Talha Bin Habib, Back from Comilla
Though child marriage has been banned by the enactment of law but in real sense it is still rampant in most of the villages of the country. Early marriage remains the major cause for maternal mortality and hindrance to proper mental and physical growth of children.
Illiteracy, ignorance and superstition have been keeping our girls backward and forcing them to accept early marriage.
In Bangladesh matrimonial age has been fixed at 18 for girls and 21 for boys under the existing law. But, girls are being given in marriage in rural areas when they are only 12-17 years.
But the scenario started changing. Kamalapur village under sadar upazila in Comilla is an exception. It is now a ‘village free from child marriage’. The girls of the village are free from the menace of ‘early marriage’. Social awareness campaign and role of respectable local people helped them to know about the negative impacts of child marriage.
Sima (12) and Shamoly (13) are the two girls who refused to marry during their childhood and continue their studies.
The early marriage attempts of the two girls had been thwarted by strong intervention of the conscious people, religious leaders, union parishad chairman and members of Kamalapur Family Development Centre ( Kamalapur Poribar Unnayan Kendra) under 1 No Kalilrbazar Union of sadar upazila in Comilla.
The guardians of the two girls agreed not to marry off their school going girls as the conscious people of the village convinced them positively.
The positive development of ‘ child marriage’ came to light when a group of journalists visited the ” Advocacy and Communication for the Children and Women Development Project ” (Third phase) which is implemented by Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) with the assistance of UNICEF in Comilla. Md Anwar Uddin, deputy director of the project led the team.
Sima Rani Das and Shamoly Rani Das both are now studying in class seven of Syedpur High School. Sima’s father Subas Chandra Das is marginalised farmer. He has a family of six members. But due to constant poverty Sima’s father had decided to give her in marriage.
But the members of the Kamalapur Family Development Centre convinced Sima’s family on the negative impacts of child marriage and finally the marriage was stopped. The same was the case of of Shamoli Rani Das.
Talking to the New Nation correspondent Sima and Shamoly have expressed their strong determination to complete their higher studies to become self-reliant and be able to contribute to their families.
Kamalapur Family Development Centre is a non-government development organization led by Jahangir Hossain. He said he was getting cooperation from Union Parishad Chairman Alhaj Md Shakandor Ali, schools teachers and Immam of mosques.
“If awareness could be created about adverse impacts of child marriage, maternal morality rate and causes of retarded growth of infants could be reduced to a great extent in the country,” said Shakandor Ali.
He said birth registration in this village is also significantly contributing in preventing child marriage.
“Girls cannot grow up mentally and physically for conceiving before the age of 20,” said a family planning activist in the area.
The population of Kamalapur village is nearly 3 thousand. There are about 167 female members at the centre. The centre is running without foreign assistance. It provides loans to the needy people from the savings of the members.
Bangladesh Family Planning Samity (BFPS) is assisting the centre in different ways.
But the village needs to establish more small and cottage industries for providing jobs to the villagers. Both the public and private initiatives are necessary to make the villager’s dreams come true.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
