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 Global Issues - Education - Stories from the Field - Social Immunization: Ensuring Bangladeshi girls survive marriage
Social Immunization: Ensuring Bangladeshi girls survive marriage
"While growing up in South Asia is a perpetual struggle, to be a woman is to be a non-person" .
1997 South Asia Human Development Report
Studies show that 74 million women in South Asia are officially 'missing' -- they died as infants, children, youth or adults -- victims of neglect. Customs about early marriage, polygamy, dowry, abandonment and divorce often exploit women and disregard their rights as laid down by law.
An innovative CIDA-funded project called the Adolescent Development Program (ADP) is providing Bangladeshi girls aged 11 to 17 with the skills they need to survive. Developed by the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) Canada, the program has been dubbed the 'Social Immunization' program. M.A. Zaman, USC Canada-Bangladesh Country Director says: "Just as vaccinations are used to immunize children against the six major childhood diseases, the ADP tries to immunize adolescent girls against the economic and social exploitation suffered by adult women."
The ADP provides adolescent girls with literacy, numeracy, income-generating, problem-solving and mediation skills, as well as with valuable information about nutrition, hygiene, reproductive health, legal and marriage rights and loan management. It is designed to meet their special needs and is based on the realities of their lives. It also involves the girls' families and communities, and eventually their husbands so that everyone's understanding is increased and rights respected.
According to Mr. Zaman, divorce rates are quite high in Bangladesh because "marriages are never registered and therefore not protected by law. In more than 70% of the cases, the brides are not yet 18 -- the legal age for marriage. Over 26% are between the ages of 8 and 13." He adds: "If you want to protect poor and illiterate women, you need to prevent these early marriages. Most development programs are aimed at adults or children, and ignore the 22% of the Bangladeshi population which are adolescents -- a very vulnerable group."
The ADP began in 1996 in one district of Bangladesh with about $150,000 in funding from CIDA and USC, and expanded to eight districts within two years. In 1998, it received increased funding of $2.5 million over four years. "The program is growing in leaps and bounds -- it's in almost every district in Bangladesh now," says Kate Green, USC Canada Program Officer.
More than 14,000 girls have enrolled, with a dropout rate of 1%. Although it was originally expected that most girls would marry within a year of graduating from the program, early results show they are delaying their marriages which often leads to smaller, healthier and wealthier families. The program has also expanded to include adolescents working in garment factories and as household servants in urban areas.
Over 125 partner organizations are now using the ADP model. A new component offering adolescent boys the same information so they may lead better lives as men, husbands and fathers, is currently being field-tested in 21 centers.
Mr. Zaman says: "Now the ADP is like a hot cake in Bangladesh. Everybody likes it and is asking for it!" By 2004, it is estimated that the program will have 'immunized' 40,000 adolescents in Bangladesh.
The power of teamwork
Every day Mr. Zaman, director of the Adolescent Development Program (ADP) in Bengladesh, gets about 20 handwritten letters from ADP participants. He recalls one in particular: "One girl just finished the first primer (on basic literacy). Her grandmother wanted her to get married. The whole class went to see the grandmother to dissuade her. The grandmother couldn't be budged because she felt it was her responsibility to see her granddaughter married. Then they went to see the prospective groom and explained the advantages of having a literate wife. They persuaded him to wait two years until she graduated from the program." |
A new future
Rupiya Ali is a 17-year old girl who has graduated from the program. "I can't express how much I've benefited from this," she says. "I've learned letters, signs and numbers. I know what the proper age is for getting married and the pitfalls of early marriage for young girls. I know how important it is to register marriages and I've learned about my rights in divorce and dowry situations. I also know that abusing women and children is a crime and can be punished. I've learned many, many things from the program and it has really changed me and my vision of my future." She has refused all the marriage proposals that have come her way and says she won't get married until she is 18. She has also made sure her parents understand that early marriage is a social crime, and recognize that not educating their first daughter (who was married at an early age) was a mistake. |
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