A new phone app could be a "game-changer" in the fight against child marriage in Bangladesh, where more than half of all girls are married before they are 18, children's charity Plan International said on Monday. The impoverished South Asian nation has one of the world's highest rates of child marriage, according to UNICEF, despite laws that ban girls under 18 and men under 21 from marrying. "The app could be the game-changer that we need," he said, adding that it stopped 3,750 underage marriages during a six-month trial. All marriages in Bangladesh must be legally registered within 30 days of the ceremony, but many are not. The charity is training 100,000 officiants about the ill effects of child marriage and how to use the app, which it hopes to roll out nationally by August.

Source: dna May 07, 2018 01:18 UTC