Rajarhat has been primarily declared as the second upazila in Kurigram district as child marriage free on Monday.
The declaration was made at a programme at the Helipad premises where the State Minister of Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir ossain gave this declaration as the chief guest through video conference.
The upazila administration of Rajarhat organised this event jointly with international development organisation Plan International Bangladesh as part of the ongoing project Building Better Future for Girls (BBFG) funded by the Embassy of Sweden and implemented by RDRS Bangladesh.
Member of Parliament of Kurigram 2, Ponir Uddin Ahmed, was present as special guest while Deputy Commissioner of Kurigram district Muhammad Rezaul Karim chaired the declaration ceremony, according to a press release issued on Monday.
Among other guests additional superintend of police, Kurigram, district education officer, vice-chairman of Upazila Parishad of Rajarhat, Project Manager of BBFG project of Plan International Bangladesh Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Head of Development Programme of RDRS Abdul Samad were present the event.
At the beginning of the event, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Rajarhat upazila Nure Tasnim shared information on current context on child marriage of Rajarhat. Later, discussion session was held where the discussants shared the objective of the declaration, present situation of the upazila and future action plan.
The event aimed to create mass awareness on stopping child marriage as well as to advocate for the activation of different committees in upazila, union, and community level to prevent child marriage, reduce the rate of child marriage and finally declare the upazila as child marriage free.
In the discussion session, it was shared that with the leadership of the district administration of Kurigram a committee has been formed to review the progress of child marriage situation of Rajarhat upazila following the guideline of Governance Innovation Unit (GIU) of Bangladesh Government.
While sharing the recent child marriage situation in the upazila following information was presented by the discussants in the session- through BBFG Project, 601 families, whose girls are at the risk of child marriage, have been provided support in coordination with government and non-government organisation so that these families will not arrange marriage for their girls before 18 and can support to continue girls education. Bi-cycle race, debate competition, session conduct by champion father were also done before this declaration.
