By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 18: Stakeholders have said that child marriage can be eliminated through giving values to the issues related to girls and working to achieve equality between boys and girls.
Speaking at ‘National Bal Kachahari 2019’, a stakeholder dialogue on child marriage in Nepal, organised by Good Neighbours International Nepal and Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC) in the capital on Monday, they said that equality among boys and girls is essential for eliminating the deep-rooted practices of child marriage.
According to the child right activists, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, traditional social norms, culture and practices, social media, weak enforcement of laws, lack of awareness are the main drivers of child marriage in various communities.
Speaking on the occasion, Gauri Pradhan, a child rights activist, said that the negative flow of messages in the social media had also propelled child marriages in the country.
In order to eliminate child marriage, the sex and reproductive health sessions should be converted into the interactive session in schools, among families and in community, said Pradhan.
The children working with the child groups asked the concerned authorities about the steps taken by them for ending child marriages.
They also asked for the registration of cases on child marriage at the police office and initiate action against the child sexual offenses.
The GNI Nepal in collaboration with local partners has been organising stakeholders’ dialogues on the issues of children in Darchula, Bajura, Doti, Kailali, Humal, Mugu, Bardia, Myagdi, Parbat, Kaski, Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts.
The GNI Nepal conducted school – municipality and national level poetry, drawing, extempore speech, quiz, and essay writing competitions and awareness generating dramas among 80,000 students of 345 schools in 13 districts.
According to the research conducted by Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC) in sampled in 14 districts of Nepal, 40 per cent are still unknown about the knowledge of legal age of marriage.
Among the responding child, 66 per cent of them ascribe child marriage to the love affairs.