[Voice-over] Marriage is a turning point in anyone’s life.
For women and girls in Bangladesh
it’s often the moment when they leave their parents home for the first time
and move to a new home and belong to a new family.
But for millions of girls in Bangladesh,
marriage comes too soon and the damage follows them throughout their lives.
[Title] “MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY” CHILD MARRIAGE IN BANGLADESH
[Testimony of Sharmin, married at 14] The river took everything that we had.
My parents would’ve never let me get married, but they had to because we became poor.
We weren't always poor.
We had a house.
But it was destroyed by the river.
[Testimony of Moin Uddin, Sharmin's Father] Then we bought land and built a new home there.
Then that house washed away.
So we moved to another property and built a home there.
A few years later the river took that house away.
So after my fifth house was destroyed
we moved here to this house.
[Voice-over] The combination of extreme poverty
and repeated natural disasters creates a perfect storm to destroy girls lives.
Without help from the government,
child marriage becomes a survival strategy for families.
[Testimony of Sharmin, married at 14] What could my parents do?
Because they couldn't even feed me, they gave me away.
[Testimony of Mizanur Rahman. Chair, National Human Rights Commission] If you consider the whole of Asia, and particularly South Asia,
Bangladesh probably is the country which is mostly beset with this problem of child marriage.
The curse of child marriage, I would say, is the highest in the region.
[Voice-over] Bangladesh has the world’s highest marriage rate for girls under 15. It’s an epidemic.
[Testimony of Parvin, married at 11] I've been married for 2 years.
I studied until class 4, but my family went through a financial crisis, and I couldn't go to school anymore.
Then I was sent to work in a house [as a maid] when I was a kid.
I worked there for almost 3 years.
They didn’t pay me at all.
[Voice-over] Parvin’s older sister Belkis also had to work as a maid at the age of ten,
and then married because the family was losing their land and livelihood to river erosion.
[Testimony of Belkis, married at 13] [My husband] is much older than me.
My in-laws would hit me, beat me and harassed me.
My husband would treat me badly.
It was terrible for me. They would beat me so I came back to my father’s house.
[Voice-over] Their bodies are still developing and so are their minds.
Yet these girls are forced to endure situations that no child should face.
[Testimony of Sharmin, married at 14] I have a one-year-old daughter.
The child was ill when she was born and I couldn't buy the medicines she needed to get better.
So we had to borrow money in order to buy the medicines.
We had to buy so many medicines.
It was very hard having this baby.
I want my little sister to study. I'll help her find a job and hope she'll be independent enough to make her own choices.
Testimony of Ahmed Mizanur Rahman, school Principal] Without educating girls, we cannot educate our next generation.
Due to child marriage I have lost three students this year.
[Parents] want to reduce their burden. They think that girls are the burden to them.
[Voice-over] Even when education is “free”, many families can’t afford the additional fees for exams, uniforms, pens or stationary.
So poor girls leave school. And girls who leave school, get married.
[Testimony of Sifola, Married at 13] The school was really far away from our house and my parents were very poor.
And that's why I was married off instead of continuing my education.
I cried a lot and asked my mother, "Why are you marrying me off so early?"
"If I go to school I could become an intellectual and have a career."
[Testimony of Muhammad Jahangir, Marriage Registrar] In the case of girls the minimum age is 18.
For boys the minimum age is 21.
Upon presentation of the birth registration we decide whether they're eligible for marriage.
Maybe on paper it says they’re at the legal age,
on paper,
but basically it’s not so.
If they’re not,
it's against the law.
The marriages that take place in the local neighborhoods,
almost 100 percent of them are performed by the imams.
If [the people] insist, there's nothing I can do about it.
[Voice-over] Local government officials are not just turning a blind eye to child marriage, but are facilitating it.
[Testimony of Sifola, married at 13] At that time, my birth registration papers said I was 13 years old.
My brothers gave money to the people who do the birth registration
and changed my age to 18 and then married me off.
[Testimony of Mizanur Rahman. Chair, National Human Rights Commission] Quite surprisingly we found that there have been a government initiative
to lower the age of the marriageable girl and the plan is to lower it to the age of 16.
In that case you will find 1001 reasons when the guardians
or the parents would be tempted to lower the age of their girl child
and give her to marriage which is something
we do not want to see any farther in the country.
We want to prohibit child marriage as such
and the position of the National Human Rights Commission has been not only to prohibit
but also to make child marriage a punishable offense in the law.
[Outreach theater performance by "Wedding Busters" Child Protection Group] How old is your daughter?
Not [young], she’s 13 years old.
Sister is right, she’s 13 years old, a grown girl.
She is only 13 years old and you are saying she is a grown girl?
[Voice-over] The government isn’t enforcing its own law on the minimum age of marriage.
So some children are taking matters into their own hands.
[Outreach theater performance by "Wedding Busters" Child Protection Group] Let’s get her married.
She is only in grade 6.
How does that even matter? She’s a big girl now.
I want to study more and become a successful doctor.
Why are you getting me married?
[Voice-over] The Wedding Busters are a group of children who are working to end child marriage
by educating their communities through theater and door-to-door outreach.
[Door-to-door outreach by "Wedding Busters" Child Protection Group] If she becomes pregnant at such an early age,
then there’s a risk that both mother and child might lose their lives.
[Testimony of Muhammad, “Wedding Busters”Child Protection Group] If we keep working at it, I believe that child marriages in our area will come down to zero.
Please let her study and play and help her become an independent woman.
Please don't get her married before 18.
[Testimony of Tanzila, “Wedding Busters” Child Protection Group] I’m 12, and on November 7th, I’ll turn 13.
As a girl I don’t want another girl’s life to be ruined.
I want her to be free the same way I'm free.
[Voice-over] Despite many promises, the government of Bangladesh is failing to protect its girls.
And even worse, is putting them in danger by proposing to lower the minimum age of marriage from 18 to 16.
The government should act before another generation of girls is lost.