More attention needs to be paid to girls

Parents, guardians and community members need to be more aware about their children and also engage themselves in issues that make girls vulnerable, said speakers yesterday at an event.  

As the chief guest, Meher Afroze Chumki, state minister for Women and Children Affairs, said parents should be aware of the misuse of technology and make sure who their children are talking to.

She was speaking at a day-long event titled "What Works to Delay Marriage" funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and organised by the Population Council.

Speaking about the recent violence against children, she said that steps were needed to be taken soon to stop the foreign channels that show violence.

"The number of incidents of violence against children has not increased rather the style of violence has become more cruel," she said adding, more violence is getting reported because of the increasing numbers of the news media.

Population Council, a US-based non-profit NGO, carried out a study in 72 communities in Khulna, Satkhira and Narail between November 2012 and February 2016 under their Bangladeshi Association for Life skills, Income and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA), funded by the embassy.

The study showed that education support, gender rights awareness and livelihood skills elevate the visibility and status of girls in the family and the community, keep them safe and make them less vulnerable to the ill practice of child marriage.

At present two out of three girls are married before the age of 18 in Bangladesh.

The Population Council working with three other partner NGOs, interviewed 11,609 married and unmarried, school-going and out-of school girls aged between 12-18 years from different income classes in 2013.

Later, 9,982 of them, received either tutoring in mathematics and English (in-school girls) and computing or financial training (out-of-school girls) or information about gender rights, negotiation, critical thinking and decision making, or training in first aid, photography or mobile phone repairing at the BALIKA centres.

In 2015, assessments of these girls showed that they learned to say "no" to marriage proposals and convinced their parents about the ills of early marriage or seek someone out in the family or among friends to help them resist early marriage.

The study also reported that school dropout rates declined among girls receiving BALIKA support and many of them said they faced less harassments and violence. Besides their knowledge about reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections also increased.

Dr Sajeda Amin, senior associate and principle investigator of BALIKA, presented the study findings.

Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef country representative, and the special guest emphasised on the quick implementation of the National Action Plan to prevent child marriage.

Referring to the clause, included in the draft of the upcoming Child Marriage Restrain Act, which allowed marriage of girls below 18 under special circumstances, Edouard said, "We are looking forward to a law without exception because our daughters are exceptional."

Girls from BALIKA project and representatives from other local and international NGOs and development agencies attended the programme.