03
CHILD MARRIAGES IN BANGLADESH: ASSESSING THROUGH THE LENS OF SOCIAL
AND BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE: A QUALITATIVE REVIEW
Deepak Gupta,1* Badrul Hassan,2 and Jai P. Narain 3
1

Sr. Consulting Adviser (Programmes & Strategic Communication),
UN System in Asia and the Pacific, New Delhi, India
2
Development and Communication Expert,
Several Countries in Asia & the Pacific Region, Dhaka, Bangladesh
3Formerly Director, World Health Organization, South East Asia (WHO/SEAR) & Global HealthInternational Advisers, Kullu, H.P., India*
Corresponding Author Email: drguptad11@gmail.com

How to cite this paper:
Gupta, Deepak; Hassan,
Badrul; Narain Jai P. (2022)
Child
MarriagesinBangladesh:
Assessingthrough the Lens of Social
and Behavioural Change: A
Qualitative Review, Journalof Global Resources, Vol. 08
(02)

DOI:
10.46587/JGR.2022.v08i02.003

Received: 29 May 2022
Reviewed: 14 June 2022
Revised: 24 June 2022
Final Accepted: 25 June 2022

Abstract: Development agencies, including UNICEF, hasfor long pioneered in Communication for Development(C4D) and therefore, stood as a catalytic lead in playing
fulcrum to design, programming, implementation andcreating evidence for children, young people and women.
The discourse has recently transformed to Social and
Behaviour Change (SBC) with an emphasis on ‘behaviouralinsights’. It shall bear a significant impact on mitigating childmarriages across the region, including Bangladesh. Childmarriage is an accepted practice across communities in
Bangladesh albeit in varying degrees. It necessarily
requires effective partnerships, sustained community
mobilization, empowerment of adolescents for bringing
marked changes in individual, family and community
behaviours through active engagements with and exposure
to the multiple communication tools. Drivers for childmarriage are usually common in Bangladesh, and areanchored in the social, structural and systemic features of apatriarchal society, which invariably oppress women andgirls as a second-class citizen and promote genderinequality at all stages. The current desk-based qualitative
analysis, regardless of its limitations, confirms that SBC
interventions
designedtomaximizecommunity
collaboration and participation can have a beneficial impact
on mitigating child marriages in Bangladesh.
Key words: Social & Behavior Change (SBC), Strategic
Communication Ending, Child Marriage (ECM),
Bangladesh, Social Norms,

Journal of Global Resources, July 2022, Volume 08 (02) Gupta Deepak, Hassan Badrul, Narain J. P. P a g e | 23

Introduction
Communication for Development (C4D), recently re-christened as the SBC (social andbehavioural change), is construed as the set of strategic interventions enshrined with equity,that are rights-based and foster accountability-driven principles of community engagement
and ownership in promoting positive behaviours in children, young people, women and men
through focused communication and mobilization methodologies in attaining overall
development objectives. Integral to this approach is thorough understanding of multiple ‘riskfactors’ which surround individuals, families and communities. It is also understood as diving
deep into behavioural-insights. Government of Bangladesh has taken multiple steps for
integrating SBC and community engagement as a cross-cutting programme strategy throughmultiple ministries such as, social welfare, women and children affairs and health and family
welfare via progressive policies, plans and practices at all levels of the relevantorganizations. Campaign interventions that are designed to address child marriages in
Bangladesh have recognized the significance of engagement and ownership of the issue by
the respective communities. SBC is a way to giving voices to the people in planningresponse, inviting local community representatives to take part in monitoring process,discussing findings with communities, and adjusting response design accordingly.
