Bangladesh is approaching a critical juncture in its demographic evolution. By 2030, the country’s working population is expected to decline, leading to an ageing society. A study indicates that today’s youth need to be four times more skilled to become productive citizens in the future, and child marriage is a significant obstacle in this respect. To achieve Bangladesh’s sustainable development goals, child marriage must be urgently reduced. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Sun’s Staff Correspondent Ariful Islam, UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh Sheldon Yett discussed the alarming rise in child marriage and child pregnancy in the country.

Daily Sun (DS): What are the negative impacts of child marriage and child pregnancy on society and the country as a whole?
Sheldon Yett (SY): Child marriage refers to formal and informal unions between a child under 18 and an adult, or with another child, and it is a fundamental violation of human and child rights.

It has a negative impact on the life of girl children as well as adolescent girls, including the most marginalised ones in Bangladesh. It hinders them from fully enjoying their childhood, experiencing healthier, safer, and more empowered life transitions, including making choices about their education, livelihood, sexuality, relationships and marriage, and sexual reproductive health (including childbearing).

Child marriage and child pregnancy are linked with girls dropping out of schools. Without an education, they are unlikely to have the skills needed for employment opportunities, leading to low rates of female participation in the labour market.

The situation gets worse for pregnant adolescent girls as they are not often welcome in school. This triggers the lack of mobility, information, networking and access to services for girls, holding them back from growing as active citizens.

We know girls and women constitute half of the total population.
As society, Bangladesh needs to address the high prevalence of child marriage to meet its development goals.

Finally, Bangladesh is closing in on its demographic window of opportunity. By 2030, its working population will start to shrink, marking the onset of rapid ageing.

Researches have shown that today’s young people need to be four times more skillful to become productive citizens of the future and by no doubt child marriage is one of the bottlenecks.
DS: Could you share UNICEF's observations regarding recent trends in child marriage and child pregnancy rates in Bangladesh?
SY: While child marriage is slowly declining in Bangladesh, there is a need to accelerate this trend.

South Asia is home to around 290 million child brides, accounting for 45% of the global number. In Bangladesh, there are 41.5 million child brides. The data reveals that one in every two adolescent girls aged 20-24 were married before turning 18, according to Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey – MICS2019, the country’s largest-scale and most authoritative survey on the situation of children.

Bangladesh has reduced child marriage by 16% since 2011 at a rate of 2.1% annually, showing slow progress in decreasing child marriage. The numbers consistently indicate plateau in decline: MICS 2019 reveals the rate of child marriage is 51%; the recent Demographic and Health Survey in 2022 also shows child marriage is at 50%. These gains are also unevenly distributed. Affluent and educated girls experience more significant reductions, while child marriage remains high among underprivileged, uneducated, and rural girls.

However, the National Survey on Children’s Education in Bangladesh 2021 also includes preliminary post-pandemic data on child marriage.

The survey indicates a downward trend, giving cause for cautious optimism. The next MICS, set to be conducted in 2024, will confirm if the positive downward trend for child marriage indicated in the National Survey on Children’s Education in Bangladesh 2021 is sustained.

Moreover, the annual decline rate of 2.1%-2.5% falls short of achieving the SDGs and National Commitments on eliminating child marriage.

According to an analysis (UNICEF, 2020, Ending Child Marriage: A profile of progress in Bangladesh), progress must be at least eight times faster than the rate observed over the past decade to meet the national target of ending child marriage in 2041, and 17 times faster to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target by 2030.

 DS: How does UNICEF assess the root causes behind the increase in child marriage and child pregnancy rates in Bangladesh?
SY: The drivers of child marriage are complex, diverse, and interlinked.

Gender and social norms interact with several socio-economic factors to form a complex web of interrelated facets that put a girl child at risk of child marriage.

Gender and social norms continue to play a critical role in perpetuating child marriage in Bangladesh. In fact, gender-based discrimination begins early for a girl. Even before birth, patriarchal gender norms and values reinforce early subordination and limit choices and opportunities throughout her life. Furthermore, research confirms poverty continues to be the root cause.

In sum, the key drivers of this pervasive practice are rooted in gender inequality, intergenerational cycles of poverty, lack of access to education, low income, limited access to resources for girls and women, a lack of their own income, financial planning skills, and gender- and age-based discriminatory laws.  These are coupled with inadequate implementation of laws, policies and political attention.

