Impact of Child Marriage

on Higher Education
 Introduction

Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls worldwide will
become Child brides- defined by the United Nations as marriage
before age 18. Even though Bangladesh’s legal age of marriage is
18, the country has the second- highest rate of child marriage
globally. The Bangladesh Demographic and health survey shows
that nearly three quarters of women ages 20-49 married before
turning 18,(Abdul Latif Jameel 2016).
According to UNICEF flagship report, the child marriage rate is 66% in
Bangladesh which is one of the world’s highest rates and this issue
needs an urgent attention. Within South Asia, the teenage pregnancy
rate is higher in Bangladesh (Raj et al., 2010). All too often, imposition
of a marriage partner upon a child means that a girl or boy’s childhood
is cut short and their fundamental rights are compromised
(UNICEF,2014 and Lefebvre, Quiroga and Murphy 2016).
Besides having a negative impact on girls themselves, the practice
of early marriage also has negative consequences on their children,
families and society as a whole. UNICEF (2016) argues that it is not
only girls that pay for early marriage but also the society as a whole.
Child marriage is considered as a violation of rights of the girls because they cannot
complete their education, (Singh and Samara, 1996). There is widespread consensus that
child marriage violates the rights of those girls, limits their school attainment, learning and
future earning and has negative impacts on their health and that of their children. They also
are weaker academically, and therefore have lower inventive to continue the study than
girls who are academically stronger,( Nguyen & Wodon, no date). Lloyd and Mensch
(2008) find that for girls aged 15 to 24, child marriage and pregnancies directly account for
between 5% and 33% of drop-outs, depending on the country.