Withdraw proposal of conditional 16yrs

Women's rights activists yesterday reiterated their call for the women and children affairs ministry to withdraw its proposal to relax women's marriageable age from 18 to 16 years if "done with the consent of her parents or court for valid reasons".
"If the age is reduced, parents will marry off their daughter at the age of 10 or 11," Prof Zeenat Huda of Dhaka University's sociology department told a discussion in the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
"On the other hand, when a woman will get married at 16, parents of another woman aged 22 will feel social pressure to marry off their daughter," she added.
The ministry prepared and recently sent the draft of The Child Marriage Restraint Act-2014, containing the relaxation proposal, to the law ministry for vetting.
The existing Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 makes it a criminal offence to marry, or facilitate the marriage of a girl under the age of 18 or a man or boy under 21.
The discussion, "What will be Women's Marriageable Age? 16, 18 or more?" was organised by Women Envoy, a forum campaigning for equal rights to paternal property.
The country's women are now climbing mountains, joining the army and participating in many development works. Therefore, the marriageable age should rather be increased, said Dr Zeenat.
"To increase the number of women entrepreneurs, reduce female students' dropout rate, infant and maternal mortality rate and contain population explosion, the marriageable age of women must be increased," she said.
Women Envoy President Shikha Bhuiyan contradicted State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki's claim that reducing the marriageable age would reduce incidents of gender-based violence. 
She also suggested that the government adopt a project encouraging parents to give importance on educating their daughters instead of marrying them off.