Staff Reporter:
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman yesterday said there will be no scope for child marriage, unauthorized polygamy or marriage-related fraud through fake birth cer-tificates once online marriage and divorce registration is introduced under digital technology.
“As the system will be directly interconnected with the national identity card and birth registration databases, all information about an individual can be verified with just one click. As a result, child marriages using fake documents or forged birth certificates, as well as secret polygamous marriages without the first wife’s knowledge, can be completely prevented,” he said.
The law minister made the remarks at a function to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Law and Justice Division and BRAC for implementing a project titled “Civil Registra-tion and Vital Statistics: Development of ICT Infrastructure for Marriage and Divorce Registration” at the ministry yesterday.
At the event, Project Director (Joint Secretary) Md Azizul Haque signed the MoU on behalf of the Law and Justice Division, while Director of BRAC’s Social Empowerment and Legal Protection (SELP) program Shashwati Biplob signed it on behalf of BRAC. Secretary of the Law and Justice Division Liaquet Ali Molla delivered the welcome address.
Under the initiative being implemented by the Law and Justice Division, online marriage and di-vorce registration is initially being launched on a pilot basis in 102 unions across 10 upazilas of the country.
The 10 selected upazilas are Kaliganj in Gazipur, Tungipara in Gopalganj, Jhenaigati in Sherpur, Kurigram Sadar, Sundarganj in Gaibandha, Narail Sadar, Kasba in Brahmanbaria, Sylhet Sadar, Chakaria in Cox’s Bazar and Kishoreganj Sadar.
At the function, the minister spoke highly of an initiative taken in Jhenaidah to expedite the dis-posal of narcotics cases.
“Dope testing before Judicial Magistrates has helped expedite the trial process, and we are already seeing the benefits of the initiative. Both the judiciary and police authorities have reported posi-tive outcomes from the initiative, while local residents say drug-related activities have de-clined significantly in the area,” he added.
The minister also said through the legal aid program, the authorities have been able to reduce the rate of new case filings in Bangladesh and also significantly reduce the existing case backlog.
“I was very happy to see statistics from Manikganj the other day, where around 50 percent of the existing cases that could be disposed of easily have already been reduced,” he further said.
