Home ›› 28 Sep 2021 ›› Nation
Since the reopening of primary, secondary and higher secondary level educational institutions on September 12, the rising number of school dropouts and child marriages has become a concerning factor for the country.
Although the actual number of dropouts are yet to be collected and confirmed, data collected by various non-governmental organizations show that girls aged between 12 to 16 are worst-hit as many of them were forcefully married-off by their families amid the pandemic, confirms officials from the Ministry of Education.
Over 5,000 school-going girls from around 600 schools in Satkhira have been married off amid the school closures during the pandemic, confirmed Shakibur Rahman, administrative head of the District Child Marriage Prevention Committee.
According to RDRS Bangladesh, a non-governmental organization, over 636 school girls from different educational institutions in Kurigram were married off from March 2020 and August 2021.
Over 203 child marriages in the nine upazilas of Kurigram were prevented by district administration officials within this time frame, confirmed Kurigram Deputy Commissioner Rejaul Karim.
In Satkhira, there are 1,40,000 students in over 600 educational institutions around the district.
Of them, 58,000 students are underaged. Since the schools have reopened, six to ten girls in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth grades have not resumed attending classes, according to the Satkhira district administration sources.
“The data is not concrete yet, but based on different sources and personally collected data, I can say that around 3 to 5 per cent, roughly amounting to 1,500 schoolgirls, have been illegally married-off during this time,” said Satkhira District Education Officer Abdullah Abdullah Al Mamun.
“Although, we have notified the upazila education officers to collect data on teenagers who had dropped-out in order to obtain the exact number of child marriages that took place in the district. However, they are yet to reply to our notification,” added Abdullah.
He further told The Business Post that they were yet to find the exact number as the schools have been operating partially.
“The schools had just opened 15 days ago, and it is too soon to specify the exact number of child marriages,” he said.
Claiming that the number is much higher than the official estimate, Shakibur Rahman, administrative head of the District Child Marriage Prevention Committee, said, “Social indiscretion, religious indoctrination are among the main reasons behind the rising child marriages.”
Nasima Khatun, a parent of Khadiza Khatun, a tenth-grade student of Adarsha Girls’ School, said she found a good match for her child and that is why she is marrying her off.
“My girl is of dark complexion and healthier in comparison to her age. I might not find any good match for her in the future; that is why I am marrying her off to a motorcycle mechanic as soon as possible,” said Nasima.
Another parent, Rehana Khatun, mother of a ninth-grader, Mohona, told The Business Post that she had bought a phone for Mohona for study purposes. Still, she ran off with a local boy and married him.
Abdus Sabur, executive director of Agragati, a non-governmental organization (NGO), said: “We are running a survey in 50 different educational institutions in Sadar, Tala, Ashashuni and Kaliganj upazila’s of Satkhira and will be able to present our findings a month later.”
“There are 25 SSC examinees in Ramnagar Adarsha Higher Secondary Girls’ School. Of them, ten girl students were married off even before they could sit for the exam. From this, we can assume how dire the situation is,” added the NGO officials.
Abu Hasan, headmaster of Palli Sree Higher Secondary School, told The Business Post that 53 students of the school, including several SSC examinees, had been married off during this time.
