Bangladesh urged to tackle child marriage ‘epidemic’

Bangladesh must ramp up efforts to tackle its “epidemic” of child marriage — a problem fuelled by the country’s repeated natural disasters, rights campaigners said on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called on the government to ditch a proposal to lower the legal marriage age for girls from 18 to 16, which it said undermined the prime minister’s recent pledge to end child marriage.

Bangladesh has one of the world’s highest rates of child marriage, with two thirds of girls ending up as child brides. Nearly 30 percent wed before their 15th birthday and many are much younger.
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