The Himalayan
06 Dec, 2012
Child marriage contributing to GBV: Experts
KATHMANDU: Experts today stressed the need to put an end to child marriage to reduce incidents of gender-based violence.
Sumnima Tuladhar, executive director of CWIN, said child marriage is the worst form of GBV and it is against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that the country has ratified.
Although sexual intercourse with a child below the age of 16 years is an offence, it is hardly implemented, said the executive director. As the national census revealed recently, despite the legal provisions, about 48.9 per cent of the population gets married before reaching 14.
According to Muluki Ain marriage chapter in 2010, the legal age for marriage is 20 for both male and female. Along with the social and cultural obstacles, a decade-long conflict is one of the reasons behind early marriages, said Tuladhar. She said our patriarchal society and deeply rooted social malpractices are also to blame.
Although the school enrollment ratio for both boys and girls are almost similar, the dropout rate among girls is still high, she added.
She added that the government should take a strong initiative to implement the legal provisions and ensure a safe environment for every woman. She further urged for political commitment and creating a favourable environment to eliminate GBV.
She said close coordination among government departments dealing with health, education, poverty and culture is a must to put child marriage to an end.
Sexual and Reproductive Health expert Dr Khem Karki said, “Early marriage can have an adverse impact on physiological and psychological growth of a child.
Beyond physical traumas, child brides often suffer from post-traumatic stress, experiencing feelings of helplessness and severe depression.
A law banning child marriages is not enough, it has to be coupled with efforts to make sure girls go to school and implementation of laws are done strictly, added Karki.
The Nepal Demographic Health Survey — 2011 showed that more than two in 10 women (22 per cent) in Nepal have suffered from physical violence at some point of their lives.
Professor Dr Ram Saran Pathak of the Population Department at the Tribhuvan University said social malpractices are responsible for early marriages in the country.
Many rural families in Nepal marry off their daughters between the age of 11 and 13 because they think that the older a girl gets, higher the dowry will be.
Child marriage is the extreme violation of child rights. Many girls suffer from abusive marriages as they are married to older boys, added Pathak.
According to Girls not Bride, the global partnership to end child marriage, every year an estimated 10 million girls are married before they turn 18. Every day, more than 25,000 girls are robbed of their childhood.