Author: Star Roving Team
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: November 10, 2001
URL: http://www.dailystarnews.com/200111/10/n1111001.htm#BODY11
Despite intensive campaigns by successive
governments, child marriage is widely prevalent in Bhola district, particularly
in the Hindu community, for what they call "lack of security for female
children."
School teachers in Lalmohon, Char
Fasson and other remote areas of the district say that most of the female
students cannot continue studies beyond class six or seven. Both the rich
and the poor parents either get their children married to relatives or
friends of the same age or withdraw them from school and send them elsewhere.
Many of these couples, as young
as 12, end up having children at an age when they are supposed to study
and play. In Annada Prashad village in Lord Hardinge Union under Lalmohon
Upazila, almost every Hindu family have a child couple.
Tripti Rani Das, hardly 13, at Nishi
Kanta Dasher Bari showed all signs of malnutrition. She looked pale. The
adult-size saree she wore hung over her body. Her mother-in-law Radha Rani
said that her son Jagannath was also as young as Tripti. She was married
because her parents did not feel secure as youths in the area were constantly
teasing her on way to school.
Many adult women of hardly 25 have
children as old as 12, which show that child marriage is prevalent in the
areas for long.
"Here you cannot find many female
children in higher classes at schools because there is no security for
them. If the child is fair complexioned, the problem is multiplied for
the parents," said Narayan Das, a school teacher. With the post election
atrocities on the Hindu community across Bhola district, many have already
left for unknown destinations. Those who have clung to their homes and
lands have been thrown into more uncertainty.
Narayan said the increasing practice
of child marriage among neighbours and friends is 'a demonstration of fear.'
By getting their children married, many families grow bonds and relationships
with one another, which give them a feeling of togetherness.
"On top of that, superstition and
traditional practices are also influencing both the Hindus and the Muslims
to get their children married before puberty. For instance, if the mother
of a child had been married at a tender age, the family starts eyeing the
child as soon as she is 10," Narayan said. " The Bangla saying that a woman
becomes elderly at the age of 20 (kuritey boori) is widely believed in
the villages. There is no programme at the schools or with the local governments
to discourage this practice."
