Bangladesh's move to lower marriageable age draws outrage

Proposal would drop legal marriage age for girls to 16.

Two of every three girls in Bangladesh marry before reaching adulthood

Dhaka:  Women’s rights activists have pushed back against a proposed government move this week to lower marriageable age for men and women, terming it “a flawed attempt” to combat endemic child marriage in the country.

On Monday, a cabinet body proposed a tougher child marriage law, setting a two-year jail term and a fine of US$650 for all parties responsible for the marriage of a girl below the age of 18. However, the bill also seeks to lower the marriageable age for men and women to 18 and 16 respectively.

According to the 1929 Child Marriage Restraint Act, the legal age for marriage is 18 for women and 21 for men. Under this existing law, child marriage is punishable by up to three months in jail and a $130 fine, but the law is poorly enforced. The new law would target the parents or guardians and the marriage registrar, as well as the groom.

The law is expected to be passed during the current session of parliament, Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said in Dhaka on Monday.

Activists have lauded moves to toughen punishment, but called the proposal to reduce marriageable age utterly unacceptable.

Reduction of marriage age would cause “a socio-economic disaster” in the nation of 160 million, which is already the world’s most densely populated, said Fauzia Karim, president of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association, a Dhaka-based women rights group.

“While toughening the law to punish offenders is welcome, lowering marriage age would be a disgrace,” she said. “This misleading step would cut short childhood for girls, fuel a population boom and have immensely negative socio-economic impacts.”

Nearly half of all girls in South Asia marry before they turn age 18 and one in five girls are married before the age of 15, giving the region the highest rates of child marriage in the world, according to a report published by Unicef last week.

Bangladesh has the highest child marriage rate in the region; two out of every three girls marry before they reach adulthood, putting them at risk of sexual exploitation and domestic violence, the report said.

“High rates of child marriage is linked to an extremely high rate of domestic violence in Bangladesh. Lowering the marriage age would do no good but add to the pain and suffering of girls in the country,” said Dr Ruchira Tabassum Naved, a researcher with the International Center for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangladesh.

Rosaline Costa, coordinator of Hotline Human Rights Bangladesh, said the government’s move is unrealistic and a face-saving ploy to get rid of growing international criticism over the extremely high rate of child marriage.

“The government is under pressure for failing to tackle child marriage, especially in remote and rural areas. It needs to increase the marriageable age to reduce population, but it can’t be done because there will be backlash from Islamic fundamentalists,” she said.

“In no way can a girl be ready for marriage and family life at the age of 16. If the proposal is accepted, the law would go against greater public interests and violate universal rights of children,” she added.

To truly tackle child marriage, said Costa, the government needs to take on the underlying causes including illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and polygamy.

Meher Afroz, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs, promised the government would consult experts and stakeholders before finalizing the law.

“Lowering the marriage age is just a proposal. We will sit with people from various quarters to get their opinion, and if a majority of them oppose it we will call it off,” the minister said.

Source: ucanews.com