Childhood must be allowed till the age of 18, when maturity is reached and before which marriage should not be allowed, said Norwegian Ambassador in Bangladesh Merete Lundemo yesterday.

She also recommended that the government adheres to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognises everyone below 18 years as children.

"There remains much to be done in all countries to establish fair societies where everyone is represented equally. Everyone much struggle to increase women's participation in decision making and promote women empowerment," she said.

"With economic empowerment of women, we all win," she told the inaugural session of a two-day Internal Annual Planning and Evaluation Meeting of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP) at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh.

The draft of the proposed Child Marriage Restraint Act-2014 has a special provision stipulating that under special circumstances, marriage of 16-year-old girls to men above 21 years, with permission of parents or courts, would not be considered as "child marriage".

However, the same law defines minimum legal marriageable age of girls as 18 years.

Christine Hunter, country representative of UN Women in Bangladesh, said Bangladeshi women were facing "cumulative systematic exclusion" while their rights were diminishing.

She suggested collecting knowledge from different disciplines to address gender inequality.

Stating that BMP has been working for the welfare of women for the last 45 years, its President Ayesha Khanam said the meeting aims at finding the organisation's weaknesses and a new strategy to eliminate gender inequality and violence against women and establish secularism.

Calling for the recognition of women's contributions at households, Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, recommended that women with different professions unite and raise voice against discrimination in their respective fields.

Both Ayesha and Mahfuz inaugurated the programme hoisting the BMP and national flags respectively.