The incidence of drop out from educational institutions as well as child marriage may increase due to long time abstention from studies, expertssaid.
At least 80 percent students from the primary and secondary schools may drop out owing to long time closure of schools and increasing poverty due to the impact caused by coronavirus, the expertspredict.
Bangladesh, which has achieved gender equality in primary and secondary education, will be in the most vulnerable position with female students. A large number of families will marry their daughters as they go below the poverty line. As a result, the number of child marriages is likely to increase in the country.
According to a recent joint study by the Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC) and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), coronavirus infections have reduced the income of low-income people in the city by 82 percent. And the income of rural people has decreased by 69 percent.
In many cases, they are able to eat three meals a day, but they are not able to maintain nutrition. Educators are concerned about the future of the education of the daughters of these families.
According to Rasheda K Chowdhury, Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) and former primary and mass education ministry adviser to the caretaker government, students living around shoal or wetlands areas will drop out at a higher rate during the corona crisis.
“Apart from lack of awareness, parents in remote areas have nofinancial ability. In this disastrous situation, they will try to earn extra income for the family by using their children,” she said.
Shealso said, “There is a risk of increasing child marriage to a great extent in the corona crisis. Past experience has shown that in order to reduce poverty, many parents try to reduce the number of family members by marrying off their daughters at an early age. In this way the rate of child marriage increases in the society.”
According to government agencies, the rate of child marriage in the country has come down in the last one decade.It is claimed that the success in this case is due to the awareness of the parents and the increase in financial stability.
But the Corona epidemic has reduced the income of people of almost all walks of life. People in cities or villages who earned their livelihood from hand to mouth, have almost no income. Many affluent families are also facing shortage.
Experts say 20 percent people in thecountry now live below the poverty line. Corona could cause another 20 percent to fall below the poverty line.
According to the recent Multiple Cluster Survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the rate of child marriage in Bangladesh is lower than ever before.
The survey revealed that the rate of child marriages in the country in 2006 was 74.1 percent. In 2014, it has come down to 52.3 percent.
According to a 2017 survey of BIDS, the number of child marriages in the country is currently 47 percent (under 18); On the other hand, the number of marriages below 15 years is 10.7 percent.
According to UNICEF, writes Girls not Brides, Bangladesh has the fourth highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the world, and the second highest number of absolute child brides - 4,451,000.The median age at first marriage is 15 in Rangpur and 16 in Rajshahi and Khulna.
Professor Emdadul Haque, an educationalist, told Bangladesh Post, “Special allowances should be introduced by compiling a list of low-income families so that parents do not marry off their daughters due to poverty.”
According to ministry sources, National Helpline 109 has been launched to prevent child marriage. This number is again printed on the back of all primary and secondary school textbooks, so that information on child marriage or abuse of women can be immediately passed on to those concerned.
Director General of the Department of Primary Education, Fasiullahsaid, “Several initiatives have been taken to ensure that the financial crisis does not hinder the education of the children. We have been trying in various ways so that a single student does not drop out from studies.”
“We are making a list of extremely poor students through upazila administration. The number of beneficiaries and the amount of money will be increased gradually,” he added.
