Is the government doing enough to deter child marriage?

My grandmother was married at the age of eleven just a century ago in 1924. She gave birth to three sons and a daughter over a decade.

My father was the second son who got married at the age of twenty when my mother was only fifteen. Both my mother and grandmother were housewives who dedicated their entire lives to serving the families and the neighborhoods.

Especially my mother had to take over charge of the household essentials since the second day of her marriage as my grandmother was not in good health. She was meritorious in her school life but could not continue further education because she was married off. My maternal grandfather – a Jamidar of that period, was a true visionary person who bought a house in the Lalbag area of Dhaka city to ensure the education of his sons but was a bit reluctant about the education of his daughter and found the most socially accepted solution to marrying off his most genius daughter. Starting from managing the in-laws my mother had to rear nine kids and I can hardly remember any day when she could finish her meals in peace throughout her lifetime on a regular basis.

Even after years, the stories of our sisters remain the same. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has recently reported an alarming upswing in child marriage, despite the government's strong commitment to end marriage of children under 15 by 2021, and in a policy context when the state machinery is set to build smart Bangladesh by next one and half a decade.

Globally, around 650 million girls and women alive today were married before the age of 18, which has been perceived as a gross violation of human rights and the worst form of violence against women and children. Child marriage has to dwell on eccentric drivers and consequences of poverty, which has been found to be a wide-ranging problem in Bangladesh as the country stands at the fourth-highest rate of child marriage before the age of 18.

UNICEF report released on May 2023 leveled Bangladesh as the highest in South Asia and the eighth highest in the world with regards to child marriage. BBS conducted the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics Survey 2023 covering over 3.08 lakh households from across the country including married women aged between 20-24 years. The BBS survey shows a 10.3 percent rise in the rate of child marriage before the age of 18 during 2020-2023 while the rate in the case of girls aged below 15 stands almost double from 4.9% to 8.2% during the same period. Like many other social indicators child marriage before the age of 18 has been found higher in rural areas at 44.4% compared to the urban areas at 33.5%.

BRAC has conducted a non-conventional survey covering sixty thousand adolescents from around fifty-seven thousand households of twenty-seven districts, which echoes almost similar finding as BBS i.earound  44.7% of girls were married off before 18 while 6.9% of them were married off under 15 given that the survey was also conducted among married women aged 20-24 years. BRAC study also revealed that girls aged between 16 and 17 are the highest in number (63.1%) experiencing child marriage irrespective of their economic and educational status. The study revealed that girls who are close to completing secondary education are most vulnerable to child marriage where 46.30% of girls who were married off over the last 5 years were students of class nine. The study also revealed that around 70% of adolescent girls are at risk of child marriage due to societal norms and practices.

Plan Bangladesh survey concludes that marriage in Bangladesh society is considered inevitable and necessary and has been found as an obvious responsibility of parents. The survey revealed that girls aged around 15 to 17 are commonly married, unlike a decade or more ago when the common age for marriage for girls was 12 to 14. The study observed that age at marriage is determined by a range of normative and structural factors, such as tradition, economic status of the family, and available opportunities while circumstantial factors also influence the family decision such as finding a good groom or difficult family situations. 

Child marriage has been illegal in Bangladesh since 1929, and the minimum age of marriage was 18 for girls and 21 for boys under the Child Marriage Restrain Act 1929 while the same Act was amended in 2017 with a special provision of arranging marriage at the girl's age of 16 with the consent of the parents following directions from the court considering the best interest of the minor. Such provision sparked criticism from Women and Child rights activists but the Act was reformed keeping the special provision, which does not conform to the core considerations of the consequences, especially the health hazards that a girl has to live with throughout the life just for being married at her tender age. The worst consequence of early marriage on the health of the girls has no correlation with marrying with or without permission – which should be the lonely acceptable argument to reverse the new provision of the Act. 

