Perspectives of marriage

At a time when Bangladesh feels the heat of arguments against a law passed in parliament with a legal leeway for underage marriage only in exceptional cases, a school in the United States of America hosts an even more exceptional wedding. The marriage was solemnised between two ducks raised at a New Hampshire elementary school under a class project. Kindergartners came up with the idea of arranging the happy event for their beloved waddling feathery friends. 
The kids of the kindergarten will not harbour their own wedding for many Springs to come but this did not deter them to go ahead with their plan and convince the school authority of making the most of the festive occasion. So, all the required rituals of a marriage were observed, with the principal officiating the ceremony. 
The US may not have seen solemnisation of a marriage between couples of species other than human beings, but this part of the world often makes news for such weddings. Cats, dogs, goats (with he and she prefix or buck or doe) and even trees are wedded, throwing a banquet party for the invitees. A particular form of marriage concerns the marriage of a girl with a tree, which although does not take place too often, questions the very purpose of tying such a bizarre knot. It may not be equivalent to gay marriage already legalised in some Western countries including the USA, yet the agony involved for the girl child here leaves a question mark on the institution called marriage. 
The merit of the legal loophole left in the just enacted marriage act in Bangladesh parliament has been questioned not for nothing. According to a report about 22 per cent of girls below the permissible age are given in marriage. If the minimum age is 18 for girls and 21 for boys, the criteria are breached more often than not by producing fake dates of birth. Admittedly, poor and uneducated families find it difficult to bear the burden of girls when the latter do not pursue studies. Now if there is provision for marriage under 'special circumstances', there is no knowing where the lowest age limit will be pushed down. An unholy nexus is likely to take advantage of the situation and make a mockery of the concessionary provision.
What is particularly worrying is that the campaign for hundred per cent literacy will miss much of its focus. The administrative organs at the field level will not feel prompted enough to stop child marriages under their jurisdiction. Social campaigners, a few of them of tender age themselves, too are expected to feel dispirited to advance the cause they so fiercely defended. Quite a number of young campaigners had pooled their own brigade to stop child marriages. A few of them even received international recognition for their commendable job. 
The government would have done better if it pressed for child rights. Child marriage is a negation of such rights. The need, therefore, was to take effective steps in order to bring all children, particularly girls among them below 18 years of age, under a programme where they have a real opportunity to complete at least secondary education. The marginalised among them should preferably be educated in technical and vocational disciplines. This could be a remedy for child marriage instead of the relaxation clause in the legal provision.