Project in Banke for Prevention of Child Marriage

SeshKant Sharma ,Nepalgunj, 11,December / According to  UNICEF’s the state of world children report 2016, 37% percentage of women aged 20 – 24 got married before they turned 18 years and 10% percentage got married before 14 years. Child marriage is violation of human rights. Marriage under the age 18 is child marriage while marriage before any age 20 years is early marriage. Nepal government has provisioned that marriage before 20 years of is void and in article 39 of Constitution of Nepal 2072, children right is mentioned as fundamental right which ensure protection of children from child marriage and the act as punishable. The government of Nepal too has committed to end child marriage by 2030 AD and has urged local and federal government to be committed to this.

In south Asia, Nepal has third highest rate of child marriage after Bangladesh and India. According to 2011 Nepal Population and health survey, 41% of girls get married before they turn 18 years of age.  Child marriage is much higher in terai belt and western part of Nepal. Banke too has higher rate of child marriage. In Banke, out of 65900 children aged 10-14 years 907 children were married and while 12235 children aged 15-19 years out of 56536 (same age group) were found to be married. (CBS, 2011).

Therefore to prevent child marriage, on 11th December, 2018 Plan International Nepal introduced a project “Preventing child marriage in Banke,” to be implemented in partnership with SAC Banke. On 11th Dec, 2018, Plan International Nepal and SAC Banke jointly organized a “Project Sharing meeting,” among stakeholder from local level and district and introduced the project. The objective of the project is that girls (under 18 years) are empowered to avoid CM and that all of local government units (6 rural municipalities, 1 municipality and 1 sub-metropolitan city) are implementing programs to end child marriage.

In the program 52 participants including chairperson, mayor, deputy mayor from Nepalgunj sub metropolitan city, Khajura rural municipal, Baijanath rural municipal, Janaki rural municipal, Duduwa rural municipal, Rapti Sonari rural municipal and Chief district officer had attended the meeting. Participants including members from NGO federation, federation of journalist, government officials, and members from civil society/NGO had attended the program.

The program was chaired by chairperson of district coordination committee. President of SAC Banke, welcomed the participants while Area manager Ms. Mina Parajuli from Plan International Nepal shared the objective of the program. A short description of project was shared by protection coordinator, Ms. Shristy Dhakal. Following the presentation, participants discussed on the trends and context of child marriage in Banke district. A discussion too was carried on the case management of child marriage where rehabilitation program was recommended as a must to be included. Participants from UNICEF and Nepal Human Right Commission opinioned that child marriage should not be seen as single issue because a lot of violation of rights and crime start with child marriage. A child who is married faces multiple forms of violation of rights like deprive of education, early pregnancy and health issues, sexual reproductive health issues, child labor and economic crisis, domestic violence, etc. They also added that local government should take the initiative to study the trend of child marriage and should coordinate with civil society and stakeholder working to end child marriage. Similarly, president of Inter religious network Mr. Ubed Khan Banke said that the law for marriage in Nepal and India is different. Families take their children to India at relatives place and get their child married there. There need to be similar law concerning age of marriage in both countries.

Mayors and deputy mayor attending the meeting welcomed the efforts of Plan International Nepal and SAC and committed to work together to end child marriage. Mayor of Baijanath rural municipal said that ending child marriage is the responsibility of local government and we need to work together to end child marriage. He also mentioned that there is need to bring harmonization between laws and policies concerning child marriage. Similarly, mayor from Rapti Sonari rural municipal mentioned that they have ensured that no elected representatives from Rapti sonari rural municipal attend child marriage and they have developed some activities to end child marriage. He too committed to work together to end child marriage. Dr. Dhawal Sumsher Rana mentioned that children get married and complains are registered. A practical and sustainable resolution for children have to be designed if we want to provide service to children who get married. He welcome Plan International Nepal and SAC Banke to coordinate with sub metropolitan city. Mayor from Khajura rural municipal requested NGO to share their plan and also pinpointed that Plan International Nepal, SAC Banke and Khajura rural municipal can together match the fund and work to end child marriage.  Deputy Mayor from Duduwa, Janaki also expressed their commitment to end child marriage.

Similarly, chairperson of district coordination committee too committed for ending child marriage.