The village of Govindapur under Paba Upazila of the district had been declared free from child marriage on November 27 last year.
Since then, not a single child marriage has been solemnised in the remote village which is now being familiarized as free from early marriage.
In pace of the remarkable success, two more adjacent villages-Jhinaipukur and Ashgram- were declared child marriage free on Thursday last.
Sources said the villagers took the matter of announcing the Govindapur village as child marriage free in positive manner. Now the girls are studying in school and colleges as the parents and guardians are not interested to the marriage before 18.
If someone goes o the three villages under Damkura Union, around 12 kilometers off the Rajshahi city, he or she will find three separate signboards inscribed with “a village free from early marriage” at the entrance of the respective villages.
People of the villages have declared their village as free from early marriage when the issue of child marriage is being adjudged as obstacle towards social development in almost villages of the region.
Damkura Union Parishad in association with a non-government development organisation- Center for Mass Education in Science (SMES) – took the initiative and declared the villages as free from early and child marriage on November 28 last.
Abdib Hossain, a Member of the Union Parishad, said around 90 to 95 per cent people of the villages are educated and they are more aware than any other surrounding villages. For this reason, the village people extended their wholehearted support towards the announcement.
Taslima Begum, a housewife of the village, observed that early marriage always led to sufferings to both boys and girls. Early marriage destroys life of the couple. Early-marriage victim females become weak physically and mentally. Earlier, many people don’t know the matter. But, at present the guardians have started realizing the grave issues.
“This is our preliminary steps. We got spontaneous support from the villagers. We will work more for declaring all the adjacent villages free from child marriage in days ahead,” said Ismat Ara Noyan, Organiser (Gender) of SMES.
Shahjahan Ali, Chairman of Damkura Union Parishad (UP), says the public representatives face manifold problems in checking child marriage as many people became unhappy on them over the issue. But the intensive works of SMES contributes a lot towards the process.
He says the village level educational institutions especially high schools and colleges need to be more effective and girls-friendly to make the effort sustainable.
Paba Upazila Nirbahi Officer Razzaqul Islam told BSS that such concerted efforts of local government and a non-government organization brought a desired result in preventing child marriage.
He said step has been taken to build a model village free from child marriage in each of all Union Parishads under the upazila in phases in future.
Dr Amir Hossain, Deputy Director of Department of Family Planning, says early marriage and the early pregnancy in particular have been posing a serious threat to the family planning activities especially in the rural areas.
In Rajshahi, the rate of tendency of becoming mother in early age is more than any other districts due to various reasons like poverty, illiteracy and lack of awareness.
In that case, the endeavor will undoubtedly encourage many other villages towards standing against the child marriage, Dr Amir expects. –BSS, Rajshahi
