PM To Highlight Govt’s Commitment To Eliminate Child Marriage At ‘Girl Summit’

With the UNICEF as a cohost, the UK government is organising the first-ever Girl Summit aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) within a generation.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead a high-level Bangladesh delegation at the summit to be held in the British capital on Tuesday.

Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to attend the high-level session of the summit and interact with First Lady of Burkina Faso Chantal Compaore and Pakistan's famous education activist Malala Yousafzai at Walworth Academy.

The session would be moderated by UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

Before joining the summit, the Bangladesh Premier will meet her British counterpart David William Donald Cameron at 10 Downing Street and is expected to discuss issues of bilateral interest.

This will be Sheikh Hasina's first visit to any European country after the January 5 elections in Bangladesh.

Before departing for home on Wednesday, the Prime Minister will attend a community programme of Bangladeshi expatriates living in the UK.

She is expected to return home on Thursday morning.

Officials said the delegation members will highlight the government steps taken or to be taken to address the issue of child marriage for taking the country forward.

During the summit, Bangladesh is expected to make a new pledge to eradicate child marriage in Bangladesh and for this efforts need to be intensified to accelerate the rate of decline and eventually eliminate child marriage in Bangladesh.

During the summit, Bangladesh is expected to make a new commitment to eradicate child marriage in Bangladesh and for this efforts need to be intensified to accelerate the rate of decline and eventually eliminate child marriage in Bangladesh.

Official sources said that elimination of child marriage in Bangladesh is correct in principle and in practice and it will make an important contribution to the attainment of its Vision for the year 2021, the year which marks the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence.

The government is looking forward to ensuring that, by 2021, no girl under 15 will be getting married as well as eradicating all child marriage within a generation - by 2035.

In order to achieve this target, lessons could be learnt from Bangladesh's success in transforming social norms in critical areas such as family planning, girls education and sanitation as well as Bangladesh's reputation for innovation, as exemplified by the tremendous success achieved in reducing child mortality through the promotion of oral rehydration therapy.

By the end of this year, with the support of development partners, the government is likely to finalise the country's evidence-based and costed National Action Plan on Child Marriage.

As an immediate priority in taking forward the plan, the government is also planning to implement the revised Child Marriage Restraint Act within 1 year of this Summit - by July 2015.

Child marriage is a global development concern. Globally, around one-third of young women aged 20-24 in developing countries get married before the age of 18, with a third of those married by the age of 15.

Child marriage slows down a country's development into a healthy and prosperous nation.

In Bangladesh, advancing the rights of women and girls is a priority of the Government as Bangladesh is making good progress towards improving maternal health. The number of women dying at childbirth between 1990 and 2013 fell by 70 percent with an opportunity to achieve the MDG target.

The sources said Bangladesh has made remarkable progress over the past two decades in increasing primary enrolment of girls so that over 95 percent start primary school and more girls than boys now complete their primary education.

The country has trained more health and family planning workers than any other country. The result is that the average women now has only 2.3 children compared with more than 6 previously.

Bangladesh has shown commitment through adopting international treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages.

Besides, the Bangladesh government is already working to strengthen national legislation and policy frameworks to eliminate child marriage. The Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 is now under review to address the current context in which child marriage takes place and stipulate penalties for violation of the act.

The new Children's Act, which was passed in 2013, provides enhanced measures of redress against child marriage as well as support to child brides while a new nationwide campaign was recently announced to accelerate action on child marriage called "Girls, Not Brides".

A national forum for social norm change was recently established with activities going all the way down to community level.

Despite these efforts, there is still more to be done as recent evidence shows that child marriage in Bangladesh is declining (DHS, 2011). The proportion of women marrying in their early teens continues to decline. Twenty years ago, 52 percent of women were married by the age of 15: this has now declined to 17 percent.

-Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)