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Child marriage in Kurigram district has reduced to 46.8 per cent from 65 per cent in the last two years, said a study released Saturday.
The new figure came at a round table titled “Child Marriage Free Kurigram, A Journey Towards A Dream”, organised at the conference room of Kurigram Deputy Commissioner in Kurigram.
The discussion was organised by international development organisation Plan International Bangladesh and its local partner RDRS Bangladesh under the project “Building Better Future for Girls (BBFG)” with the support of Sweden Embassy in Bangladesh.
Deputy Commissioner of Kurigram, Md Rezaul Karim addressed the event as the chief guest.
Md Nazrul Islam, Project Manager of BBFG presented the keynote article where he mentioned, in 2017, the child marriage rate of Kurigram was 65 per cent.
In a mid-time assessment in 2019, the rate was found to have decreased to 46.8 per cent.
“We have developed a tool to collect child marriage related information on a monthly basis. From this, we can see that in 2021, the average child marriage incidents per month of the district is 31 against the same of 94 in 2019.”
The district action plan to prevent child and early forced marriage helped the cut in child marriage with an aim to a child marriage free country within 2041, setting Kurigram’s as a role model for other districts of the country.
Speakers at the event, however, emphasised coordinated efforts from all level stakeholders to make this happen.
Md Nazrul Islam, Project Manager of BBFG presented the keynote article where he mentioned, in 2017, the child marriage rate of Kurigram was 65 pc. In a mid-time assessment in 2019, the rate was found to have decreased to 46.8 pc.
Additional District Police Super Utpal Ray said, marrying girls off without any registration is a common scenario at the root level.
Police are actively working to prevent child marriage cases. We are working swiftly as soon as we get any call through the helpline.
BBFG project is working in nine upazilas, 3 municipalities and 73 union parishads of Kurigram. The project aimed to contribute to Kurigram district’s target of zero marriages of girls under 15, and one third reduction in marriages of girls under 18 by 2021.