Alarming rise in child marriage with schools closed due to pandemic
The rate of child marriage in Bangladesh is on an alarming rise, as girls are mostly staying home owing to the closure of educational institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Experts are concerned that the crisis might deepen if there is a further delay in reopening schools.
Speakers came up with the observations in a digital dialogue organised by Brac yesterday, marking International Day of the Girl Child.
Education minister Dr Dipu Moni joined the dialogue, titled "Girls must return to schools," as chief guest.
She said, "We have reached most of our target students in case of digital classrooms. The standard of classes being taken through televisions has improved. Not only the government, but many non-government institutions are taking online classes. So, it is not mandatory that students will have to go to classes. In many countries, schools have been shut after reopening. We need to consider every aspect before deciding on reopening our educational institutions."
On girl children, the minister said, "The birth registration process is being digitised at union levels. As a result, parents cannot fake their girls' age and marry them off early. Important topics such as women's repression, sexual violence is being included in our curriculum. Not only the Covid-19 crisis, we are repurposing our curriculum to tackle all sorts of challenges."
Brac executive director Asif Saleh said, "The long closure of schools are forcing our students to forget what they have already learnt. A research in Pakistan shows a five-month closure of schools have forced students backward for 14 months. We need to consider this in terms of our country. Rather than taking a sudden decision, we need constant monitoring to reopen our schools."
Lawmaker Aroma Dutta said, "Reality must be considered before taking any decision. It is true that we lost a lot during this pandemic. The rate of school dropouts has increased. We need to ensure technological and technical education for students, especially for girls, so that they can ensure their livelihood whenever needed."
Campaign for Popular Education executive director Rasheda K Choudhury said, "School closure has affected both our students and teachers. This pandemic is acting like a magnifying glass for us. Through this, we can examine all our mistakes and think of our way forward. Before reopening schools, we need to concentrate on the related data and reality."
Prof Sadeka Halim said, "Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in women's empowerment and girl children's empowerment... But child marriage has been instrumental to the drop-out rate of girls."
"During this covid-19 crisis, we have seen that our education system is closely connected to our livelihood. So, we can't consider the education system as an isolated phenomenon. We need to think about what can be done for about 43 percent families who have been forced under the poverty line and these families have a large number of students from schools, colleges and universities," she added.
Bangladesh Police Women Network's president, additional commissioner Amena Begum said, "Sometimes parents forcefully marry their girls early. To prevent early marriage people can avail services from police dialing 999. We are working on school programmes to make students aware of this."
Prof Dr Sadeka Halim, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka, and Australian High Commission in Dhaka's first secretary Simon Barclay also joined the event, moderated by Brac director Nobonita Chowdhury.
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