The child brides of Rasulpur
Sixteen-year-old Lamia Akter Meem was cooking rice in her family's yard, using an earthen stove. The sun hovered high in the sky, indicating it was nearing midday at the Rasulpur Char along the Kirtankhola in Barishal. Within a few minutes, Meem's 19-month-old baby boy ran to her crying for attention. Meem scooped him up and swayed him in her arms to soothe him.
As Meem tended to the child, a group of girls around her age strolled past the yard. They invited Meem to join them in a game called Chhi-Buri, a traditional village game. Without hesitation, Lamia passed the baby to her mother inside the house and eagerly joined her friends.
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Her enjoyment was, however, short-lived, as the baby's cries soon prompted Meem to return to his side. "I enjoy playing with my friends, but my father disapproves," Meem said wistfully looking at the field.
Meem was only 14 when she was married off. Within a year, she became a mother. Her husband got a job abroad two years ago, leaving Meem to live with her parents.
Her husband no longer wants to reunite with her as he is now more affluent and his status in society is much "higher" than Meem's family.
Meem's story mirrors the condition of hundreds of other girls living in Rasulpur Char.
Married off between the ages of 13 and 15, they are thrust into the responsibilities of adulthood far too early in life.
During a recent visit to the Char, this correspondent found numerous young girls burdened with the duties of motherhood.
Many grapple with illness, and tragically, around six months ago, one young victim of child marriage succumbed to pregnancy-related complications.
Despite these hardships, the cycle of child marriage persists.
Locals acknowledge the dangers but feel compelled to marry off their minor daughters because of insecurity -- the fear created by threats from miscreants and addicts to their unmarried teenage girls as well as the sheer worry of another mouth to feed.
RISE OF THE CHAR
In the 1980s, Rasulpur Char was built from the dredging soil of the Kirtankhola over 23 acres of land. But due to gradual filling with soil, the boundary of this char is now 50 acres.
Over the years, influential people became owners of the Char's land. Many of them rent or sell the Char's land by issuing cards. These influentials first proved them as landless, and then the land was allocated against their names from the government. Later, they again sell that land to actual landless people in exchange for money. They complete the process of handing over the land by giving a piece of paper, which is locally known as the "card".
The Char came under the jurisdiction of Ward-9 of the Barishal city. Although there are 1,496 voters on the land, six to seven thousand floating people now live here for work.
Locals said the number of children in the char was more than a thousand.
Although closest to Barishal city, this area has no civic amenities, no health-sports or cultural activities. Despite the area being under the city corporation area, there is no piped drinking water system here. There are only 10 deep tubewells.
The Char has four non-formal schools -- Chandradip Shishu Surokkha Community Hub, Totini Community Hub, Chander Hashi Community Hub, and Avijatri Community Hub.
Around 500 students study in these schools. Children are made aware of the ill effects of child marriage, but this has not reduced the number of child marriages by any means.
Out of thousands of girls in the char, half of them were victims of child marriage, according to these school and awareness centres.
STORY OF CHILD BRIDES
Being married so early, Meem was not able to pass all subjects in the SSC exam. She is now preparing to take the exam again.
"I miss my old days. I stood first in the weight-ball throwing game in class eight. I may not be able to go back to those days but I do want to take the exam," she said.
Meem's mother Jhumu Begum explained that her husband is a vegetable seller and they couldn't meet the expenses of all three children, so they had to marry off their daughter.
Sharmin Begum, now 20 years old, lived next to Jhumu's house with her rickshaw-puller husband Mehedi Hasan, and three daughters -- Mithila, 6, and twin daughters Fariha and Fahima, both 18 months old.
She got married at 13 when she was in class five. Sharmin looked undernourished and fatigued.
"My father Hemayet Fakir is a day labourer, and my mother Niru Begum, is a homemaker. They forced me to get married as local addicts used to disturb us coming to our home," said Sharmin.
Niru Begum said, "When the girls become a little older, the evil eyes of the local unruly youths fall on them. We have to shut off the doors and windows after sunset. They throw bricks at our house. We did not even get any remedy after complaining to the police. Marriage remains the only option for us to save the girls."
Like Sharmin, another young girl Nasrin Akther Happy, now 22 years old, got married at the age of 13. She got divorced as her husband married for a second time.
Happy's eight-year-old daughter Israt Jahan Akhi now lives with her husband, and Happy survives by working in different homes as a domestic help.
