Highlights of Initiatives of Child Marriage in Bangladesh Part 8

Tazeen Hossain

Head of Programmes- Youth and Health

Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO)

Volunteer Service Overseas has been working on the issues of child marriage and SRHR from the last two and a half years. They have a very strong connection with communities at the root levels. The most unique part about VSO is that they work with volunteers on a national and international scale that includes parliamentary volunteers as well.

We have two projects- International Citizen Service and National Citizen Service. About 300-400 volunteers are recruited every year and sent to different zilas for a period of 3 months. There they are responsible for mobilisation and carrying out campaigns along with other youth networks. They work with local youth communities to reduce the rate of child marriage in those areas. They create committees along with local service providers, police, chairmen and members of the Union Parishad. This helps them to communicate and build relationships, which further enables them to get information on what is happening at the local levels. Our volunteers take advantage of this information to stop child marriage in different places. In some cases they take help from the Chairman of their respective areas. Other methods to conduct messages to masses involve stage dramas, this method has proven to be very interactive, effective and youth friendly. The volunteers themselves create the scripts and enact them.

One of our long-term volunteers from Indonesia conducted a research to find out the root causes behind child marriage in Northern Bangladesh. Out of many reasons, one reason that came forward is that parents fear that once their children reach adolescence they are going to get into a relationship and bring dishonour to the family. VSO is currently designing a program based on the findings of this research for future implementation.

Eradicating child marriage is a very challenging task as it has been prevalent in certain communities from generations. VSO is working to make sure that the Child Marriage Restraint Act is implemented properly and that the Special Clause is not misused.