WUNRN
BANGLADESH - CHILD MARRIAGES
By Angus Crawford
Oli, bottom right, is trying to
educate parents about the perils of child marriage
"It is the new kind of slavery," says Mirna Ming Ming Evora, who's the country director for the NGO Plan International.
"Here girls are a burden, they don't earn income in this culture."
Which means they are totally dependent on their families to support and protect them and pay their dowries. That's the money a father must pay to a future husband to secure a marriage.
"Dowry for a very poor family is work of a lifetime, they'd rather start early because the dowry is not too high. The girl is more saleable."
She's met many of these child brides. "They say to me I lost my childhood."
These are the stories of three children living with the consequences of child marriage.
In a quiet voice Poppy says: "It's a very hateful illness,
I can't stand the smell". I say to other girls my age: 'You should not get
married'” She sits on a bed in in a hospital in
She's suffering from fistula, serious internal injuries which have left her incontinent. It's caused by giving birth too young and not getting proper medical attention. Nurses don't know exactly how old Poppy is. They think she's 12 but she won't say. She was forced to marry a man who was more than 10 years older than her. She got pregnant, but lost her child. "It died in my tummy and they had to cut it out".
She walked into the clinic alone, her husband abandoned her
because of the illness. There are tens of thousands of girls and women like
Poppy. I ask her if she'll ever marry again, and she shakes her head. "I
say to other girls my age: 'You should not get married. if you do, this is the
condition you will be in.'" As we leave, Poppy says: "Please pray for
me, pray that I get better."
"I do this work because I wanted to put a smile back on the
face of the parents," says Oli Ahmed. He grins as he says it. Oli is a
campaigner who goes around the slum where he lives in
He's the same age as Poppy, just 12.
"I used to know a girl who was like an older sister to me,
but she was forced to get married and never came back."
It made him very angry and sad.
"Even though parents marry their children off early, they
still feel a sense of guilt and they don't know what happens to their
children." Oli approached Plan International which was already working in
his slum in
"I think we do a better job than the adults… the adults
think we're so young and yet we know so much… we're more enthusiastic than the
older people."
One NGO worker says that since they started work, the number of
child marriages in that area has dropped by as much as 50%. "I feel very
good that a girl's life has been saved because of the work that I've
done," says Oli.
Jemi, 13, likes playing hopscotch or kut kut as it's known here.
When we meet her she's due to get married in six days. Her mother has chosen
the day and picked the groom. She lives in a village which is six hours drive
from the capital
When we ask if she's looking forward to her wedding she looks down at the floor and says: "Not very much, no."
Jemi's mother says school is too
expensive
She's small and very shy. She has stickers of butterflies on the back of her hands. Her mother tells us she has to get her married now because she won't have to pay a dowry. If she waits, it will cost her money they don't have. "I have no fear, I am giving her away to my sister's son. Girls never say they want to get married."
She is reminded that it's against the law. When officials from
the local government and an NGO arrive to stop the wedding she argues with
them.
She tells them the family can't afford to send her to school any more. If she remains unmarried, people will say bad things about her. "I'm getting her married because I love her."
But the officials threaten to prosecute her if she goes ahead, and she starts to cry. Then, in front of her neighbours, she announces that the wedding is cancelled, adding: "I didn't realise it was wrong."
As for Jemi, she smiles and confides "I think it is really
good what has happened".