Causes and Effects of Child Marriage in Bangladesh: A Case Study at Halishahar, Chattogram, Bangladesh

Child marriage is one of the social diseases in Bangladesh which is an obstacle to overall progress of the country. It is still remaining a strong social custom in Bangladesh which causes high population growth rate of the country. It is a social phenomenon in Bangladesh that might be defined in many ways such as a legal problem, social problem, health problem, population problem and gender discrimination problem. Child marriage is the violation of child rights and an apparatus of discrimination against women. A considerable portion of the population of the country is children and in order to convert them into productive human resources of the country the problem of child marriage has to be addressed properly and steps should be taken immediately. This paper attempts to highlight the socio-economic causes and consequences of child marriage in Bangladesh. This paper also suggests some procedure to eliminate child marriage in Bangladesh. This research is conducted on the basis of primary and secondary data. For primary data a survey is conducted from September, 2018 to December, 2018 among 150 women aged 25 to 45 who got married before 18 years and live in slum at Santibag Area, Halishahar, Chattogram, Bangladesh. Secondary data are collected from various journals, books, reports and news paper writings.