Social Norms: Contemporary Scenario and People’s Participation
Studies demonstrate that the behavioural change interventions, based on social norms,
including in addressing child marriages have reported to be an effective and cost-efficient
way through which communication researchers and development partners, plan interventions
to transform behavior in order to enhance results for children and in attaining the goals under
Agenda 2030. An emerging trend shows that an increased attention is accorded to usingsocial norms theory from the realization that changing harmful practices through factual
information and economic benefits (inducements) alone are not sufficient in achieving results
for children (Gelfand and Jackson 2016; Cislaghi and Denny et al. 2019). Many theories, inthe field of development, on what social norms are and how they influence behavior alreadyexist (Bell and Cox 2015). Analysis demonstrates that most of the development
communication literature refers to Cialdini’s theory, which clearly demarcates two very
distinct types of normative beliefs: (i) one’s belief about what others in one’s group do(called descriptive norms) and (ii) one’s belief about what others in the group approve anddisapprove of (called injunctive norms). This should be contextualized when addressing
mitigating child marriages in the communities in Bangladesh. Under the Cialdini’s theory,communities, and individuals therein, comply with social norms for multiple reasons,
including, for example, because they are uncertain about what is the best behavior toachieve something in a given situation, they want to express membership in a group or; they
expect a social reward. In some cases, people are also forced to by those who have powerover them (Bell and Cox 2015). Communication researchers and theorists suggest that tochange a social norm it is critical to reach out to people’s “reference group”, it is critical toengage the entire network of those who share the norm in question.
The power of social norms is also rooted in the human desire to belong to one’s
community. Widely acclaimed social scientists (Burnes and Lewin, 1999) very aptly noted intheir extensive research on behavioral change wherein they observed that most humans fear
to stand out from the group: “the unwillingness of the individual to depart too far from group
standards” is a strong propeller to influence behavior. Information diffusion, which involves
dispersal or spreading through information exchange, takes place among these early to lateadopters within the social network until saturation is achieved or the information isabandoned. Social norms are established, needless to emphasize, when enough people in asocial network adopt a particular belief, practice, or technology, even those with a highthreshold for adoption. Interaction among individuals within social networks can contribute to
Journal of Global Resources, July 2022, Volume 08 (02) Gupta Deepak, Hassan Badrul, Narain J. P. P a g e | 24

spreading information and translating messages into (newly evolving) norms, especiallywherein well researched multi-layered and multi-media interventions are strategically
employed in addressing age-old traditional mindset such as child marriages. Development
practitioners and research scholars working in the development and global health sectors
have long been interested in understanding how socio-cultural context influences people’s
behaviour.
Multiple communication studies have demonstrated that most of the field-level
conceptual models acknowledge both the importance of context in shaping behaviour, andthe role of social norms. Many field interventions in Bangladesh, for example under mitigating
child marriages, could offer a case in point. Brofenbenner’s socio-ecological model – 1992
(Stanger, N. R, 2011), for instance, underlines the emphasis how individual, social,
institutional, and macro level factors combine to influence people’s actions. This frameworksolicits users to examine how the micro, meso, and macro-level environments interact toaffect human behaviour. It has been widely employed to examine a wide range of field-based
development and health practices and more recently adapted specifically to help designsocial norms interventions (Cislaghi & Heise, 2018). In addition to the ecological model,
several other theories and frameworks exist to study how social factors influence people’s
developmental behaviours, including health-related behaviours (Darnton’s, 2008 Theory of
Change Model/Mayne 2018).
Catalyzing Social Norms in Addressing Child Marriages
There are numerous examples of social norms that not only are discriminatory but may
cause significant harm. To cite a few: female genital mutilation/cutting, child marriage
followed by early and continuous child bearing, dowry system, honour killing. The social
norms that are established in Bangladeshi, including most of South Asian culture, largely
dictate the kind of expectations that parents/guardians and community form about theirchildren. In this connection child marriage is a manifestation of expectation by the individual
parents vis-à-vis the society itself. These norms are the informal sets of rules derived fromsocial systems that prescribe what behavior is expected, allowed, or sanctioned in particular
circumstances (Cislaghi, Mackie et al. 2014) to shape behavior through both descriptive andinjunctive norms (Gold 2011 and Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010).
