Coronavirus child brides: Bangladesh teens forced into marriage during pandemic downturn
- Bangladesh has seen a sharp increase in child marriages as impoverished families marry off their daughters to survive, undoing years of social progress
- Academics say the closure of schools has increased the dropout rate, which will have a huge economic impact on the country
But now, her dreams of graduating from the local college and playing national-level football have all but evaporated.
Sharolika’s parents married her off to a 17-year-old motor mechanic earlier this year. Her new in-laws will not allow her to play football any more, and her husband will soon take her to Dhaka, the capital city, to live near his workplace.
“My parents’ financial condition went terribly during the coronavirus. Nobody helped us in the pandemic. So they got me married,” Sharolika said.
Her father Shahidul Islam, a farmer, said he was struggling to provide for his family during the pandemic. “I have two more sons to raise. Marrying off my daughter helped me reduce the financial pressure.”
In the remote village where Sharolika lives, at least six other teenagers who played football with her also got married this year. Stories of an increase in child marriages during the pandemic have emerged from other parts of the country too.
Rumi, 15, from the Rajbari district in central Bangladesh, was about to finish her secondary school certificate exam this February. If it were not for the pandemic, she would have been in college now. But instead, she is living with her in-laws as a child bride.