DS: In what ways does UNICEF support the victims of child marriage and child pregnancy in Bangladesh, both in terms of immediate assistance and long-term empowerment?
SY: UNICEF works with both unmarried and married adolescent girls through sectoral interventions, particularly to ensure they have access to services (health, education, nutrition) and opportunities through our work to strengthen the system.

UNICEF has been making continuous efforts in collaboration with the Bangladesh government to combat child marriage through various programmes.

Among the notable programmes, “Child Protection Community Hubs” provide a safe space where children, including adolescent girls acquire skills and grow into agents of social change…. Nine million services were delivered to girls in 2023 through government, direct implementation and community led approach.

Besides, Alternative Learning Pathway reached a total of 6,494 out-of-school adolescent girls and young women (including child marriage survivors) aged 14-24 with economic empowerment to foster their financial independence in 2023.

Quality health service for married adolescent girls; supporting social workers and frontline health workers to provide them with counselling and referral services; developing the capacity and promoting child help desk (1098) services.

Social and behavioural change on ending child marriage is integrated across our interventions in issues related to child protection, health, and education.
DS: From UNICEF's perspective, what strategies could be effective in addressing this problem within Bangladesh?

SY: A girl-centric and human rights-based approach, with the principles of leaving no one behind and fostering gender transformative change, is key to addressing child marriage.

UNICEF aims to implement multi-sectoral, scalable, and evidence-based programming to empower adolescent girls, strengthen systems, shift gender and social norms and mobilise communities, with the goal of expediting efforts to ending child marriage.

We also consider that it is critical to transition from NGO-based small-scaled programmes to national-level programmes led by government, prioritising the forming of an enabling legal and policy environment.

To ensure the well-being of women and children, especially in terms of protection services, it is imperative to deliver these services directly to families' doorsteps. Sufficient and skilled social service personnel should be available to offer assistance to vulnerable children and women requiring protective services.

The coordination among the government, NGOs, and other stakeholders in the districts and sub-district with high prevalence of child marriage is also important.

The system strengthening components need to include measures of improving a wide range of services, including health, education, social welfare and protection systems to ensure greater access to gender- and child-responsive services.

Reforms in healthcare and education could also encourage better health seeking behaviours and higher retention rates for girls in schools, potentially accelerating the decline rate.

Another pivotal approach we consider is to address prevalent social norms and associated values and beliefs, focusing on shifting underlying gender norms and power structures. This means empowering girls and families; promoting positive masculinities through engaging men, boys, key community leaders as agents of change and allies at various socio-ecological levels.

Finally, a blended approach towards education including life-skills, asset-building skills and comprehensive sexual education will be effective to suit the different needs of married and unmarried adolescent girls.

DS: What are UNICEF's future plans and priorities for addressing child marriage and child pregnancy in Bangladesh?

SY: Ending child marriage demands targeted, scalable, multi-sectoral interventions centered around girl’s empowerment to address intersecting drivers associated with poverty, harmful gender norms and community vulnerabilities. UNICEF will prioritise these in programming.

UNICEF aims to promote shifts in behaviour and gender norms to address child marriage. UNICEF’s systematic approach emphasises comprehensive, large-scale operations that leverage government’s health, education and social protection programmes. It will continue partnership with the Ministry of Social Welfare to strengthen child protection mechanisms to ensure doorstep support for married and unmarried girls.

UNICEF will support the designing of mid- and long-term social protection strategies and schemes. UNICEF will support the full operationalisation of the National Action Plan for Ending Child Marriage, including enhanced inter-ministerial coordination and inclusion in fully costed plans.

Gender-transformative education is another focus that UNICEF will cater through system strengthening interventions.
UNICEF will support the government to utilise effective public financing and provide more support to married girls.

It looks forward to the implementation of multi-sectoral programming to provide the most vulnerable girls with skills that increase their employability, especially for out-of-school children, and married girls.

They will be provided with a tailored package, including job training, soft-skills, occupational health and safety support, and linkage with local employers.
UNICEF will continue partnering with the government and other relevant stakeholders to leverage resources for ending child marriage.