icddr,b study finds high rates of early marriage, intimate partner violence among newlyweds
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An icddr,b study revealed on Wednesday an alarming picture of early marriage, intimate partner violence and high rates of mistimed pregnancies among newlywed couples in informal settlements of Bangladesh.
The two-year cohort study conducted by AdSEARCH of icddr,b revealed that among the participating women, 43 per cent in rural areas and 65 per cent in urban informal settlements were married before the age of eighteen.
Within the first year of marriage, nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of women became pregnant, despite many women, particularly those living in urban informal settlements, expressing a clear desire to delay childbearing. Nearly half of these pregnancies were mistimed or unintended, it added.
The study also revealed a troubling prevalence of intimate partner violence. Within the first six months of marriage, four in five women reported experiencing controlling behaviours from their husbands. Over the two years, more than half of the women experienced economic violence, while a substantial proportion reported emotional, physical and sexual violence.
This mixed-methods study was conducted from December 2022 to December 2024 at four Health and Demographic Surveillance System sites of icddr,b: Chakaria and Matlab in rural areas, and Mirpur and Korail slums in urban informal settlements.
A total of 666 newlywed couples were enrolled.
Among women, 43 per cent in rural areas and 65 per cent in urban informal settlements were married before the age of eighteen.
Among men, 15 per cent in rural areas and 37 per cent in urban areas were married before the age of twenty-one.
Nearly half of the women had not completed secondary school, and 60 per cent of rural and 66 per cent of urban women discontinued their education immediately after marriage.
The study recorded a high rate of mistimed pregnancies at 47 per cent. Urban participants were more than three times as likely as rural participants to report a mistimed pregnancy.
Contraceptive use showed an initial rural–urban difference, higher among urban couples and lower among rural ones, but stabilised across both groups after roughly eighteen months of marriage.
The study was led by Dr Fauzia Akhter Huda, Theme Lead, AdSEARCH, and Scientist, MCHD, icddr,b.