Child Marriage in Bangladesh: Socio-Legal and Human Rights Dimension

Abstract

In many developing nations, like Bangladesh it is common practice marrying girls at an early age. Parents saw it as a way to safeguard their daughters' financial and social futures. However, because these women frequently have children at extremely early ages and give up their schooling, child marriages are frequently linked to poor social and physical consequences. The amount of child marriage is increasing day by day in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, babies and young children under the age of five experiences stunting and high rates of child mortality. This thesis looked at the factors that contribute to child marriages and how they affect these results. The Demographic and Health Survey was used since it was nationally representative. The study's sample included children who had been born in the five years before to the survey as well as ever-married Women aged 12 to 49 years. When examining the causes of child marriage, a multinomial logistic regression was utilized, whereas binary logistic regressions were employed to examine the consequences for children's health. An analysis tool known as decomposition was used to analyze the socioeconomic disparities in child health. The results seem to show an improvement in both of our results. In other words, over the past 20 years, marriage has become more common as people get older, whereas stunting prevalence and infant mortality have decreased. The findings of the analysis demonstrated that socioeconomic position (financial status, education, and location of living) and religion are significant determinants of age at marriage. This paper examines the importance of protective measures, including domestic laws and human rights dimensions, to safeguard the well-being of children in Bangladesh and protect such practices.