Child Marriage in Bangladesh

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Child marriage is very much an issue in Bangladesh as it was in Uganda. 59% of girls are married before their 18th birthday and 22% are married before the age of 15 years. Bangladesh has the third highest rate of child marriage in the world.

There are some similarities as well as differences between Uganda and Bangladesh when it comes to their child marriage epidemic.

One big difference is how the dowery works. In Uganda we say the parents are selling their daughters into marriage because they receive a dowery from the groom, usually in the form of livestock. It is one less mouth to feed and they receive payment to support the remaining family members.

In Bangladesh it is reversed as the dowery is paid from the bride's family to the groom's family. The parents marry their very young daughters to much older men for multiple reasons. The first is that it is one less child to care for. It can also be a way to prevent their daughter from having premarital sex. (Of course there is little concern if their sons have premarital sex).

Another difference is that in Uganda it is common that the marriages are only ceremonial as the men have more than one wife. The marriage frequently only lasts a few years and then the girl is left on her own to care for the children she had with her husband. The husband will move on to a new wife and rarely contributes to the costs associated with caring for his children.

In Bangladesh it is not common to have multiple wives nor for the marriages to end abruptly. This is not necessarily good news for the girls though as they are frequently abused and mistreated by their husband and his family.

I have started to meet with NGOs here that are working to stop the cycle of child marriage. I am interested to learn about their methods to address this serious issue.

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