“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of.” – Bethany Hamilton

On October 11, 2018, the world observed the 6^th International Day of the Girl Child. It is well-known that in many countries across the world, girls are still trying to make their voice heard. Many young girls are not aware of their rights and the potential future they have. They are suppressed by superstition, abused and violence, victims of human trafficking, war victims and so many other ill practices.

An example of such an environment is Nepal. Despite Nepal’s rapid economic progress, Government’s efforts and right activists relentless fight, the country is witness to some inhuman practices conducted against its daughters.

Following are the challenges faced by girls in Nepal:

1) Chaupadi
Chaupadi is an inhuman practice of excluding girls during their menstrual cycles. Girls are refrained from living inside their houses and are supposed to live in huts far away from their home, as they are considered unclean. They are not allowed to take part in family activity or come in contact with any household items, cattle or crops. The practice has been followed since centuries rising from religious belief.

2) Child Marriage
Sad but true, girls are married off at a very young age in Nepal. Despite the ban on the act in 1963, the practice continues to breed in Nepal. Although the number of instances have considerably declined through NGO projects, awareness programs, governmental intervention, societal assistance and individual initiatives, a considerable number of girls are still being forced to marry at a young age. Education and early growth are majorly affected because of this cruel practice. As part of its initiative, the Nepal Government has decided to get completely get rid of the practice by 2030.

3) Violence
As cliché as the term sounds, it is as real as any other crime against young girls. Young girls are illtreated at their homes, schools and other setups they are part of, either because of unrest between parents, gender indifferences, physical, emotional & mental abuse and many other reasons. This leaves a scar on the lives of the victims and hinders their physical and psychological growth.

4) Child Labor
As a matter of fact, child labor is illegal in Nepal. But what is more shocking is that about 1.6 million child laborers are children between the ages of 5-17 years. About three-quarters of them under 14 years and most of them being girls. Acute poverty and natural disasters are what drive these children to look for jobs and be a part of them at such a tender age. These children are mostly involved in carpet, brick and garment works.

5) Human Trafficking
Considered as one of the most gruesome acts, human trafficking sends some chills down victims spines when they come to recollect the harsh memories of their experience. Young girls are trafficked across the border of Nepal to neighboring countries and beyond. The lure of jobs, better living conditions, promise of marriage and several other factors trick these girls into being sold for the wrong reasons. It is saddening to see their lives ruined as sex slaves and forced laborers. Every year, around 1-2 lakh Nepali women or girls are trafficked to Indian brothels at an average selling price of INR 50,000-70,000. Fortunately, vigilante groups have become more strict and are successful in retrieving some of these unfortunate girls.

6) Lack of Education
Gender-inequality and caste discrimination seep through the layers of the Nepali society, making it difficult to remove this social evil in a short period of time. Moreover, illiteracy doesn’t let parents see the prospects of educating their girl child rather get them married and teach them household chores. Some sections of the society are excluded which makes children from these sections unable to pursue educations. But times are changing and NGOs, girl child initiatives and government efforts are bringing education in the reach of all Nepali children.

Many institutes and change initiators are identifying ‘education’ as key factor in creating a developed ecosystem.

These are a few challenges among many others that the girl children of Nepal face.

Nepal For a Girl Child-Friendly Nation
At some point, they were also girls and know how difficult it was to survive in a superstitious and unfriendly environment. But here they are today; well-to-do women initiating change in Nepal and making it a girl-child and women friendly community. Nepal salutes them!

Sangita B K: She is the voice for girls against child marriages. Sangita advocates for them and has managed to win local government support for her cause. She encourages parents to educate and empower their girl children. Her story is one of inspiration and courage.

Sajana Badal: Sajana and her team are using creative ways to empower girl children and one such initiative is Girls Empowered through Travel-Nepal  (GET Nepal). Moreover, the initiative seeks to bridge the gap between rural and urban Nepal.

Nilam Karki Niharika: They say a pen is mightier than a sword and this is the just the case of Nilam Karki Niharika chooses words to move the masses to encourage and empower young women and girls. Her works are proof of this.

Anuradha Koirala: Maiti Nepal is no ordinary institution in Nepal and so is the organization’s head Anuradha Koirala. The defender and champion of human trafficking victims, Aama (as she is fondly called) works to rescue and prevent girls from being taken beyond the borders for sex slavery and other inhuman practices.

With Her: A Skilled GirlForce – A Girl-Empowered World
The UNICEF has dedicated 2018 for the theme With Her: A Skilled GirlForce. The theme seeks to bring together partners & stakeholders to highlight, advocate for investments in girls’ most pressing needs and opportunities to attain skills for employability.

600 million adolescent girls will enter the workforce in the next decade! However, 90 percent of those living in developing countries will work in the informal sector, where jobs are not regulated or protected and where low or no pay, abuse and exploitation are common. Moreover, girls from rural areas and with disabilities have a lesser chance for decent work. The solution?

