Satkhira girls take vow to resist early marriage
Adolescent girls take vow to resist early marriage and dowry at a meeting held at Kashipur village in Tala upazila, Satkhira yesterday.Photo: STAR
It was a unique day for over 250 adolescent girls at a remote village of Kashipur in Tala upazila yesterday where they vowed to resist early marriage and dowry. They took the vow at a discussion meeting titled, 'Role of Adolescent Girls in Resisting Early Marriage and Dowry' at the village. The unique programme was organised by 'Amar Sonar Paribar' a project of a local NGO named Rishilpi run by two Italians working for removing early marriage and dowry from the society. The discussion was held in front of the community centre at Kashipur with Rabin Das in the chair. Rishilpi director Enzo Falcone was the chief guest while the Italian friends of RishilpiDelio and Fulvio were present as special guests. Speakers stressed on the need for creating mass awareness against early marriage and necessity of marriage registration. They said, lack of knowledge about bad effects of early marriage, religious superstitions, ignorance and absence of social awareness were the main reasons behind early marriage and marriage without registration. Women repression because of early marriage and dowry is a common incident in the country. They urged the villagers to eliminate the social curse. It is a hard task to resist the deep rooted vices from a society where literacy rate is poor and the age-old superstitions still prevails but Rishilpi has achieved a tremendous success to remove early marriage and dowry, Enzo Falcone said while addressing as chief guest 'We often fail to resist early marriage from the ultra poor families of the society in remote areas where literacy rate is too low', he said. 'But we must remove the curse', Amar Sonar Paribar programme manager Safiul Haque said. Lack of female education and self-reliance are the reasons behind early marriage and dowry in Bangladesh, Delio said. Education is the only way to remove the vices, she added. Speakers said the local Union Parishad chairmen and members can help a lot in this regard. It was addressed by, among others, Safiul Haque, Khalilur Rahman, Anath Kumar Biswas, guardians Bithika Rani Das and Rabindra Nath Das and adolescent girls, Jotsna Khatun and Mousumi Rani Das.
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