BIRATNAGAR, April 22: Children of Nocha8, Morang, have taken up the responsibility of wiping out a social evil that plagues Nepali society: child marriage. The children have stopped marriages of four underage girls and have threatened their parents of legal action if the marriages go ahead. [break]
The children took the help of police to stop the marriages of their school mates that were scheduled for this month. Last month, when a team of Constituent Assembly members visited the village to collect suggestions for writing new constitution, the children had demanded tough punishment to people who force children into marriage.
The girl who were set to be married off were 14-year-old Kiran Kumari Mandal and 17-year-old Ruda Kumari Mandal of Nocha-8, 16-year-old Gunja Mandal of Nocha-3 and 15-year-old Sulekha Kumari Mandal of Nocha-6.
After local children came to know that the four underage girls of Nocha village were set to be married off, they initiated activism for three days and stopped the marriages, according to Chanda Yogi, chief of Police Post in Gadariya.
“We persuaded the four girls and their parents to stop the marriages,” Yogi said.
It took quite an effort though to make the parents agree to stop the marriages.
Dipak B.K, program coordinator of a local social group, said the parents refused to cooperate at first.
“After the refusal, local children took to the streets, rallied and sloganeered. The parents then agreed to stop the marriages,” B.K. said.
Among the slogans chanted by the children are “marriage only after twenty” and “child marriage will land you in jail”.
The children numbering about 1-50 forced the parents to abandon plans for marrying off the underage girls with their mass sloganeering in front of the houses of the four girls.
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Neighbors also played an instrumental role in this by persuading the parents to stop the marriages.
It is likely that some of the parents will shift the marriage venue to India and go ahead with the marriage, said Yogi of Gadariya Police Post.
“Some parents seem to be intent to go ahead with the planned marriage as matchmaking has been done and they have already spent money preparing for the marriage ceremony,” Yogi said.
Nepal has a legal provision of slapping a penalty of Rs 10,000 and six months´ imprisonment to those marrying or organizing the marriage of girls less than 18 years of age. The law has a provision of slapping a similar penalty on those marrying or organizing the marriage of girls under 20 years without the consent of their parents.
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