SOLUKHUMBU, April 30: With the child marriages unbridled in the district, local representatives have started taking action against them. The child marriage which was scheduled to take place recently has been canceled at Thulung Dudhkoshi rural municipality in the district.
The marriage of an 18-year-old teenage girl of Thulung Dudhkoshi rural municipality was fixed with a teacher of Deusa. Chief Asim Rai along with local representatives, police administration and an office of women and children became successful to stop the marriage scheduled for Sunday on April 29. "We were preparing for the wedding ceremony due to lack of knowledge of child marriage law.”
"We canceled the ceremony at the eleventh hour following criticisms from all quarters," said Yagyaraj Bishwokarma, father of a teenage girl. "Coordination between police administration and local representatives helped stop the child marriage," said Rashmi Shrestha, Officer of the Women Development.
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"Recently, an issue of child marriage in Solukhumbu is coming forth, thus police administration will warn for such kind of wrongdoings in the district," said DSP Resham Parajuli. "If somebody who is underage gets married, both the bride and groom along with their guardians will be arrested", Parajuli further added.
On March 8, a joint initiation of police, office of women and children and local representatives successfully halted the child marriage in the district.
Within less than a couple of months, this is another marriage that the stakeholders managed to stop again in Solukhumbu. "According to law, under 20-year-old is not an appropriate age for marriage.
The existing law sentences those involved in child marriage one to three years in jail." said Keshav Gautam, district attorney.
Due to lack of public awareness and education in the rural part of the country, child marriage seems to be flourishing. Though the law bands child marriage in the country, time and again the issue of child marriage has become a challenging matter for the stakeholders.
