Campaign against child marriage launched
To encourage families to condemn the harmful practise of child marriage and support every girl's dream to achieve their aspirations, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a campaign called "Actions to Prevent Child Marriage in Bangladesh" yesterday.
Secretary to the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs Md Sayedul Islam launched the campaign, aimed at advancing the objectives of Bangladesh's 10-year National Plan of Action to End Child Marriage (2018-2030).
The campaign will seek to collect one million pledges from adolescents, parents, community leaders, policy makers, business leaders, and civil society representatives to prevent child marriage, according to USAID.
Speakers at the launching event said Bangladesh is one of the top ten countries with the highest rate of child marriage and has the highest child marriage rate in South Asia. It is also home to more than 38 million married women who are victims of child marriage.
Despite Bangladesh's progress in curbing child marriage, the country is currently witnessing a sharp rise in child marriages during the pandemic, driven by multiple factors including reduced income flow among families, especially in the lower income categories, and school closures, they said.
According to data from Manusher Jonno Foundation, from April to October 2020, 13,886 child marriages took place in 84 upazilas in 21 districts, they mentioned.
USAID's Ujjiban Social Behavior Change Communication project, implemented by Johns Hopkins University, is leading the public awareness campaign highlighting the health risks of early pregnancy and the high returns of investing in girls' education.
Sayedul Islam said the government is committed to eliminating child marriage by 2041.
"The government, development partners, NGOs, private sector, and relevant stakeholders must all work together to make it a reality," he said.
Mentioning child marriage as a human rights violation, Xerses Sidhwa, director of the Office of Population, Health, Nutrition, and Education of USAID, said, "We all must take charge to end a complex issue like child marriage that requires effort along many fronts."
Amir Hossain, a director Directorate General of Family Planning; officials from US embassy; ministry; representatives from national and international organisations also attended the launching event.
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