Descriptive norms are optimally measured by asking people within a community theirperceptions of how prevalent a certain behavior or practice is. However, in the case ofobservable behaviors, aggregating the behavior at the level of a socially relevant group, like
a community, can serve as a proxy. Injunctive norms, by contrast, are an individual's
perceptions or beliefs of what others within the community approve or disapprove of, which inturn influence behaviors through pressures to conform (Cialdini et al. 1991). The normative
factors around marital choice is strongly associated with age at marriage whereas norms
around age at marriage are not. When a greater proportion of women in a village believe thatthe community supports an older age of marriage, and when a greater proportion of men in
the village believe that the community supports informed marital choices, girls in thosecommunities are more likely to report having had a marital choice. Therefore, the potential
value of community-level social norms interventions to address the scourge of childmarriages cannot be over emphasized.
Globally, Bangladesh is ranked among the worst performing 10 countries with thehighest rates of child marriage (JHU/CCP, April 2022). BBS recent data projected thatadolescent population covers 20.9 percent of total population of the country and half of them
are girls (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics). Prevalence of child marriage varies in different
geographic locations in Bangladesh. Nationally about 51.4percent of women of age from 2024 years were married before they attained the age of 18 (MICS 2019). In the same
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indicator, for example, child marriage prevalence demonstrated 10 percent higher(61.8percent) in the Khulna Division as compared to the National data; therefore, theprevalence of child marriages is practiced across communities in Bangladesh albeit invarying degrees.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the situation in the context of childmarriages. The “Rapid Analysis of Child Marriage Situation during Covid-19” conducted in
November 2020 by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) on child marriage during COVID-19
reveals that at least 13,886 child marriages took place in 21 districts during the months of the
lockdown last year (Source/Media: The Daily Star, 2021). Therefore, this health emergency
is an added critical challenge being confronted by the community mobilization teams
relentlessly addressing ending child marriage interventions. A qualitative study on ‘Causesand Effects of Child Marriage in Bangladesh’ (Hossain Patoari, 2020) found that in large
parts of the country, the most common reason why families decided to go ahead with a childmarriage was because they found ‘a good match’. This reason came first for marrying off
their daughters, while the ‘family honor’ came as a close second along with a few other
underlying causes. The similar trend was found on UNICEF initiated U-Report pole on Child
Marriage (UNICEF, Sept. 2020)

Development partners, Govt. of Bangladesh and civil society actors are committed toending child marriages in the country – wherein the government had set forth the target tolower down the child marriage by 17 percent by 2030 to meet the SDG target (currently,
about 51.4percent of women between the age of 20 and 24 years were married before 18 –as per MICS 2019) and then to 8percent by the year 2041 to meet the national target. To
assist the national government accomplish these targets, a multipronged strategy was
employed under the UNICEF country programme (2017-2020/21), which was significantly
based on working on the social norms’ conceptual framework. It included two primary pillars,
i.e. relentless and sustained engagement with the communities (fig. 1) and utilizing extensive
mass media campaign outreach approach with the young people, influencers and community
at-large. At the World Girls Summit 2014 in England, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina pledged to end child marriage, which further expedited institutional drive along with
development partners and NGOs, thus it led to initiation of a comprehensive campaign. The
Child Marriage Restraint Act 2016 was passed in Bangladesh with much optimism.
To the contrary, this law seriously undermined the rights of girl child as the child rights
advocates and campaigners blamed this Act that it poses grave risks to girls by creatingvague exceptions to the country’s ban on child marriage, and even punishing the victims.
