The 27th Foreign Correspondent Report

Ending Child Marriage
Ms. Yojana POKHAREL (Nepal)
Since 1963, child marriage has been illegal in Nepal but it has not been abolished inpractice. Factors such as lack of access to education, child labor, social pressures, dowry
practices and discrimination against girl children in the family are the major contributors ofsuch practice. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nepal has thethird-highest rate of child marriage in Asia, with more than 40 percent of girls marrying before
age 18, and 10 percent before 15, though the minimum age of marriage for both women andmen is 20 under Nepali law.
Nepal’s government has made some effort to end the practice, but a long-promised
national plan has met with delays. In 2014, at the international “Girl Summit” in London, theUnited Kingdom, Nepal’s minister of women, children, and social welfare pledged to strive toend child marriage by 2020. By the time the Nepal government held its own national “GirlSummit” in Kathmandu in March 2016, this goal had shifted to 2030, the end date for theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Experts on this subject say that the government has not done enough to end the practiceof child marriage, as there is little evidence of the government working effectively to try to
prevent child marriage or mitigate the harm that married children experience.
Things are a bit complicated in rural Nepal where child marriage is being practiced. For
example, many parents of young girls and children do not know that child marriage is against
the law, and don’t see value in investing in education, especially for girls. Thus, girls at their
young ages are forced to leave school and get married. Young girls can’t complain to theauthorities such as the police even if they know their marriage is illegal. And, even they try
to complain with the support form NGOs working in this issue, the police are reluctant to filethe complaint.
The April 2015 earthquake killed many people and made nearly 4 million people homeless,which has made the situation worse for child marriage. Therefore, out of desperation, manyfamilies want to marry off their daughters. Though there has been no proper survey carriedout of this matter, many quake-stricken families share the similar story.
Child marriage has various negative consequences such as denial of access to education,
serious health problems including death because of early pregnancy, and domestic abuse
including violence, sexual violence, and abandonment. A report by the World Bank and theInternational Center for Research on Women (ICRW) suggests that child marriage will costdeveloping countries trillions of dollars by 2030. Likewise, young girls are more likely to sufferfrom uterine prolapse and obstetric fistula when they get pregnant after marriage due tounderdevelopment of their reproductive organs. Girls who marry early also face an increased
risk of domestic violence and psychological trauma.
In contrast, ending child marriage would have a large positive effect on the educational
attainment of girls and their children, encourage women to have fewer children later in life,
and increase women’s expected earnings and household welfare. For example, in Nepal thebenefit of reduced fertility would be almost $1 billion.
Positive change is happening
Authorities from the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, said that therehave been some changes in the law which sets the legal minimum age of marriage for bothgirls and boys at 20. Violators of this law will be jailed for three years and fined about US $95.

The 27th Foreign Correspondent Report
But experts argue that this punishment as a government policy to end child marriage is tooweak.
Nevertheless, things are changing for the better. The Nepal National Demographic
Health Survey conducted in 2001 shows that 40 percent of girls between the ages of 15-19
were married, whereas similar surveys show the figure has been dropping to 32.2 percent in2006, and 28.8 percent in 2011. This is a positive trend, and makes us believe that changes
will happen for sure though it takes some time. Officials of the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) believe that education is the best way to reduce child marriage; however, thechallenge is that Nepal has a high dropout rate among girls, who are 10 times more likely to
get married.

In the first picture Mrs.Nibnana Khatun married at the age of 14 years and gave birth to three children.
In the second picture Mrs.Sahila Marik married at the age of 15 years.