Dhaka, Bangladesh – IPDC, one of Bangladesh’s major non-banking financial institutions, and the Amal Foundation, an NGO that focuses on preventing child marriage, have launched the Child Marriage Prevention Loan by IPDC, powered by Amal Foundation. The initiative’s goal is to prevent child marriage by offering low-income parents a conditional microfinance loan with no interest or collateral.
When it comes to child marriage within its borders, Bangladesh has long been at the top of the world rankings. The main reason behind underage marriages is parents in the poorer rural communities of Bangladesh areas, where most if not all, believe girl children to be a burden on their Parents’ limited earnings. These findings were notably true for the daily wage earners known to flock to metropolitan areas for work. As a result of repeated covid-19 lockdowns that took away their sources of income, they were compelled to return to their villages, and once back, with even more dampened savings, many parents opted to marry off their young girl children to avoid further financial responsibility. This is where the loan aims to be of help.
The campaign for the loan offering was done by Grey Bangladesh. The 2-minute ad focused on the culture of child marriage in Bangladesh. It also features how girl children in Bangladesh need not be seen as a burden when families are able to practice proper financial handling and training.
The Child Marriage Prevention Loan (CMPL) is a conditional zero-interest microfinance loan that assists underprivileged parents in establishing long-term businesses if they match three criteria. The first condition being, only parents of a 12- to 18-year-old girl child can apply for a loan. Secondly, a girl child cannot be married before she reaches the legal age,and finally, the girl child must be educated until high school.
This collective effort will result in the transformation of these girls from liabilities to assets and ensure education for them.