Impending child marriage can be prohibited, if the incident can be brought before the Court in time but once completed a child's marriage is not considered invalid according to the civil law of the country. Under the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017, there are several provisions for penalties to those who were involved in the ceremony. For example, contracting child marriage by any adult male is an offence and thus shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to two years, or with a fine which may extend to one lakh Taka, or with both, and in default of payment of the fine, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three months;

Marrying off any minor - male or female is also an offense and thus shall be punished with a detention which may extend to one month, or with a fine which may extend to Tk50,000, or with both with an exception if cases/s are filed against their parents and punished under section 8 of the said Act;  Registering child marriage by a Marriage Register has also been defined as an offence and thus be punished with imprisonment which may extend to two years but not less than six months, or with a fine which may extend to Tk50,000, or with both, and in default of payment of the fine, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three months, and his license or appointment shall be cancelled.

Evidence shows that the rate of conviction in the court cases is just around 3% especially relating to the severe form of criminal offense and not all related to the offence of committing child marriage. Enforcement of laws and policies in general and Child Marriage Restrain Act 2017, in particular, has not been found as effective compared to the enthusiasm and spirit of enacting such regulations, which require deeper examination from both the structural and cultural perspective that demands reforms in the court procedure including sensitization of the court officials and operational reform to expedite the rate of conviction.  Like many other surveys, BRAC, Plan International, and UNICEF surveys have identified deep-rooted cultural practices that perpetuate child marriage. Mere social consideration of so-called well-being and securing a girl's future from annoying incidences of harassment or rape, the society certify a male to commit a similar offense under the sacred of marriage where the society and the state apparatus are not prepared to interfere in the violation of norms and rights committed thereafter. Especially, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010 recognised marital rape as an offense but the burden of proof remains a nightmare. Marriage has been the oldest institution in the progression of human civilization but unfortunately, such an important institution has completely failed to safeguard the rights of the parties involved in every cluster of society whether rich or poor, literate or illiterate, developed or underdeveloped. BRAC survey explored that factors like household income or poverty, school attainment, and having more girl children did not show any significant correlation with child marriage. So it is imperative to dig deeper and fix the real cohort of reform agenda to fulfill the government's commitment to end child marriage by 2040. 

Gender equality has been embedded under goal 5 of the global goals of SDG, which has a clear commitment to end child marriage by 2030. Child marriage has an impact beyond boundaries cutting across countries, cultures, and religions.  Non-fulfillment of goal 5 the nation will fall short of at least nine related goals of SDG such as poverty, food security, education, gender equality, economic growth, climate action including peace and justice. The progress in gender and inequality indicators in the 8th five-year plan has not set the rate of child marriage which has not even been discussed under the gender inequality and social inclusion literature. However, this five-year plan stated the progress achieved in reducing the percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married before 18 from 65 percent in 2011 to 51.4 percent in 2019. Adoption of the National Plan of Action to End Child Marriage 2018-2030 is a pragmatic initiative from the government that includes the development partners and non-government organizations for effective implementation but subsequent preparation for operationalizing the plan has been facing difficulties. Building awareness across society is just not enough, as communities, parents, marriage registers, and elected representatives everyone knows that child marriage is an offense but they are not as aware of the consequences. Bangladesh has been on track to achieve most of the targets set out under the SDG by 2030 but to end child marriage special drive should be undertaken considering the following:

Steps that can help deter child marriage

• Ensure effective coordination among concerned agencies to expedite the rate  of conviction;
• Revision of the Child Marriage Restrain Act 2017 omitting the special provision regarding age at marriage;
• Revising the rules of business including the composition of multiple committees from the national to the union level;
• Strengthening Social and Behavioral Communication to fight the predominant social and cultural norms;
• Societal attitudes especially of the parents need to change; 
• Create and enhance social capital dedicated to girls;
• Widening the social space so that girls can grow up as an independent agency.

Sadrul Hasan Mazumder is a Policy Activist and Development Coordinator