Project Description:

The study was carried out from August to December 2015 in Barishal and Bhola to assess the effectiveness of social protection schemes in preventing child marriage in Bangladesh under “Adolescent Health and Empowerment to Reduce Child Marriage” project. A wide range of data collection tools (both qualitative and quantitative) have been applied to gather and analyze data in order to explore various dimensions (e.g., norms, values, etc.) of child marriage.  It has been found that there is no significant difference in child marriage practices among the households, whether they receive one, multiple, or no social protection program support. Moreover, various other socio-economic and cultural factors affect parents’ decisions with regard to child marriage. Furthermore, dysfunctional marriage registration and badly governed birth registration system along with the poor economic status of parents create a vicious environment for girls to get married at an early age.  The study concludes that reducing child marriage requires comprehensive interventions. This includes social protection programs with enough economic incentives and sound birth and marriage registrations system along with a strong social awareness campaign against child marriage.