her years. Binisha comes to where Parvati and I'm sitting and talking about life in general, and child marriage in particular.
She arrives just as Parvati is sharing with me her dream. The 17 year old Parvati wants to pursue her education, get her School Leaving Certificate (S.L.C), which she hopes will lead to a job. It is only after getting a job and becoming self-reliant that she hopes to marry or even consider marriage.
Binisha listens to Parvati intently. They are both neighbors, and good friends. I welcome Binisha into the conversation we are having and ask her about her dream. She does not respond. It is almost as if she has never contemplated what her dreams could be in life. A long pause later Parvati tells me that the 17 year old Binisha has not only already been married but is also divorced.
A victim of an abusive relationship, Binisha's husband married her in hopes of a handsome dowry. It was only after going through the strenuous relationship that she realized that the man her parents chose for her was not the right one, that too at such a tender age Binisha is only one among the myriad of girls, and even boys, who fall prey to child marriage in Nepal.
Located amid the discreet flat lands of the Tarai Region, nearly 75% of the girls get married before the age of 20 in Rupandehi and Kapilvastu. The Population and Housing Census of Nepal in 2011 found that among the married population in Nepal, 48.9 per cent were married before the age of 19. A 2012 report published by Save the Children, World Vision, and Plan identify that child marriage is very common among the Dalit community in Nepal, a community that Binisha and Parvati are a part of. The Nepal Human Development Report of 2013 informs that Dalits make up 13 percent of Nepal's population and 43.6 percent of Dalits survive on less than US$1 per day, and an approximate 47 percent are illiterate.
The lack of education coupled with poverty invites with it a host of problems; one of them being child marriage. A recent research report published by CARE on The Cultural Context of Child Marriage in Nepal and Bangladesh: Findings from CARE's Tipping Point Project suggests a myriad of drivers that propel child marriage in these regions. One of the crucial drivers seems to be the economics of dowry.
Dowry features very easily in the marriages in these regions, with the dowry being less if the bride and groom are married young. The omnipresent social pressure to give as well as to receive dowry is very often cited as a major reason for the sustained practice of child marriage across the literature. The linking of social prestige to dowry encourages families to marry their children young as the dowry can be lower in case the bride-groom is young.
Research by the Overseas Development Institute also cites economic constraints, lack of education, strict social norms and discriminatory social practices, particularly pertaining to caste, as reasons for the prevalence of child marriage in this region. Besides the ill practice of dowry, the report by CARE further elucidates that the need to exert control over the girl's sexuality serves as another main driver of child marriage in the aforementioned two districts in Nepal: the fear of a love emerging between two different caste groups, the fear of the girl's promiscuity, the fear that the older the girl is the higher the demand for the dowry will be, the children in these regions are being deprived of a childhood.
The repercussions of early marriage are conspicuous. An early marriage could very well mean early pregnancy. Various reports cite that pregnant girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as women in their 20s, and girls under the age of 15 are five to seven times more likely to die during childbirth.
Besides the obvious harm on the physical health, early marriage also translates to lack of access to education for many girls, and even boys. In the Dalit societies in Rupandehi and Kapilvastu, encouraging the daughter-in-law to continue education is almost unheard of. And in most cases even the boy will be expected to work and earn a living to support his family. Girls Not Brides notes that child brides are twice as likely to become victims of domestic and sexual violence, and they do not have control over their reproductive rights.
On a national level, there has been a recent focus on the issue of child marriage. The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare under the Government of Nepal has recently drafted a National Child Marriage Strategy which aims to empower the girl child. This will be the first national policy to proactively address child marriage. Moreover, the recently held first National Girl Summit was also a big feat in generating awareness and momentum about the harsh reality of the widespread prevalence of child marriage in Nepal.
According to the legal requirements in Nepal, the legal age of marriage for men and women is 20, although they are free to marry at 18 with parental consent. However, the fact is that the legal enforcement mechanisms pale in comparison to the social enforcements and pressure to comply with the social norms that encourage early marriage.
Binisha shares that she was quite excited at the idea of getting married when the proposal came, but as the days went on and she began to face the harsh realities of being married too early, she had an urge to get out of a relationship that was doomed to fail. The fact that she married at such a young age was less because she was excited at the prospect, but more because her parents and guardians, religious leaders, and the society in general placed this expectation upon her.
A dangerous swirl of impoverishment, lack of access to education, deep seated cultural practices, strict social norms have paved the way for this social ill to take such a firm grasp on our reality. The only way out is to adopt an innovative and insightful solutions oriented approach to tackle this tired problem. The society at large needs to gift the children in our country their childhood. We need to ensure that the children are not being forced to grow up, nor deprived of a childhood. We need to ensure that the children are free to dream, discover, and aspire to become individuals of their own.
*Names have been changed.Basnyat is a freelance writer basnyat.ayushma@gmail.com
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