The new law does not set tougher penalties – including only a penalty of 15 days
imprisonment and a 5,000 taka fine [approx. US$67 at the time of enactment] for children
who marry – it also weakens existing law by making some child marriages legal. The
previous law permits marriage after the age of 18 for women and 21 for men, with noexceptions. However, the current law permitted marriage of girls before the 18 years of age
in “special circumstances, such as accidental or unlawful pregnancy.” (Dhaka Tribune, June
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7, 2016). In 2018, Government of Bangladesh formulated National Plan of Action (NPA) to
End Child Marriage (2018-2030). The goal of the NPA is poised “to end the marriage of girls
below the age of 15 years and to reduce by one-third the rate of marriage for girls aged
between 15 and 18 years by 2021 and to completely eliminate child marriage by 2041”(Government of Bangladesh, 2018). Despite some criticism, Government of Bangladesh had
developed a strong legislative and policy framework in ending child marriages throughNational Children Policy 2011, National Women Development Policy 2011, Executive Orderof Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to Prevent Child Marriage 2012, Children Act
2013, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017, National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against
Women and Children (2018-2030) etc.
Key Drivers of Child Marriage in Bangladesh
In most of the research, three main drivers were identified for child marriage: poverty, theneed to reinforce social ties, and the belief that it offers protection. Multiple factors driving
child marriage are usually common across the regions, including in Bangladesh. Children,
especially girls, are married off because of gender inequality and negative social norms on
the value of a girl; poverty or deprivation; insecurity and lack of safety; socio-cultural andreligious traditions; as well as inadequate legal and policy safeguards against child marriage.
Combinations of these inherently prevalent drivers foster a series of risk-factors which
include: fears over girls’ safety and security, especially in relation to abductions and violent
attacks/crimes; concerns over loss of family’s honor due to premarital sex and unwanted
pregnancy; and lack of family income/livelihoods. While positive cultural practices
appreciating alternative rites of passage have been seen to help mitigate child marriage,
retrogressive cultural practices are still accorded high precedence, and this makes it difficult
to implement legal and policy frameworks including ratified international legal instruments.
Therefore, retrogressive cultural practices are not only an impediment to ending childmarriage but also a driver of child marriage.
Social constructs of ‘Child’, ‘Chastity’ and Sexuality in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the idea, perceptions and expectations of childhood continue to vary
according to factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, social class, wealth, disability etc. A
study included field-based discussions with wider groups including teachers, religious
leaders, employers and social workers from slum and urban middle class, which revealed
that the perception on child’s age is very fragmented in the country. Respondents mostly did
not consider all human-beings under 18 as children. Usually, they consider the age range of
0-10/12 as children (UNICEF Bangladesh and Government of Bangladesh, 2010). There isno single term for ‘child’ in Bangla. Shishu is the most common Bangla word for childmeaning somebody who ‘does not understand.’ Then there are subsequent stages in the life
cycle of a person within 18 years of age: such as balok-balika and kishor-kishori. It was
examined that the lives of Bangladeshi children and adolescents roughly between 8 and 16
years old, exposing vast discrepancies in the rights they are able to exercise. For example,
middle class children and the young domestic servants working in their homes may beroughly the same age but they have profoundly different roles, rights and obligations(Therese Blanchet, 1996).
The discussion of child marriage in Bangladesh often overlooks the issues of chastity
and sexuality by the researchers and programme community. Christina Bicchieri and her coresearchers in their work entitled “A Social Norms Perspective on Child Marriage: The
General Framework” provided some theoretical understanding of child marriage andexpectation. In terms of chastity, they observed that parents want their daughters to bechaste, and there is a perceived risk that girls who grow older ‘loose their virginity outside
marriage’ due to love affairs or sexual harassments (Bicchieri, C., Jiang, T., & Lindemans,
J.W., 2014). In the Bangladesh context, researches demonstrate that women do hurry to
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have childbirth as early as possible to prove their fertility. If a woman, particularly in rural
areas and lower-educated segment, makes some delay in the initiation of childbearing, she isblamed that she is infertile and is not biologically capable of childbearing. Nevertheless, there
weren’t enough discussions found on men’s and society’s acceptance of having sex with agirl child. In patriarchal society like Bangladesh where religion plays a predominant role inmarriage, it is usually challenging to pose such pointed questions before an individual mateor community. Therefore, this factor continues to remain an unexplored ‘driver for childmarriage’ in the country and elsewhere.
