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Child
marriage still common in rural southwest
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BASKHORA,
19 Oct 2006 (IRIN)
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| Laxmi Chaudhary married when she was barely nine. Child marriage is quite
common in remote villages of southwest Nepal
Urmila
Kurmi was barely six when her parents married her off to a young boy only
two years older. "I didn't know what marriage meant but now I know that
this is not what children should be doing," said Kurmi, who is now 14 years
old, and already leading an adult life.
In
remote villages like Baskhora in Kapilbastu district, nearly 500 km southwest
of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, marriages like Kurmi's are nothing new,
despite a government ban on the ancient practice. |
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"Laws
are not enough. There is a need for effective awareness to control this
shocking tradition," explained Jit Bahadur Chaudhary from the Rural Illiteracy
Society for Education (RISE), a local NGO that has been campaigning actively
with the help of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) against child
marriage.
Chaudhary
explained that parents marry off their children, especially their young
daughters, for both financial and social reasons. Due to the dowry system
- in which the parents of the bride have to pay a huge sum of money to
the groom's family- girls are often married off young as dowries will be
less than those expected for an adult.
Extensive
male labour migration from many rural areas means parents are often afraid
that they may not find a suitable husband when the daughter grows up to
become a woman, said Chaudhary. In addition, there is pressure on parents
that if they don't get their daughters married young, they will face social
discrimination.
"All
this backward social thinking causes child marriage and it is the children
who have to face the dangerous impact [of this]," said Rajmati Yadab, who
runs a paralegal committee formed with help from UNICEF to raise awareness
about legal rights and campaign against social ills.
Yadab
explained that the practice often leads to girls bearing children at an
early age, which endangers their health and sometimes results in their
death. According to UNICEF, many girls die from hemorrhages, obstructed
labour and other pregnancy related complications. In addition, married
girls seldom stay in school, meaning valuable years of education are lost,
he added.
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| Along
with Niger, Bangladesh, India and Uganda, Nepal has the highest levels
of child marriage in the world, according to Nepal's Demographic Health
Survey, which estimated that over 63 percent of Nepalese girls marry before
the age of 18, while 7 percent marry before reaching 10 years old. Within
Nepal, the district of Kapilbastu has the highest number of child marriages,
the DHS said.
"We
have to fight against this evil tradition," said 10-year-old Resmi Gupta,
who runs a child club formed with help from RISE and UNICEF. |
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With
36 child members in her group, Gupta has managed to raise awareness among
local villagers on the dangers of the child marriage system.
Along
with Niger, Bangladesh, India and Uganda, Nepal has the highest levels
of child marriage in the world, according to Nepal's Demographic Health
Survey, which estimated that over 63 percent of Nepalese girls marry before
the age of 18, while 7 percent marry before reaching 10 years old. Within
Nepal, the district of Kapilbastu has the highest number of child marriages,
the DHS said.
"We
have to fight against this evil tradition," said 10-year-old Resmi Gupta,
who runs a child club formed with help from RISE and UNICEF. With 36 child
members in her group, Gupta has managed to raise awareness among local
villagers on the dangers of the child marriage system.
Gupta
also successfully managed to stop her parents from marrying off her 13-year-old
sister, who now attends UNICEF's Out of School Programme (OSP), a pre-school
education project for children starting late in formal education.
"I
have hopes of this practice being socially banned. All we need to do is
to raise awareness among our own communities," said Gupta, who goes around
villages in the district with her friends putting up slogans against child
marriage.
According
to RISE, awareness and sensitisation campaigns have helped to reduce the
number of child marriages in Kapilbastu district. RISE trains local girls
and women in how to educate their fellow villagers, especially the men,
by raising human rights and legal issues.
"When
sensitisation doesn't work, we take the hard way by strictly warning both
the parents and the priests that they would face legal action if they marry
their young children," said Sri Kanta Mali, a facilitator from RISE, also
involved in the paralegal committee.
There
are now over 30 such committees in many villages like Baskhora in Kapilbastu
and UNICEF is providing support to form more committees in which both local
men and women are now actively participating.
"I
wish my parents had never done this to me, getting me married instead of
sending me to school. I hope other children will not suffer like me," said
14-year-old Laxmi Chaudhary, who got married when she was only nine.
But
while it is difficult to estimate how many HIV cases have actually been
registered within Nepal's largely underground MSM community, it's clear
more needs to be in terms of public awareness. There has yet to be any
comprehensive study of the group, with many people remaining reluctant
to divulge their HIV status, the UNAIDS official said.
Source: IRIN 2006
Copyright
© UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2007
[
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Integrated
Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). |
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