Too young to wed

At first sight, Sharmin, 15, looks like one of those emaciated children needing constant care. The fact of the matter, however, is: she herself became a mother just eight months ago.

Now she works as a domestic help in Dhaka. On top of doing the entire household chores at her employer's house, she takes care of her child all by herself when she is supposed to grow up with the love and affection of her parents.

Born and raised in a village in Narsingdi, Sharmin's parents married her off at the age of 11, putting an abrupt end to her education.

"At that age, I did not even understand what marriage is. All I was told was that everyone in my in-laws' house will love me a lot and buy me plenty of dolls," Sharmin told The Daily Star.

She migrated to Dhaka last month to escape poverty and an abusive husband.

"I didn't have an opinion in anything that happened to me. Nor could I do anything to change my fate," she said.

Sharmin, who has been suffering from malnutrition all her life, fought an uphill battle with death while giving birth to her child.

Quoting doctors at the local clinic where she had undergone a caesarean section, she said it was a miracle that she survived the heavy bleeding during the procedure.

Sharmin, however, does not offer an alienated instance of someone subjected to the ills of child marriage.

Like her, 66 percent of all Bangladeshi girls are married before reaching adulthood, says Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011. 

According to the country's existing Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, the minimum age for a girl's marriage is 18.

Against this backdrop, the country observes the International Day of the Girl Child to recognise girls' rights and the unique challenges they face around the world.

The theme of the day this year is "Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence."

A study on child marriage conducted last year by icddr,b and Plan International found that two percent of Bangladeshi women are married before the age of 11.

The study 'Child Marriage in Bangladesh' said 86 percent women who were married before 18 years of age had received no education.

According to BDHS 2011, about one third of the country's girls get married before 15.

Despite many significant improvements in women and children's health and rights in recent years, Bangladesh still ranks among the countries with highest rates of child marriage and has the highest prevalence of child marriage in Southern Asia.

"Lack of education causes rampant child marriage which is also true the other way round," said Farukh Ahmed, project director of Stop Child Marriage at Plan International Bangladesh.

Poverty remains the main cause of making a girl child vulnerable to marriage, he said.

The median age for women to marry is 18.3 years among the wealthiest fifth of the population compared to 14.6 years from the poorest fifth, according to a UNFPA report on Child Marriage in Southern Asia.

Social practices like protecting the girls 'honour' and fear of having to pay hefty dowries to the groom if the girl reaches 15 also drive parents to marry off their daughters early, Farukh explains.

An inevitable fallout of the rampant child marriage is adolescent motherhood, which has serious health consequences for both the child and the mother.

"Malnutrition is a vicious cycle. The child of an undernourished girl is very likely to be undernourished as well," opined Mohsin Ali, a nutrition specialist of Unicef.

A testament to this is Sharmin's daughter who suffers from frequent attacks of diarrhoea and other chronic diseases.

"Doctors say my daughter is underweight and may suffer poor health all her life,” said Sharmin, who appears to be quite frustrated about her daughter's health.

While child marriage is common all over the country, it is most prevalent in western Bangladesh, specifically, in Khulna Division with 75 percent while the lowest is in Sylhet Division with 48 percent.

UNICEF recently reported that the largest number of very young brides can be found in the Western and Southern parts of Bangladesh.