288 girls on average married off early per month this year
A total of 2,301 girls were married off early in the country’s 28 districts in a span of eight months this year-- between January and August. According to that 288 girls were the victims of early marriage per month.
In this span of time, 589 child marriages were prevented across the country.
The National Girl Child Advocacy Forum (NGCAF) came up with this statistics on Friday at a press conference at national press club in Dhaka. At the event, they presented a report on the occasion of National Girl Child Day.
With carrying out field-level survey, the forum collected the information on child marriages from 24 national, online and local media.
The report presented by NGCAF general secretary Nasima Akhter says 76 girl children were subjected to sexual harassment and torture in the first eight months of this year. Majority of them were harassed on the road, at their or relatives homes.
During the period, 186 children were killed, 181 committed suicide, eight left unattended at different places, 15 victims of pornography, three acid violence, 136 abduction and trafficking and 13 dowry-related violence.
Between January and August, 574 were raped. Of them, 43 were physically challenged and 84 subjected to gang rape.
The advocacy forum said many accused walk out of jail on bail and intimidate the victims’ families. No information is available over their punishments.
The forum held a focused group discussion at field level with the females aged between 18 and 30 -- a study that said 30 to 35 women were the victims of cyber bulling daily.
NGCAF president Badiul Alam Majumder said the torture of girl children has become an epidemic that needs to be prevented. The safety of women will have to be ensured from birth. Providing special care to the girl children is necessary.