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Red Card to child marriage – in CFLG working area at Satkhira Sadar

In every week members of Child Forum of Satkhira Sadar were giving 2 to 3 information regarding child marriage to the Upazila Parishad. The age of the victims of child marriage were 13 to 15 years, reading in class six to eight. Most of the cases it was found that after marriage they were dropped-out from the school. Child marriage is the cause of marginalizing the children especially for female children in the area of health, education and social insecurity.

To overcome the situation BTS was initiating a discussion with UNO in the month of August 2015. UNO, Satkhira Sadar has requested to BTS to communicate with UNO of Kaligong Upazila and collect some information regarding the process of protecting child marriage as Kaligong Upazila has already been declared as Child marriage free Upazila.

Accordingly Office in Charge of BTS has communicated with the UNO of Kaligong Upazial and collected some publication and poster regarding combating with child marriage.

Based on the document in the month of August 2015 UNO of Satkhira Sadar and BTS has developed a draft plan where list of activities and specific responsibilities of BTS, Union Parishad and Upazila Parishad has been fused. Thus BTS has developed a survey form to collect information regarding child marriage from primary-secondary school and Madrashas. Finally information has been received from 56 education institutes and it was found that 514 child marriage were conducted during January 2014 to June 2015.

BTS then developed a database based on the information and submited it to the Upazila authority. Therefore UNO has arranged series of dialog session with NGOs, journalist, Magistrate, Advocate, local public representatives, Government officials, Upazila Parishad, police and BGP members, especially with teachers and Kazi. Thus UNO requested to BTS to design a card including a motto as Education first-Read card for child marriage.

Besides BTS has developed and submitted a information management diagram including process of using software to Upazila Parishad. Moreover BTS are assigned for select hotline numbers for 14 Unions, 1 Powrashova and 1 Upazila and till now six digit numbers from Bangla link has been collected and distributed to Union Parishad.
The activities are now implemented as a pilot project for three months and then that will be implemented for 5 years through Upazila Parishad as well as will be included in the 5 years plan of Upazila Parishad.

Planned Activities:

1. Arrange dialog session with stakeholders (public representative, journalist, NGOs, Upazila Parishad, Police officer, Executive magistrate, Notary public, teacher, Kazi, Women development forum)
2. Union Parishad will print 45000 cards for 14 Union and 1 Pawrashova, primarily each Union Parishad will receive 3000 cards. These card will be given to the female children who are dropout, irregular or never attend in the school, and/or due to poverty parents are going to arrange child marriage.
3. Formation of ward level child forum and parents committee (Existing child forum will be included). The parents committee will include children, guardian, freedom fighters, ward member, village police, teacher, Imam, Kazi, political leader, president of policing committee etc. Accordingly Union and Upazila committee will be formed.
4. Form school level committee with the participation of boys and girls
5. Publicity of the activities through miking
6. Arrange hotline number (16) and distribute it in the Union, Pawrashova, and Upazila.
7. Counseling support for the child marriage risk children and their family
8. Provide allowance and safety net facilities to the children who are in a risk position concerning child marriage due to family poverty
9. Publish different leaflet, billboard, booklet, Bangla and English books
10. Arrange seminar/meeting with the participation of much people in every ward, Union and Upazila to raise awareness regarding child marriage.
11. First three months this activities will be piloted in one ward of each Union then all wards of Union and Pawroshova of Shatkhira sadar will be covered.
12. Ensure technical support from Breaking the Silence (BTS) and Save the Children

Matter of the Red Card:

1. UP/UZP-name and address
2. Motto- “Education first-Red card to Child Marriage”
3. Definition of Child Marriage
4. Children’s age determination according to state policy
5. Hot line numbers
5. Awareness issues- Effect of child marriage
 Mental and physical suffering
 Social and economic destruction
Application form
1. Personal information of children
2. Family information of children