Child Marriage Throws Emotional and Health Challenges for Adolescent Girls
Post the rituals of a marriage, girls are taken to their husband’s household, wherein thesechildren are expected to assume the role of a wife, a domestic worker, and, eventually, evena mother. These new homes can be in a different village or town. Invariably in most cases,
husbands are usually much older than the girls and thus, have a little in common with them.
And still worse, the new brides are expected to reproduce. With increased challenges of
emotional trauma and mental health issues, the girls mostly feel rejected, isolated, anddepressed. Some girls realize that survival requires embracing their new environment andproving their ‘fertility’. Therefore, they lose their childhood and miss the opportunity to play,develop bonds and friendships, and be educated.
Multiple socio-cultural studies reveal that in Bangladesh, parents, guardians as wellas the women and men look for grooms and brides of similar socio-economic status. Thus,
the wealth index is an indirect indicator of socioeconomic status of women, their parents aswell as their in-laws’ families. Many studies revealed a significantly negative association
between wealth index and marriage at very young age. It is likely that the women with abetter economic status are likely to be provided by their parents with more alternatives toearly marriage, such as higher education etc. compared to their poor counterparts. This is
supported by the interaction terms for age and education. The significant interaction terms
suggest that women's higher education than current age of women is a much more important
predictor in reducing child marriages. Child marriage is associated with early childbearing inmost cases, where the main purpose of marriage is to have children (procreation). The
association between early marriage and early motherhood, therefore, remains strong. To
escape from being blamed and to prove her fertility, most women intend to have childbirthsoon after their marriage.
Drumming-Up Campaign: Ending Child Marriages (ECM)
Integral to the ECM interventions, UNICEF and GoB through multiple multilateral andbilateral partners and key stakeholders, designed a national level campaign harnessing
varied available communication and outreach tools in the country. The multi media campaign(Branding Logo, Fig. 2, source: UNICEF ECM Campaign), in ending the practice of childmarriages in Bangladesh, was one of the key strategies, together with the focusedcommunity level interventions (Community Engagement >> Community Empowerment >>Community Mobilization >> Community Participation & Ownership).
Figure 02: Drumming Up Campaign: Ending Child Marriages (ECM)

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The ECM campaign comprised multiple public service announcements for electronic
media outreach through television and radio, followed by a 26-episodes television drama that
was aired in the early months of 2018. Similar drama series were designed and produced forradio broadcast. In addition, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,and mobile messaging were harnessed in ensuring active participation of and communication
with young people, their parents, and other key influential community members and leaders.
Alongside the media components, the ECM interventions were ingrained with in-field social
mobilization and community engagement efforts, together with focused advocacy with thelocal religious leaders. Drawing upon learnings from the Socio-ecological model and theTheory of Diffusion of Change (Rogers), the understanding was that social norms are a set offirm beliefs spread through communication and practice which is being enforced by socialpressure and collective behaviours in communities.
UNICEF Bangladesh added innovations in consolidating the ECM interventions
through two key strategic investments, i.e. Multi Media communication outreach campaign
and Community Mobilization. ECM, for many years, had been a priority under the Social and
Behaviour Change Strategy and it was amalgamated with the on-ground social mobilizationand community engagement efforts in the high child-marriage prevalent districts (Chapai
Nawabganj, Narail, Naogaon, Rajshahi and Bagerhat); the largest population of child brides(Dhaka, Chattogram, Cumilla, Mymensingh, Bogura and Tangail); or are home to ECM
programmes (Bogura, Sherpur, Bhola, Kushtia, Khulna, Nilphamari, Patuakhali, Jamalpur
and Netrokona). The campaign had been developed under the ‘Enabling Environment forChild Rights’ Programme of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and UNICEF.
