Girls' Age for Marriage: 18 years, with exceptions

The cabinet yesterday okayed a draft law for preventing child marriage fixing 18 years as the minimum age for girls to get married but kept a provision for special circumstances under which girls below the age could tie the knot.  

Women and rights bodies demanded cancellation of the provision terming it contrary to the very law that has been proposed.

According to the draft, men 21 and above could get married and if either the groom or the bride or both are below 21 and 18, it would be considered a child marriage and an offence.

The government had faced a wave of criticism when it, more than two years ago, planned to lower the minimum age for girls to get married to 16. It had wanted to have the provision in the law that would allow a 16-year-old girl to get married with her parents' consent or a court's consent obtained with justified grounds.

The government backtracked from that position but in the final draft left the scope for special cases.

State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki said the government would elaborate the grounds for special cases in a policy to be formulated in line with the draft law in a month or two.

It would take one and a half months to get the draft law passed by parliament, she hoped.

Briefing reporters at the secretariat after a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minster's Office, Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam said as per section 19 of the proposed law, a child marriage would not be considered an offence if it was for the interest of the underage girl. This has to be done in line with the directives of a court, with the consent of the parents, and following due procedure, he said.

“There will be no crime committed in such a special case … ,” he said.

He gave an example: The marriage of an underage pregnant girl with the consent of the court and parents would not be an offence.

The draft law increases the punishment for committing such crimes. According to it, if guardians, or others, like marriage registrar, get involved in child marriage, they could be sentenced to a maximum of two years imprisonment and fined Tk 50,000.

The licence of the registrar could also be cancelled.

The cabinet secretary said if an adult marries an underage person, he or she could face two years' imprisonment and a fine of Tk 1 lakh.

If an underage boy and a girl get married, they would be detained for 15 days or there could be a fine of up to Tk 5,000.

If a court ordered the stop of a child marriage and parties concerned ignore the order, they could be sentenced to maximum six months' imprisonment and fined Tk 10,000.  

Interestingly, a person who misinforms authorities concerned about violation of the proposed law could be sentenced to a maximum 6 months imprisonment and fined Tk 30,000. 

Courts and even mobile courts would be able to try crimes under the proposed law.

Birth certificates, national identity cards, passports, and certificates of academic exams, like PEC and equivalent exams, JSC and equivalent, and SSC and equivalent, would be considered as legal documents for verifying ages of the people getting married.

Talking to The Daily Star Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, said the provision itself contradicted with the law. “We want its cancellation,” she said.

On Wednesday, Social Restrain Committee, comprising 69 women, human rights and development organisations, protested the government's move to keep the provision for special cases.

State Minister Chumki said the special provision was incorporated considering the “social reality”. 

Criticising the protesters, she said they took opinions of all stakeholders before finalising the draft and that almost all the countries in the world had such provisions.

Asked what would be the minimum age of people getting married under special circumstances, she said the minimum age had not been fixed. “It may be 12, 13, or 15 years. The age is not important. It will depend on the situation,” she added.

Replying to a query on the allegations that the proposed law, if enacted with the provision, would justify rape and could leave a loophole which some people could take advantage of, she said rape is tried under a different law.   

She said the policy to be formulated would outline the grounds for special cases and that opinions of all stakeholders would be taken before it is done.