The administration of Gurudaspur upazila of Natore has taken up an innovative initiative to stop child marriage. It said it would reward members of the village police with Tk 50 mobile phone credit for advance information of such marriages.

Timely information is very important to stop child marriages and that is why the upazila administration went for such rewards.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Monir Hossain yesterday made the announcement at the weekly meeting of village police at upazila headquarters.

Monir told The Daily Star last night that child marriage was going on in remote areas of the upazila. At least four incidents of child marriage were reported in the last three days in the upazila, he said.

Since it was not possible for the administration to monitor those areas all the time, they went for this reward system.

“There are 51 village police members in unions under the upazila. We thought to utilise them for this,” he said, adding, “… we decided to give them Tk 50 for advance information on each child marriage.”

The best performer would get Tk 50 more the following month, he added.

Abdus Salam, a village policeman from Dhara Barisha union, said they welcomed the move and would help the UNO stop child marriage in their localities.

Shahina Akhter, the deputy commissioner of Natore, termed the move “innovative” and hoped it would help stop child marriage.