Work together to end child marriage: speakers

In order to ensure women's empowerment, child marriage needs to be eliminated, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatunnesa Indira said at a webinar held on Thursday.

The webinar, titled "National Webinar on Grassroots Approaches to Prevent Child Marriage", was organised as part of the Shouhardo programme -- funded by USAID and the government, and implemented by CARE Bangladesh. The objective of the webinar was to disseminate the findings from a study by CARE on child marriage, a press release said.

Speaking as chief guest, Indira also said the government has taken several measures to reduce the prevalence of child marriage.

Ramesh Singh, country director of CARE Bangladesh, inaugurated the event. "We at CARE acknowledge that ending the practise of child marriage will require a multi-actor and multi-faceted approach," he said.

Ellen De Guzman, director of Food, Disaster, and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID Bangladesh, also took part in the discussion and vowed to stand beside Bangladesh in combatting child marriage.

Sheepa Hafiza, former executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra presented the keynote paper, said the press release.

Among others, Dr Fauzia Moslem, acting president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad; Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of CAMPE; and Dr Nazmunnesa Mahtab, Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka, shared their opinions in a panel discussion.