Planning Minister MA Mannan on Tuesday said growing trends of per capita income will help to reduce child marriage in the country.
He said child marriage incident is happening due to various reasons such as the father being unable to meet the wedding expenses of his older daughters as his income is low.
The minister made the remarks while addressing the 20th session of the Child Parliament titled “Progress of Digital Bangladesh and Child Protection,” held in the city on Tuesday (1 March).
Children from 16 disadvantaged and marginalised areas in 15 districts participated in this session.
The planning minister said child marriage has taken place in many countries of the world while many countries have reduced it.
“Child marriage is still going on secretly in our cities and villages. We have to protest against it. I see many protests, when a child gets married, the child resists on his own. I salute them. The field administration is also working to prevent child marriage,” said Mannan.
The minister said, “There are many in our society whose average monthly income is Tk5000, again, there are many whose average income is Tk5 crore.”
Reducing income discrimination and easy access to digital system for all would help eradication misconception regarding child marriage in the society, Mannan said.
“We are working on 5G internet,” he said.
“But reality is that many people in the country still use 2G internet. We will move forward to development highway of the prime minister with everyone,” he added.