UNICEF has come up with some guidelines that the global community should adopt to develop 

A Skilled GirlForce:

• Rapidly expand access to inclusive education and training
• Improve the quality and gender-responsiveness of teaching and learning to enable girls to develop foundational, transferable and job-specific skills for life and work
• Create inclusive and accessible schools, training and learning opportunities to empower girls with disabilities
• Change gender stereotypes, social norms and unconscious bias to provide girls with the same learning and career opportunities as boys
• Increase girls’ participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education
• Create initiatives to support girls’ school-to-work transition, such as career guidance, apprenticeships, internships and entrepreneurship
• Deliver large-scale public and private sector programming for girls’ skills and market-adapted training
• Enable access to finance and enterprise development for female entrepreneurs
• Form strategic partnerships with governments and private companies which can act as thought leaders and financiers, helping to train girls and bring them into the workforce
   
  

  Source:NepalInData

 
Conclusion:
Progress is evident, change is happening, but the destination is still far away. Collaborative Initiatives and shared knowledge are key to improving conditions for girl children in Nepal. Let’s make the difference!

Also Read;

• Nepal Ready to Amend Constitution for Girl Child Protection

The post International Day of the Girl Child 2018: A Glance at Nepal appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

But, digging to what extent that’s being applicable in the today’s world sheds light on real concerns surrounding a woman/girl child. One such major concern that many world nations have been fighting for centuries is ‘Child Marriages’.

Development over the years brought in societal transformation in many nations. However, there are few nations that are yet to see a full-fledged transition in all terms. Nepal is one among them.

Despite crossing over centuries, Nepal is still fighting with some age-old practices, one of them being ‘child marriages’.

Child marriages in Nepal has been a long matter of debate bothering many communities across the country for generations, with some of them strictly following it as a customary and socially-established practice.

Key Reasons and Impact
According to international bodies who reported Nepal’s scenario so far, child marriages in Nepal are majorly attributed to the lack of awareness, literacy, openness to change, social inclusion and other aspects among the majority of the population.

Reasons leading to child marriages in Nepal are complex, says UNICEF, pointing at poverty, low value attached to daughters and lack of access to education, caste system, and patriarchal culture as major impacting factors.

A survey based on the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2014 data reports high contribution of child marriages to the increasing school drop-outs among girls in the country.

Fig.1 Reasons for school dropout among women aged 20–24 years; 40% report marriage as the reason

Fig. 2 Distribution of the highest grade completed by women aged 20–24 who left school due to child marriage

Fig. 3 Number and percentage of girls aged 15–17 by schooling status and marital status

Adding to the concerns, the April 2015 earthquake raised fears over supposed increase in number of child marriages owing to worsened situation of the public.

Key findings evaluated from various sources show:

• Nepal reports one of the highest rates of child marriages, globally
• Average prevalence of child marriage among both sexes at more than 40 percent as a whole, with girls at nearly 50 percent and boys at 30 percent
• Parents were the major factors to push for child marriages among nearly 60 percent of female cases and 55 percent of male cases
• There are also many cases where children themselves got engaged in ‘love marriages’ at an early age
• There has also been a shift in decision-making patterns from arranged marriages to love marriages, parents to children from parental pressure to love and fulfilment of sexual desire, and rural to rural-urban scenario
• A survey of households heads found 32 percent of them saying ‘parental pressure’ as a leading cause to child marriages, followed by children’s own desire and need for supporting household activities
• Early marriages were also attributed to over usage of mobile phone usage and media
• Measures to save money to be spent on organizing marriages also contributed to the rise
• Disliking among boys (from urban areas) for their first marriages often resulted in second marriages driving the need for child marriages among girls from rural areas
• Legal action against parents could control the menace to some extent in some cases, however, it did not work-out in case of children voluntarily engaging in love marriages upon self-interests
• Overall, there were hardly any genuine evidences showing child marriages as people avoided to do so owing to fears for legal matters

What Addresses the Menace?
Considering the aforementioned factors, there are few ways that renowned international rights bodies recommend, to stop child marriages. These include:

• Formation of vigilant groups and community networks with all the concerned stakeholders to check the spread of menace among the socially-marginalized communities, who are reportedly found to be more prone to the situation
• Need for spread of awareness among adolescent girls and boys on the ill-effects of getting married earlier
• Empowering young girls and boys with appropriate comprehensive sex education at the school level, along with skill-based training
• Conducting awareness programs through respective primary health centers at the community levels
• Establishment of Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) involving active local participants such as youngsters for a detailed understanding on causes, patterns and impact of child marriages and practices encouraging the same
• Programs that encourage school enrolment among girls and follow gender transformative approach should be designed
• Strengthening of networks that are combination of communities and related stakeholders from local to national levels
• To the next level, linking of local responses against the menace to the global aid organizations that can support the cause

Social and human rights organizations of Nepal feel that the existence of child marriages menace is obstructing the country’s progress in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.