Tanzila Akter, community mobiliser of Chandradip Child Protection Centre, said there are around 300 children studying at the centre, and half the children's mothers got married at the age of 13 and 16.
"Even though there are efforts to create awareness about child marriage, nothing is being done. At the ages of 14 and 15, girls are more likely to be child brides. The problems arise later, as we often heard that these girls were tortured by their husbands," Tanzila said.
In 2022, Asika Akter, 13, was married to a hawker named Mizanur Rahman at the Char. Within a year, she gave birth to a child but had to be admitted to a hospital as she fell sick. After undergoing treatment at different hospitals for six months, she died of complications.
A DISMAL STATE OF HEALTHCARE
Sumon Chandra Shikar, who runs a medicine shop at the Char, said there are no doctors or community clinics in Rasulpur.
"For any complications, one has to visit city hospitals by crossing the Kirtonkhola to get a doctor's consultation. Irregular menstruation, headache, allergy, and stomach upset are major complaints we receive daily from people in this Char," he said.
Mizanur Rahman, a local visiting doctor, told this newspaper, "Majority of the girls in the Char are facing physical complications from pregnancies at such an early age."
A CHAR TURNED INTO A DRUG DEN
During the visit, this correspondent found garbage strewn here and there. There was no amusement park anywhere in the area. Youths were seen playing carrom board, and cards on the banks of the river during the day.
But after dusk, the Char becomes a haven for all kinds of drugs, according to some locals.
Tanzila Akter, the community mobiliser of the area, said, "It becomes difficult to leave the house because of the addicts. If anyone tries to raise their voice they attack them. No one can do anything. Even telling the police does not help."
Locals claim a former councillor of ward-9 Harun Or Rashid has a strong influence on the narcotics trade. A police source named Kulsum also has control of the narcotics market.
Harun, however, denied the claim and said he was not involved with any such activities and did not have any idea who was responsible for it.
Kulsum also denied her involvement with the drug trade.
Syed Human Kabir Linku, the incumbent councillor of ward-9, said, "I do not want to name those who are involved in the narcotics trade. But some of them are working in the lower tier of the police, and some are journalists. The area has become drug-prone and has spread to every corner."
"We are trying our best to make the area drug-free," he added.
Arichul Haque, officer-in-charge of Kotowali Police Station, however, denied the allegations of police officials' involvement with the narcotics trade.
"We often conduct drives and recover drugs based on specific information," he said.
Enayet Hossain, assistant director of the Department of Narcotics Control of Barishal Division, told this newspaper that a total of 60 narcotics cases were filed last year. "In these cases, 97,806 pieces of yaba, and 292-kilogramme marijuana were recovered. We have come to know a majority of these drugs came from the Rasulpur Char," he added.
CHILD MARRIAGE IN BARISHAL
There were no statistics on the number of child marriages in official records. However, the District Women's Affairs Officer's office gave the number of early marriages they stopped.
The data showed the department received news of 29 child marriages between January 2022 and January 2023, out of which, they managed to prevent 18.
District Women's Affairs Officer Meherun Nahar Munni said child marriage increased during the Covid period in 2020-21.
"Child marriage is especially rampant in slum areas," she said. "People in areas like Rasulpur do not give us information about child marriages. But we are alert and whenever we get the information, we stop such practices with the help of police and magistrates. We will continue our efforts in this regard," Munni added.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey, released on March 24 this year, at least 41.6 percent of young women in Bangladesh were married before turning 18.
Besides, as per a report of Unicef published in 2021, the prevalence of child marriage in Bangladesh stands at 51 percent, putting it among the top 10 countries in terms of child marriage.
Manisha Chakrabarty, member secretary of the Barishal district of Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal, told this newspaper, "The influentials have built a drug empire in Rasulpur with the poor inhabitants. Parents here marry off girls quickly because they do not feel safe -- this system has been going on for a long time."
"We have prevented around 10 child marriages, but they even got married later," she said.
Pankaj Roy Chowdhury, president of Khelaghar Barishal district committee, said although Rasulpur was the closest area to Barishal city, there was no civic facility there.
"There is no playground, no cultural activities have been developed. As a result, the area is turning into a dark zone," he said.
Contacted, Kohinoor Begum, panel mayor-3 of Barisal City Corporation, said, "The city corporation has no ongoing programme to prevent child marriage but we are working to come up with measures like awareness campaigns. Besides, several NGOs are working in this regard."
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