The Story of Untold Sufferings

Photos Courtesy: Image

Shorifa (not her real name), a fifteen year old girl lives in a village of Nilphamari district. Her poor day-labourer father married her off at the age of thirteen, when she was a student of class six. Her husband, who is also a day-labourer, could not afford to continue her education. For Shorifa, now the mother of a baby girl, her dream to be educated and to get a job is a memory of distant past. With her husband's meagre income, she is now suffering the bitter struggle for survival with her four months old daughter.

There are thousands of Shorifas in the villages of Bangladesh particularly in the northern districts where delaying to marry off a girl right after her puberty means their parents have to pay more dowries. According to a national survey conducted by Plan Bangladesh and ICDDR,B in 2013, 64 percent of the women aged 20-24 were married before they turned eighteen and 29 percent of them were married before they were fifteen. A lot of initiatives are visible both from the state and the NGOs to prevent child marriage but very few think about the millions of victims whose childhood and hopes have already been shattered by this malpractice.    

To fill this gap, five renowned organisations namely Terre des Hommes Netherlands, Terre des Hommes – Lausanne, RedOrange, Pollisree and SKS Foundation have been working to implement an initiative called 'Image' (Initiative for Married and Adolescent Girls' Empowerment) to ensure a life with dignity for the thousands of victims of child marriage. Funded by the Dutch Embassy in Dhaka, this initiative has been providing medical, educational and psychological support to 4500 married young girls in Kurigram, Gaibandha and Nilphamari, three of the poverty stricken districts of Bangladesh. 

As a part of this activism, workers of 'Image' asked the victimised children to write letters describing their sufferings and thoughts after marriage. These heart wrenching letters are the testimony of excruciating mental and physical sufferings, which these children have to go through. 

One of the girls, who is 13 years old wrote, "I cannot do so much works in my in law's home. With so many things to do all day, I feel dizzy and my eyes blur. Sometimes I feel like I can't see anything and I feel sick all the time. I feel like going to bed but cannot sleep. My mother-in-law scolds me if I try to get some sleep." 

"I have to get up. My heart bursts; I think of my parents, I feel like crying, I remember how happy I was when I was with my parents."

Shuchi Karim, adviser (research & knowledge management) of the programme says, "We intend to use the narratives of these letters as our primary knowledge base for understanding the lived realities of married adolescent girls, who are made to enter adult lives before time and often remain voiceless within development discourses and dialogues. 

"These letters are, in fact, our primary platform for advocacy, communication, research and a positive image building medium for married adolescent girls of Bangladesh both at national as well as international levels," she adds.   

Meher Afrroz Chumki, State Minister, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs says, "The government has taken initiatives to stop child marriage completely by the year 2041." However, till then every year hundreds and thousands of adolescent girls in Bangladesh will become victims of child marriage. If these victimised girls are empowered through education and financial freedom with the help of initiatives like 'Image', this harmful practice of child marriage can be removed effectively.