).
In Mali, a case-control study of 200 participants with and without
cervical cancer, among whom the mean age at marriage was 15 years,
HPV was detected in 97% of the cases.
In sub-Saharan Africa, girls ages 15–19 years are 2–8 times more
likely than boys of the same age to become infected with HIV.

10. says Babatunde Osotimehin, M.D,
Executive Director, UNFPA.
He also says-
If child marriage is not properly addressed, UN Millennium Development Goals
4 & 5 - calling for a two-thirds reduction in the under-five mortality rate and a
three-fourths reduction in the maternal deaths by 2015 - will not be met.

11. Poverty
Gender discrimination: Even today in this modern era there are lots of places
where people consider boy child as good luck whereas girl child is not. They don’t
get proper education and proper amenities to lead a good life, rather they are being
forced to child marriage.
Tradition and Culture: Some of the communities follow old traditional based on
some old religious beliefs. They neither change them nor do they want to change
the cruel traditional and cultural beliefs.

12. Inadequate laws
Lack of awareness
Insecurity: The growing rate of women harassment and rape cases ,people get insecure
about their daughter’s future. Before she walks into her adulthood, parents get them
married with an elderly person.
Education
Protecting the girl's sexuality : In certain cultures, marrying a girl young presumes that
the girl's sexuality, therefore the girl's family's honour, will be "protected" by ensuring
that the girl marries as a virgin, One of the leading causes of early marriage .

13. Cont...
Lack of awareness of the law related to child marriage : While the Prohibition
of Child Marriage Act, 2006 has made Child marriage a serious and punishable
offense, awareness of the law, its clauses and implications is still severely limited
Dowry : Parents are attracted by the prospect of lower Dowry payments if they
marry their daughters off at an early age.
The fear : The fear that a girl will become too old for marriage, which will represent
a failure on the part of her parents.
Pressure of society and relatives

14. On Health,
Physical:
Premature Pregnancy
Maternal Mortality
Infant Mortality
Malnutrition
Psychological:
Anxiety
Depression

15. On Social life,
Educational:
Barriers against study
Increases illiteracy rate
 Human rights:
Violates Women’s & child’s right
 Interrupts Freedom
Domestic:
 Increase poverty
 Increase domestic violence

18. Sadia married, when she was 15. She said,
“We were very poor— sometimes we would
eat every two or three days.”
Sadia is the youngest of the three girls. Her
older sisters married at ages 11 and 12. Even
though they really wanted to study it wasn’t
possible.
“My parents couldn’t feed me so they
decided to get me married, so I had no
choice. The economic situation of my in-
laws is a little better– at least I can eat now,”
she said.

19. “My mother wanted me to get married because
sometimes girls and boys run away, she was
afraid I would fall in love with someone,” said
Hasina, who is 15 or 16 and married 5 months
ago.
“She stopped my education because she wanted
me to get married. I was getting old and people
were saying a lot of things.” said Hasina

20. Mashuma is 35 explaining why she arranged her
daughter’s marriage at 17.
“We had to get her married to save our respect because
my daughter was very pretty and people were threatening
to kidnap her and every time she went to school and she
was harassed.”
She also said, “My daughter told us that there was a boy
with a motorcycle who said he wanted to take her to his
family.
Then my husband and my brothers got together and
decided on a marriage for her. My daughter was not happy
to marry— she wanted to study more and get a job but
unfortunately we couldn’t.”

21. Due to illness of Rumi’s mother & her father decided to
give her marriage, when she was at 15 years old though
she was born in rich family.
Rumi said, “My prospective in-laws had promised to
continue my education when my parents negotiated for
their 21-year-old son to marry me. But after my marriage,
I was forced to drop out of school.”
My mother-in-law said, ‘We need a grandchild so it is time
for you to get pregnant.”
“I am 17 now and have a six-month-old child. The baby
was born by c-section, and had a hard time recovering
from the operation. My father made a mistake and he’ll
never make this mistake again, having agreed to the
marriage about his 2 younger daughters.” Rumi said.

22. Educating girls
Empowering girls
Educating parents
Strict application of law

23. Provide relevant economic support
Mobilize religious leaders and community leader
Advocate for women as a community leader
Get informed and take action
Raising awareness among rural and poor people

24. Sponsoring poor girl child.
Support anti child marriage charities and organizations.
Support artists, journalist who raise awareness against child marriage.
Registering birth certificate and marriage.

25. As per the prime minister’s commitment at the July 2014 London Girl
Summit, produce a national plan of action to end child marriage by 2041, and
fully incorporate this plan of action into the government’s seventh 5 year plan
for fiscal years 2016 through 2020. Ensure that the plan is adequately
resourced.
Make marriage registration compulsory for all religions. Create digital
records that are accessible throughout the country as proof of marriage.
Initiate a nationwide awareness campaign against child marriage in a variety
of media.
Coordinate with schools to monitor problems of harassment of female
students and intervene to prevent and end harassment, including by contacting
law enforcement authorities in cases involving alleged criminal acts.
Investigate all complaints of child marriage promptly.

26. While the incidence of child marriage has decreased worldwide, it has
increased in Bangladesh. Bangladesh stands fourth in child marriage
prevalence, second only to India in numbers. The three other countries where
the child marriage rate is higher than Bangladesh are backward African
countries. This report was launched globally on 6 March 2018 by UNICEF.
Dhaka, March 12, Monday ,2018 (UNB), State Minister for Women and
Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki on Monday said that early marriage
under 15 years of age can be halted by 2021.
The state minister said the government is very firm to stop child marriage
because it is a violation of human rights and an obstacle for women
empowerment.