A land of teenage mothers

Though Bangladesh is often cited as a role model for the impressive achievements in maternal and child health and gender parity at primary education, child marriage remains a persistent challenge for the country. A grim picture of its pervasiveness came out in a report published in this newspaper yesterday. At Rasulpur Char, close to Barisal city, most of the teenage girls are either married off or going to be since the parents are illiterate, unaware and afraid of the prevailing social insecurity. 

Since the young brides have little knowledge or access to family planning services they get pregnant at an early age. Even more worrisome is that none of the young mothers were vaccinated properly and their children were born with low weight. And they are suffering from malnourishment since the cycle of undernourishment passes down from mother to child. There is a school in the Char area but few teenage girls attend that. Most of them cannot continue their education after marriage. 

Though the area is only 15 minutes from the Barisal city, the local administration seems unaware of the problem. This is a clear case of negligence of the local authority to curb child marriage and implement properly child marriage prevention laws. The authorities should look into this issue seriously and take preventive actions to save teenage girls from the curse of child marriage. A vigorous campaign should be launched to educate the locals about the ill consequences of early marriage.