DHAKA: State minister for women and children affairs Meher Afroze on Tuesday said minimum age of marriage will remain 18 for girls.

She came up with the assertion after inaugurating a project on empowering the youth who married early at Spectra Convention Center in city in the morning.

The state minister said early marriage creates many problems and law enactment would not help us if we cannot stop such marriages by creating social awareness.

“This is why the government has decided to maintain the minimum age for girls,” she added.

Initiative for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment (IMAGE) will oversee the project financed by Netherlands.

The state minister also expected the non-government organizations will extend their hands towards the government to meet the goals regarding the matter.

Statistics says the rate of early marriage in south Asia is 48 percent but it jumps to 64 percent in Bangladesh.

IMAGE initiated the project as experts apprehended the rate might rise in Bangladesh.

With First Secretary of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Ella De Voogd at Netherlands embassy in Bangladesh in the chair of input session, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) Sultana Kamal, health secretary Syed Najrul Islam, Chargé d'affaires Martine van Hoogstraten and managing director of Red Orange Media and Communications Arnab Chakraborty, among others, were present in the program.


BDST: 1313 HRS/1345 HRS, JUN 23, 2015
SR/RR/SMS