State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Simeen Hussain (Rimi) on Monday outlined 17 steps being taken by the government to prevent child marriage in Parliament.
She said this in Parliament replying to a query of Jatiya Party MP elected from Kishoreganj and opposition chief whip Mujibul Haque Chunnu.
In his question, Chunnu, referring to the Corona pandemic period, said that the rate of child marriage in poor families is higher than any other time.
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He wanted to know about the government's plan for the girls of underprivileged families.
In response, Simeen Hossain said according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019, the rate of child marriage under the age of 15 years is 15.5 percent while the rate of child marriage under the age of 18 is 51.4 percent.
The state minister outlined 17 steps to prevent child marriage.
In response to another question, Simeen Hossain said that monitoring activities to prevent child marriage are ongoing in 64 districts.
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“According to the information available from field level of district and upazila, a total of 12,150 child marriages have been foiled in between 2015 to August 2023,” Simeen Hossain said.