Scrap law on girls' marriage before 18

Speakers at a views-exchange meeting yesterday requested the prime minister to scrap the special provision which allows marriageable age for females before 18 under the proposed Child Marriage Prevention Act-2016.

If the government include the provision, it will be misused and the number of child marriage will increase a lot across the country, especially in the rural, char and slum areas, they told the programme at the capital's Brac Centre.

Representatives from different local and international NGOs and journalists took part in it, while the NGOs announced arranging a mass gathering at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka at 3:00pm tomorrow protesting inclusion of the provision.

Laila Khondkar, director (child protection) of Save the Children; Muslima Jahan, a reporter of Prothom Alo, Jinat Ara Haque, national coordinator of We Can Bangladesh; Banasree Mitra Neogi, programme coordination of Manusher Jonno Foundation; Habibur Rahman, programme head (gender justice and diversity) of Brac; Wasim Uddin Bhuiyan, reporter of New Age; and ANM Kaiser Jilani, a team leader of Care, spoke.