Old Maid

Among the many questions hurled at me during the course of our interviews on the char (and there are MANY), the one I most frequently recognize is that regarding amar shaami and bacha (my husband and kids…. or lack thereof). Of course, there is still not much in terms of Bangla that I recognize, but this comes up often enough that I can quickly respond bacha na to the laughs of many (the mute speaks)! I guess for the village women this answer is amusing for 2 reasons: 1) I am very much an old maid (to be discussed below) and 2) they probably want to know why this random outsider is coming in asking about family planning, having no family of her own.

In reading about family planning here in Bangladesh, I’ve learned that the country has in fact made great strides in terms of implementing contraception use. Since the 1970s, the average number of children per woman has gone from ~6 to ~2 (concurrent with an increase in contraception use from 8% to 61%). Yay!

Buuuuuuut… there is still plenty of room for improvement (hence our potential family planning project). Though the legal marriage age here is 18, national data indicates that most women get married at the age of 16. In the char (and other rural areas) this number is closer to 15 (though we have had numerous survey participants who married at 12-13, with one as young as 9). Marriage marks the point at which childbearing then becomes acceptable; thus the younger you marry, the more time you have to bear children, the more children you are likely to have. And, all of these things directly impact both maternal and child health (and ultimately, maternal and child mortality).

So, at my current age of 28+, I should have been married for ~15 years, already with a child as old as ten. Considering how plants fare under my care, this thought is terrifying.