Don't rob our girls of their childhood

We were indeed better off when the first draft was charted out back in September 2014. At that point in time, the government had expressed intent to keep a two-year leeway for girls getting married off early. In subsequent months, the government kept saying that it would finalise a law prohibiting the marriage of girls under 18. And it would just keep a 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 on "justified grounds".

People decried such a move and justifiably so. Because one cannot support a law that permits a 16-year-old-child getting married off under any circumstances.

But two years down the line we are even worse off. The precious childhood of our girls is now at the mercy of a soon-to-be-passed law that keeps the option open to marry off girls who could be even younger than 16 in case of so-called "special circumstances." 

Last Thursday, the government endorsed a draft law for preventing child marriage, fixing the minimum age of marriage of girls at 18 years, but a provision for special circumstances, under which girls below the age (and it could be 16, 15, 14 or even younger) could be married off, was retained.   

Briefing newsmen after the Cabinet's approval to the Child Marriage Restraint Act-2016, the Cabinet Secretary said that as per Section 19 of the proposed law, child marriage would not be considered an offence if it was done in 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. (November 25, 2016, The Daily Star). He even gave an example where child marriage would not be considered a crime: The marriage of an underage pregnant girl with the consent of the court and parents would not be an offence.

Such explanations and excuses to make a breach in the main intent of the law, which seeks to prevent child marriage, are not only counterproductive but are also incredibly insensitive and unfortunate to say the least. 

We have to first understand what exactly do we mean when we say 'in the interest of the underage girl.'   

The best interest of an underage girl (and for that matter for any underage child) must be unhindered enjoyment of their childhood. Bangladesh, being a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a legally-binding international agreement on child rights, can't simply rob our girls of their childhood under any pretext.

The Convention clearly defined childhood as a separate space from adulthood and recognised that what is appropriate for an adult may not be suitable for a child. Childhood is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults. It is a precious time in which children should live free from fear, safe from violence and protected from abuse and exploitation.  

Is it a government's function to keep legal leeway permitting a girl to be married off to her rapist? Nowadays, many rape victims demand justice; they try to break free from the shackles of stigma, thereby preventing the culture of non-reporting and secrecy that used to benefit the perpetrators in the past. The scene is very different from the days of yore where even the mention of the word 'rape' was unthinkable.  

It is for the government to ensure the safety of our young, adolescent girls and boys. The government cannot simply shirk its responsibility by keeping a provision open. And by simply marrying off a girl because she is pregnant won't solve the problem, rather it will intensify the crisis. If there is such a provision in the law, there will be many who will try to take advantage of it or exploit it in some form or the other. 

However unfortunate it sounds, it's true that Bangladesh is one of the countries where the prevalence of child marriage is still very high. But there is some good news as well; Bangladesh is slowly but steadily improving its record on child marriage. The government needs to take note of it and set the course accordingly, so that we can soon eliminate child marriage once and for all. 

A comparison of the 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) results with findings from prior surveys confirms that the median age at first marriage for women in Bangladesh continues to increase. The median age at marriage among women aged 20-49 has increased by almost two years; from 14.4 years in 1993-94 to 16.1 years in 2014. 

Between 2000 and 2011, the proportion of girls who were married before 18 had hardly changed. However, between 2011 and 2014, this proportion declined from 65 percent to 59 percent, the largest change ever observed between two BDHS surveys. 

And a November 20, 2016 research released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) gave further heartening indication that child marriage has indeed dropped from over 60 percent to little over 40 percent over the last two decades.

In a world where as many as 700 million women were married off before they could reach adulthood, we'll only contribute to that statistic by keeping such loopholes in a law which is supposed to protect the childhood of our girls. In a country where teen pregnancies make up 60 percent of pregnancies, we also need to understand that now is the time to break free from a cycle of undernutrition stemmed from child marriage induced premature pregnancies and subsequent low birth weight. 

Let's end child marriage now without resorting to any counterintuitive provision; we should do this at least for the best interest of the future generations. 

The writer is Assignment Editor, The Daily Star.