Sumis suffer in silence

"I miss my school days, playground, friends and swimming in the river. Everything has gone from my life after the marriage."

In a chilly winter morning, a teenage girl was busy serving customers with tea at a roadside stall in Tangail Sadar upazila's Khudirampur area.

Suddenly, a baby was heard crying out inside the shop. As it got louder, the girl rushed there and returned within a few seconds cuddling a baby in her lap.

The little one is her daughter though she herself is only 16.  When the country's law prohibits marrying off a girl before 18, she has already become mother.

"My father is poor. He is struggling to manage our family. So, he decided to marry me off at my early age," said the teenager, Sumi.

She is the youngest among three sisters and two brothers of her parents. Her father, a resident of a char (shoal) of the Jamuna, also runs a tea stall.

She was married with a transport worker at 13 when she was a fifth grader.

"I miss my school days, playground, friends and swimming in the river. Everything has gone from my life after the marriage," she lamented.

"My two elder sisters also got married at their early ages."

Alongside taking care of her family, Sumi now helps her father-in-law run the tea stall.

"I go through many difficulties because my baby is too little. She needs special care. How can I manage?" she asked.

Sumi is not alone. Like her, hundreds of girls in the char areas are the victims of child marriage, thanks to never-ending poverty and then pandemic.  

In Kakua Char, adjacent to Sumi's village, a 55-year-old man married a 13-year-old girl last week, said locals.

According to media reports, at least 60 girls of a school at Hugra, another char area of Jamuna, were got married in the last one year.

Maharunesa Moni, recently transferred district women and children officer, said the child marriage increased during the pandemic as schools remained closed for a long time.

"To prevent child marriage is a huge task. Awareness of guardians and the coordinated efforts of all concerned can stop it," she added.

Illiteracy is another reason for marrying off the girls in char areas at early ages, said MA Jinnah, chairman of Kakua Union Parishad.

"In many cases, parents marry off their child daughters secretly. They take their daughters to relatives' houses elsewhere and arrange the marriages," said Rafiqul Islam, former chairman of Baghil Union Parishad.

Another child marriage victim Munni, of Deulee char in Delduar upazila, is campaigning against this social curse. She runs a football academy for girls in the district headquarters.

She alleged that some dishonest kazis (Muslim marriage registrars) for administering child marriages by using fake birth certificates.

Seeking anonymity, a kazi admitted it and said they sometimes are compelled to do it under pressure from influential quarters.

Abul Fazal Mohammad Shahabuddin, Tangail's civil surgeon, said most of the victims suffer from post-marital health and mental complications.

Locals alleged that no effective efforts of the government have so far been seen to stop the child marriage in chars.

Besides, no government office in Tangail has any comprehensive statistics on child marriage of the district.

Contacted, Ataul Gani, Tangail's deputy commissioner, said the administration along with some private organisations were working to prevent child marriage in chars.

He also stressed the need for raising awareness among parents against it.