Despite the existence of relevant laws that stipulate 20 years as the legal age for marriage for both girls and boys, the Ministry of Health records show nearly 30 percent of girls getting married at 15-17 years of age.

“We certainly need to strongly lobby against early marriage, but we are hampered by a very poor monitoring system to implement the existing law. Our biggest challenge is the family’s attitude towards educating their girls,” says Dibya Dawadi, Deputy Director-General, Department of Education, Nepal.

MDGs strongly pitch for few things pertaining to human rights and education. While MDG 2 pitches for universal primary education, MDG 3 finds the significance of promoting gender equality and women empowerment, MDG 4 is deeply concerned about controlling child mortality and MDG 5 calls for improvement of maternal health.

Unfortunately, child marriages work against all these MDGs stopping the sustainable growth of the Nepali citizens.

Activists feel that the change has to start from touching roots of the problem i.e. addressing unemployment, economic situation, among others forcing families to indulge in anti-social practices like child marriages.

What Key Associations & Their Leaders Say?
Unless people are made aware of devastating multi-pronged effects of early marriage, they will not strive to eliminate it from society. People should also be made aware of human rights, so that they are aware of their own rights and the rights of children. Only then will parents be motivated to ensure that their children enjoy their right to childhood  – World Plan International

Child marriage is a common problem in Nepal’s rural areas. About 50 percent marriages take place before youth turn 18 due to a lack of awareness, poverty and weak enforcement of child marriage legislation.  – Plan International

Women living in rural areas are more likely to be married as children those in urban areas. Nepal has one of the highest rates of child marriage in Asia – for both girls and boys. Although the legal age of unions for both sexes is 20, more than a third of young women aged 20-24 report that they were married by the age of 18, and just over one in ten by 15.  – UNICEF

Child marriage deprives girls of educational opportunities. However, supply-side issues such as poor access to school, low quality of educational provision, and poor skilled employment prospects, as well as demand side challenges such as concerns over safety and security or the need for unpaid household labor may be important contributing factors to child marriage. Girls may therefore discontinue their education due to a range of factors and then, as they are unable to complete their education, enter into marriage.  – A Study based on the Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2014

Early marriage should be stopped because it not only affects girls’ education but also their health. After marriage, these girls rarely come back to school and even if they do, their performance is very poor. Early marriage negatively impacts their self-confidence.  – Sumon Tuladhar, Education Specialist at UNICEF Nepal

Sticking a mother in jail is not helpful when she may have other young children with no one to feed and protect them. Child marriage is extreme denial of children’s rights. Many girls also suffer from abusive marriages as they are married to older boys.  – Helen Sherpa from World Education

Child marriage not only discriminates against women and girls in Nepal, it is a violation of their basic human rights. Young brides are pressured to give birth soon after marriage and are susceptible to both domestic and sexual violence—escalating harms that have a profound negative impact on the health, education, employment and dignity of women and girls. The government of Nepal has an immediate obligation to stop child marriage.  – Melissa Upreti, Regional Director for Asia, Center for Reproductive Rights

The government needs to prioritize the implementation of laws prohibiting child marriage in Nepal. We have to guarantee that our women and young girls can exercise their constitutionally protected rights and end this discrimination against them in the name of marriage.  – Seikh Chand Tara, Chairperson, National Women Commission  

On an End Note
Hope, continuous efforts by governments in the form of laws and human rights activists supported by global aid agencies will address the long-standing menace of child marriages in Nepal, contributing to the country’s developmental path.

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A special campaign has been planned involving girls allowing them to raise questions on their key concerns.

Under the special movement titled ‘Because I am a Girl’, around 300 young girls will be playing the roles of radio program presenters and journalists and lead the radio talk shows at around 300 community radios across 75 districts of the country.

Because I am a Girl’ is the global movement jointly being organized by the Plan International and the Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (ACORAB).

“The radio takeover is a unique opportunity for girls to discuss their issues with policymakers, leaders and activists, and seek strong commitment from them: as agents of change girls will remind them to take positive actions and use their positions to influence changes in policy and practice, and promote equality and justice for girls,” Sven Coppens, Country Director of Plan International Nepal said in a statement.

According to Coppens, all these 300 girls, through these 300 takeovers, will demand changes against the discrimination and prejudice that holds them back in private and public life.

This program is part of the global initiative called ‘Because I am a Girl’ and is a Girls’ Movement that voices for their potential and societal justice.

“When girls get equal opportunities and equal chances in life, they can transform their lives and ensure development and prosperity of their communities,” adds Coppens.

Meanwhile, Subash Khatiwada, President of ACORAB Nepal informed, “Leadership capacity of 300 young girls will be developed and girls’ issues will be discussed throughout the country on the same day through this program.”

To Promote Girls Rights

On the occasion, Plan International Nepal and ACORAB have entered into a collaboration to promote girls’ rights in Nepal through various media initiatives.

It was in 2011 that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution adopting October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child in recognition of girls’ rights and challenges being faced by the girl community across the world.

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