Just before reaching his 18 years, Jahirul first got married with an underage girl in 2001 showing thumb to the existing laws and rules of the country. Even he did not register his marriage for lack of valid documents, paving the way to cut his tie with his newly married spouse.
One year after his marriage, Jahirul who lived in Gobaria village under Kuliarchar in Kishoreganj got divorced with his wife easily and he did not face any trouble to do so as their marriage wasn’t registered.
Later, he got married two more times with underage girls without registration of marriages. Every time Johirul did this cleverly to avoid law suits.
It is common phenomena in rural and marginalised communities in the country that many marriages held with underage brides and grooms remain unregistered. The poor families force their girls to get married so that they can cut their family burden.
A new study reveals the worst scenario of child marriage, saying about 44 percent of the marriages held with underage girls were not registered in the country in 2016 and 2017. Even in those marriages, which had been registered, none used any proof of age or birth certificate, reports BSS.
The study analyzed of 85 cases of child marriages that took place in 19 districts. The findings of the study titled ‘Children in Bangladesh: Progress towards Commitments in 2017’ was revealed at a discussion at Jatiya Press Club in the capital on Thursday.
Out of the 85 child brides, the study shows, about 80 percent were 14-16 years old while about 13 percent were 10-13 years and only seven percent were 17-18. In 56 percent of cases, the marriages were registered while the rest were not recorded.
A 10-member network of development and rights organisations conducted the study using both primary and secondary data.
The study identifies that superstition about marital status of girls, dowry, insecurity, social pressure, poverty, death of parents, love affairs, sexual harassment, and seeing girls as a family burden are the major reasons behind early marriage.
Of the child brides, 15 percent were students of grades III and V, about 50 percent of grade-VIII, and the remaining 35 percent of grades IX and X, the study says, revealing that 35 percent of grooms out of the 85 cases were also underage.
It recommended establishing a monitoring cell to check underage marriages and finalise the Draft National Action Plan to Eliminate Child Marriage (2015-2021).
Speaking at the discussion, Ain o Salish Kendra executive director Sheepa Hafiza said a fact-finding mission should be formed to better understand the situation of child marriage at field levels.
Apart from enacting the Child Marriage Restraint Act-2017, the government has recently formulated the Child Marriage Restraint Rules-2018, said Laila Jesmin, additional secretary of the Women and Children Affairs Ministry.
As per the rules, she said, a verification committee headed by upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) will be formed in each upazila to evaluate the ‘best interest’ of underage children if they have to be married under the special circumstances provision of the law.