The government has shown the green light to a law aimed at preventing child marriages with a 2-year jail term for offenders.
A Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday approved in principal the ‘Child Marriage Prevention Act 2014’.
The law sets men’s minimum age for marriage at 21 and 18 for women, said Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, adding that offenders would be fined at Tk 50,000.
“Those who marry, conduct such marriages, and the parents will be liable for punishment. But women will not be sentenced to a prison term,” he told reporters at a briefing after the Cabinet meeting.
He said the 1929 law had provided for a month’s jail term and Tk 1,000 fine, which was later amended to a Tk 10,000 fine.
Source: Bd news24
