Bangladesh Loses $8b to Child Marriage Annually!
Almost half of the 16 Days of Activism has passed. From November 25th to December 10, the world comes together to combat gender-based violence during the 16 Days of Activism. One of the many factors associated with GBV is, of course, Child Marriage.
Bangladesh is losing around $8 billion every year due to child marriage, yet government investment in prevention remains “shockingly low,” UNICEF said on 20 November, while presenting the latest child rights findings from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey-2025.
At a media briefing in the agency’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar office on November 21, UNICEF officials said the country allocates only 0.01 per cent of GDP to child protection systems, which, in their words, has been regarded as ‘grossly inadequate’, for a country where child marriage rates are off the charts.
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey is conducted by the BBS, and UNICEF provides technical support to the survey. This year’s rendition of the survey, conducted on around 63,000 households countrywide, found that the rate of currently married girls aged 15-19 has unfortunately seen a sharp rise. It has increased from 32.9 per cent in 2019 to 38.9 per cent in 2025.
This sharp increase is due to a lot of factors. Lack of women’s access to education is usually seen as the main reason behind high child marriage rates. Interestingly, Bangladesh has the highest enrollment of girls in secondary school in South Asia. A lot of experts tend to express their frustration with the fact that Bangladesh has invested more in infrastructure development rather than human development.
Compared to that of Urban areas, rural areas have always depicted higher rates of child marriage. Qualitative research on Child Marriage around the country, especially in rural areas, has always revealed that girls are mostly considered a burden for the family, so the parents prefer to marry off the girls as soon as possible. In most of these cases, after the completion of eighth grade in school, parents refrain from sending their girls to school.
MICS 2025 revealed that child marriage costs the country $7-8 billion annually in lost productivity and human potential. There is no doubt that child marriage commands a significant share of our attention. Yet, as we reach the midpoint of this year’s 16 Days of Activism, we must pause and ask ourselves, how much of our effort is truly making a difference?
Source:
- UNICEF’s Website
- UN’s website
- The Daily Star