Where adolescent girls succeeded in minimising child marriage cases

Baitadi / Dec 21: Adolescent girls of Baitadi have succeeded in intervening and stopping 13 cases of would-be child marriages in the district in the past eight months.

With the help of collective efforts of local teenage girls, the District Women and Children Office, Baitadi and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 13 cases relating to early marriages were stopped from taking place in this period, according to Office’s Women Development Officer Anita Buda Aeir.

Adolescent girls’ circles have been formed in 16 Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the district to fight against child marriage. Child marriage is common in the district.

UNFPA District Programme Officer Ganesh Shahi said the practice of child marriage is yet to be fully controlled in the district as it is rooted in traditions, but its cases have relatively gone down these days comparing to the past due to joint efforts against it.

Child marriage is taking place as a customary practice in the district and it is very challenging to stop this in single effort. In some cases, girls are themselves voluntarily choosing early marriage as a fad which has caused a hurdle in the implementation of a drive to end the child marriage.

“Such practice is mainly prevalent in families which have more daughters, are financially weak and belong to the Dalit community,” according to Shahi. RSS