Mandatory registration for Hindu marriage must
Rights activists and experts at a discussion yesterday stressed the need for incorporating a provision in the law to make marriage registration of Hindus mandatory.
Hindus can get equal benefits of the right to divorce and properties if their marriages are registered, Justice Krishna Debnath of the High Court told the discussion.
She, however, said a provision was included in the Hindu Marriage Registration Act 2012, allowing voluntary registration of marriage, and it was an achievement.
The discussion on “Hindu marriage registration” was organised by Hindu Bibaho Ain Pronoyone Nagorik Udyog, a campaign of human and woman rights activists to make marriage registration for Hindus mandatory in the law, in association with Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF).
During the programme, held at the capital's Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB) Centre, 82 Hindu couples registered their marriages voluntarily to create and preserve documentary evidences.
A Hindu couple can get their marriage registered through a local marriage registrar with a fee of Tk 1,100, Senior Programme Manager of MJF Arpita Das told The Daily Star.
Chhabi Biswas, Awami League lawmaker from Netrakona; Pratima Paul Majumdar, development researcher and president of Karmojibi Nari; Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation; Angela Gomez, founder and executive director of Banchte Shekha, and Banasree Mitra Neogi, senior coordinator of Combating Violence against Women, also spoke.
They said Hindu couples, who have not registered their marriages, sometime faced troubles while travelling abroad.
An MJF release said the government formulated the law in 2012 and framed its rules in 2013 upon demands by Hindu people, particularly women.
Hindu Bibaho Ain Pronoyone Nagorik Udyog started its campaign in 2009 so that a complete marriage law was formulated to protect the rights of Hindus.
Hindu people, particularly women and children, are being deprived of human and constitutional rights, and many women and children are not getting the right to properties and even recognition of marriage due to absence of a complete marriage registration law, said the release.
A Hindu woman has no right to divorce her husband even if she faces violence and deprivation, and her husband takes many wives, the release said, adding that it even caused sufferings to men as well.
The release said the implementation of the law had become difficult, as marriage registration was made voluntary.
In the last one year, MJF's associate organisations have helped to complete registration of more than 1,500 Hindu marriages, it added.
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