Civil Society - On the Way to Mitigating Child Marriages in Bangladesh
Multiple studies have demonstrated how early marriage disembowels young girls bycurtailing their opportunities for education and skills formation, impedes proper physical,
mental and emotional development prior to taking on the burden of reproduction and other
adult responsibilities. Campaigns and community engagement interventions, for mitigating
child marriage interventions in Bangladesh have also demonstrated that girls married early intheir childhood or adolescence are consequently left without much autonomy or decisionmaking power and are, thus unable to negotiate sexual experiences within marriage,
including use of contraception and delaying pregnancy. The lack of power is also directly
associated with the higher levels of violence in marriages, unwanted pregnancies andincreased risk of STIs/HIV. To add to the best-practices, at the local government level in the
country, 4883 adolescent clubs have been established in Union and Pourashava level. The
adolescent members of these clubs take oath not to marry as a child and also to preventchild marriage in their vicinity.
Although not necessarily always correlated with poverty, but most girls who aremarried off under-age tend to belong to the poorest, most marginalized communities including a certain tribe. Children who fall through the gaps and do not have a quality
education or who drop out of school - have a higher susceptibility to violence, abuse andexploitation - including a higher risk of entering the child labour workforce, and have a higher
risk of being married off as children. A large percent of adolescents drops out of school
before they are 15 years old. And a sizeable number of adolescent girls are married before
they reach the legally accepted age of marriage. Therefore, remaining outside of the school
system most of the times can also mean that children are at prime risk of abuse, vulnerability
and violence, and particularly at risk of child marriage. A distinct priority to children’s
protection from all kinds of violence, including ending child marriages, is imperative in orderto ensure the necessary leverage to effectively address the child-rights as a development
priority; this is especially so in the context of achieving Agenda 2030 of the SDGs.
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Inferences: Social and Behaviour Change for Ending Child Marriages
It evident that achieving sustained improvements in the lives of adolescents, and theircaregivers, depends on the overall environment in which they live and how it enables them tofully realize their rights. Development agencies at best can contribute to fostering better
enabling environment by triggering change in three interdependent and interconnecteddimensions through:a. Influencing social norms – particularly harmful gender norms – and related attitudes andbehaviours through focused strategies;
b. Strengthening people’s personal, social and economic assets and safety nets and;c. Contributing to better policies, legislation, budgets and government services at various
levels that affect children’s and particularly girls’ lives.
In different contexts, these three dimensions offer critical entry points for fostering
positive change thus, tangibly demonstrating marked outcomes in the SBC for adolescentsand their caregivers. Therefore, understanding what these entry points were would be
essential for choosing the right set of strategies to effect sustained and positive change. It isnoteworthy that the 52percent of girls were the victims of child marriage in the year 2011
(GoB Data), while in early 2018, the UNICEF survey indicated 59percent of the adolescent
girls as victims of it. Based on the current analysis, it is apparent that the participatorycommunity-based interventions are playing a critical role in setting the development agenda
and in engaging communities with the behavioural change process. The analysis confirmsthat interventions designed to maximize community collaboration and participation can foster
tangible results in mitigating child marriages. When community level activities are designed
and facilitated with sufficient intensity and on a sustained basis, communities tend to stayengaged to improve their quality-of-life issues and, albeit limited, evidence hints that theeffects are sustainable in most circumstances.
The current analysis also gathered that community mobilization efforts can be costeffective when thoughtfully planned and supported; although, cost-effectiveness is highly
influenced by location and other local factors. Highly engaged community mobilization
approaches also show impact on a range of social groups not bounded by sex ofparticipants, socio-economic status, or location of community. In nutshell, the literaturedemonstrates replicable approaches that can be adapted with effectiveness in a variety ofsettings for the benefit of many social groups.
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