Despite significant progress in many gender and reproductive health indicators, two out of three girls in Bangladesh are married before the legal age of 18. Most become mothers while they themselves are still children. When girls are married early, they are more likely to drop out of school, be unemployed and experience violence and harassment. A delayed marriage greatly improves a girl’s chances for a healthy and productive life. Between 2012 and 2016 the Population Council, with funding from the Dutch government, partnered with local organizations PSTC and mPower to develop and test skills training programs that were proven to be effective in significantly reducing the prevalence of child marriage in the community. Partnering with UNFPA, UNICEF, and the Bangladesh government, the Population Council has scaled out the program and conducted research to test the effectiveness of interventions that empower girls with gender, life, and livelihood skills and engage communities to address normative drivers of child marriage.
Submissions from 2022
Keeping girls in schools to reduce child marriage in rural Bangladesh: Endline assessment, Sigma Ainul, Forhana Rahman Noor, Md. Irfan Hossain, Iqbal Ehsan, Mehnaz Manzur, Ubaidur Rob, and Sajeda Amin
Submissions from 2020
Keeping girls in schools to reduce child marriage in rural Bangladesh—Research Brief and Baseline Highlights, Sigma Ainul, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Md. Irfan Hossain, Forhana Rahman Noor, Iqbal Ehsan, Sajeda Amin, and Ubaidur Rob
Midline report: Accelerating action to end child marriage in Bangladesh, Masuma Billah, Eashita Haque, Surojit Kundu, Md. Saddam Hossain, Momoe Makino, and Sajeda Amin
Keeping girls in schools to reduce child marriage in rural Bangladesh—Program brief, Population Council
Submissions from 2019
Accelerating action to end child marriage in Bangladesh—Project brief, Population Council
The effects of adolescent childbearing on literacy and numeracy in Bangladesh, Malawi, and Zambia, Stephanie Psaki, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Jyotirmoy Saha, Barbara Mensch, and Sajeda Amin
Submissions from 2018
Skills-building programs to reduce child marriage in Bangladesh: A randomized controlled trial, Sajeda Amin, Jyotirmoy Saha, and Johana Ahmed
Accelerating action to end child marriage in Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Jyotirmoy Saha, Masuma Billah, Nargis Sultana, Eashita Haque, and Surojit Kundu
Submissions from 2016
Adolescents in Bangladesh: Programmatic approaches to sexual and reproductive health education and services, Sigma Ainul, Ashish Bajracharya, and Laura Reichenbach
Delaying child marriage through community-based skills-development programs for girls: Results from a randomized controlled study in rural Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Johana Ahmed, Jyotirmoy Saha, Md. Irfan Hossain, and Eashita Haque
Submissions from 2015
Urban adolescents needs assessment survey in Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin
Submissions from 2014
From evidence to action: Results from the 2013 baseline survey for the BALIKA project, Sajeda Amin, Sigma Ainul, Farhana Akter, Mohammad Masudul Alam, Md. Irfan Hossain, Johana Ahmed, and Ubaidur Rob
BALIKA fact sheet: Highlight on gender and rights, Population Council
BALIKA fact sheet: Highlight on girls' social lives, Population Council
BALIKA fact sheet: Highlight on livelihoods, Population Council
BALIKA fact sheet: Highlight on marriage, Population Council
BALIKA fact sheet: Highlight on married adolescents, Population Council
BALIKA fact sheet: Highlight on schooling, Population Council