Classrooms, Not Aisles
October 5th, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
Imagine getting married at 13. In some places in the world, it’s not so hard to imagine. Thirteen-year-old Shimu in Bangladesh is having a hard time warding off proposals. Her grandmother wants her to stop studying and marry one of her many suitors. Ironically, Shimu is a popular TV star in Bangladesh and plays the title role in a serial which promotes girls’ education.
In the television serial, her character Alo fights to stay in the fifth grade instead of working in a garment factory or getting married like her family members demand. In her real life, she wants to study but is finding it increasingly difficult to remain in school because of poverty and age-old traditions that dictate a girl is better married off.
Child marriage, which has long been prevalent in south Asian countries, has many harmful, long-term effects. It leads to utter powerlessness on the girl’s part because with no education, she has no means to support herself in the outside world. In a male-dominated society, it is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that she is never able to stand up for her rights. The husband is in an advantageous position in multiple ways. Usually much older, he is also more educated and therefore able to earn. The wife, is therefore, reduced to a slave in many cases. From the Washington Post story on Shimu:
In Bangladesh, two in five girls ages 15 to 17 are married, even though the minimum age at which it is legal to marry is 18, according to UNICEF, the U.N. agency for children. Violence in such marriages is frequent. There are thousands of cases each year in Bangladesh in which child brides are drenched in acid for refusing sex, talking back to mothers-in-law or not doing enough housework, aid workers say.
To many of those who live in developed countries, these may seem like gruesome but remote tales and there is little sense of what one can do about such things. But in an increasingly globalised world, one can hope that there will be a trickle effect in many areas, not just the economic. As Kathleen Selvaggio of International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) points out in a letter to the editor of WP:
Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) have introduced bipartisan legislation to curb child marriage by addressing its root causes — poverty and inequality. Their bills would monitor child marriage in the annual U.S. human rights reports and authorize modest funds to support community-based programs targeting adolescent girls to prevent early marriage.
Those who read the article may be wondering what they can do. One simple step is to ask their elected officials to support these bills.
Approximately 50 million girls are married in the developing world, and 100 million more girls are expected to marry in the next decade if nothing changes. By urging Congress to support this legislation, we can begin to reverse this trend. Collectively, in partnership with developing countries, we can help girls walk into classrooms, not down the aisle.
Shimu’s future, meanwhile, remains uncertain. Her grandfather wants her to continue studying but funds are low and they will soon be evicted from their current house. UNICEF workers recently started a fund to help the family relocate, which may ease the family’s financial burden. Hopefully, like her character Alo, Shimu too will be able to remain in school.
October 7th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Ouch. At this is only being brought to our attention because the child is something of a celebrity. Imagine the plight of millions of mute, less famous others with no one to speak for them. Thank you for this lovely article. Would be interested in knowing what we in India can do, since the solution given here is clearly U.S.-oriented.