By 
Women’s Empowerment. Bangladesh 2017, taken by The Hunger Project via
Flickr, October 31st, 2017
UNICEF, UN Women and Plan International issued a new report on March 8th, 2025, which indicated Bangladesh’s highest child marriage rate in Asia and slow progress in changing the situation for adolescent girls. The Report addresses the empowerment of young girls and makes suggestions on how to improve this process.
On International Women’s Day, UNICEF, UN Women and Plan International conducted a new report “Girl Goals: What Has Changed for Girls? Adolescent Girls’ Right Over 30 Years”. The report revealed that Bangladesh still continues to struggle with deeply entrenched gender inequality, limiting opportunities for adolescent girls in education, employment, and safety, which further results in a high proportion of child marriage and gender disparities (Star Digital Report, 2025). Figures in the report indicated that more than half of girls in Bangladesh married before 18
despite the regulation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017 (Begum, 2025). Young women and girls from 15 to 24 are twice as likely as boys to be out of education, employment, or training (Star Digital Report, 2025). Additionally, 28 percent of adolescent girls between 15 and 19 have experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner in the past 12 months, and only 47 percent of married adolescent girls in this age group can make informed decisions about reproductive health (Star Digital Report, 2025).
As the high rate of child marriage and gender disparities is rooted in the socio-economic background of Bangladesh, Gitanjali Singh, UN Women Representative in Bangladesh pointed out the key approach to changing the situation is to invest in young girls’ empowerment and leadership. According to the statistics, the completion rate for adolescent girls in secondary education in Bangladesh reaches 59.22 percent and it still asks for significant effort by the Government and all stakeholders to achieve the 2030 SDG targets for adolescent girls’ education (Antara, 2025). This effort not only aims to directly combat all kind of violence, such as physical abuse, sexual violence, financial inequality, and emotional assault, and targeting young girls, but also to construct access available for young girls to fight against structural discrimination and inequality, which can be revealed by high healthcare costs, costly and lengthy legal processes, and fear of family backlash during and after the terminiation of child marriage (Lewis et al., 2025).
The report acknowledged the improvements in girls’ health and well-being, including that the life expectancy of 15-year old adolescent girls has increased globally to 79.1 years (4.5 years longer) (UNICEF, 2025). Nevertheless, it demonstrated that Bangladesh still has a long way to go to
ensure every adolescent girl has equal opportunity to thrive. The report thus provided three key suggestions: first, elevating adolescent girls’ voices and supporting their advocacy; second, focusing on closing the education, skills, and training gap; and third, investing in data-driven interventions to address the most pressing needs of adolescent girls, with a focus on economic empowerment (UNICEF, 2025).
Sources and Further Readings:
Antara, N. F. (2025, March 11). Report: Bangladesh has the highest child marriage rate in Asia. Dhaka Tribune. https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/375749/unicef-un-women-and-plan-international
Begum, S. (2025, March 9). Bangladesh Tops in Child Marriage Rate in Asia, UNICEF Report Reveals. Munsif News 24×7. https://munsifdaily.com/bangladesh-tops-in-child-marriage-rate-in/#google_vignette
Jago News Desk. (2025, March 8). Progress for girls slow in Bangladesh amid child marriage, digital gaps. Jagonews24.com. https://www.jagonews24.com/en/national/news/81078
Lewis, G., Singh, G., & Watabe, M. (2025, March 8). Combating violence against women and adolescent girls in Bangladesh. The Daily Star.
https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/combating-violence-against-women-and-adolescent-girls-bangladesh-3842321
Center for Reproductive Rights. (2022). Ending Impunity for Child Marriage in Bangladesh: Normative and Implementation Gaps. In Center for Reproductive Rights. Center for Reproductive Rights.
https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/64829505_ending_impunity_for_child_marriage_bangladesh_2018_final-web.pdf
Newsroom Network. (2025, March 9). Bangladesh tops in child marriage rate in Asia: UNICEF. Newsroom Odisha. https://www.newsroomodisha.com/bangladesh-tops-in-child-marriage-rate-in-asia-unicef/
Star Digital Report. (2025, March 9). Bangladesh tops Asia in child marriage rate: UNICEF. The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/bangladesh-tops-asia-child-marriage-rate-unicef-3843181
UNICEF. (2025, March 8). Slow progress for adolescent girls in Bangladesh, including highest Child Marriage rate in Asia – UNICEF, UN Women and Plan International. Unicef.org. https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/en/press-releases/slow-progress-adolescent-girls-bangladesh-including-highest-child-marriage-rate-asia
UNICEF, UN Women, & Plan International. (2025). Girl Goals: What Has Changed for Girls? Adolescent girls’ rights over 30 Years (pp. 1–72). UNICEF, UN Women, and Plan International. https://data.unicef.org/resources/girl-goals-report/
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