Human Rights Watch has blamed government indifference and last year's earthquake for not reducing child marriage. The Kathmandu government insists it is making progress.
Image: Jane Mingay/Girls Not Brides
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Despite being illegal in Nepal since 1963, "police rarely act to prevent child marriage or bring charges," the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday.
In its report "Our Time to Sing and Play," the NGO said government officials often officially register child marriages, even though it is a crime.
HRW said there was little evidence that the Nepalese government was trying to prevent child marriage or mitigate the harm that married children experience.
"Many children in Nepal - both girls and boys - are seeing their futures stolen from them," said senior women's rights researcher Heather Barr in a statement.
Child marriage 'epidemic' on the rise in South Asia
Human Rights Watch has urged Bangladesh to scrap a proposed legislation that calls for lowering the legal marriage age of girls to 16. Child marriage rates are very high in South Asia, with Bangladesh topping the list.
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Lowering the age bar
In a report released on Tuesday, June 9, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Bangladeshi authorities to spur efforts to deal with what it calls an "epidemic" of child marriage. The international rights group criticized Bangladeshi legislation which proposes lowering the legal marriage age from 18 to 16.
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Before their 15th birthday
Around 30 percent of girls in Bangladesh are married off before their 15th birthday, according to the report "Marry Before Your House is Swept Away." The HRW report is based on interviews with scores of Bangladeshi child brides. Child marriage is illegal in Bangladesh, but birth certificates can easily be forged by bribing officials to facilitate underage marriages.
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Poverty is a reason
Frequent natural disasters have pushed many Bangladeshis into greater poverty. This has also resulted in more child marriages, as a girl is considered a financial burden in most South Asian families. Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina pledged to end marriages under the age of 15 by 2021 last year at a conference in London. But rights groups say her government hasn't done much to fulfil that promise.
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Domestic abuse and marital rape
Studies show that the lack of education for girls traps them not just in a cycle of poverty, making them economically dependent, but also puts their health at serious risk. Young brides targets of domestic abuse and marital rape as well.
Image: picture-alliance/Pacific Press/M. Asad
Rampant in South Asia
The issue is not confined to Bangladesh. Forced early marriages are widespread in the whole of South Asia, also because of cultural and religious ideas about the appropriate marriage age. According to UNHCR estimates, globally more than 140 million girls will be married off before their 18th birthday over the next decade, and almost 50 percent of these brides are in South Asia.
Image: DW/P.M.Tewari
Social practices vs laws
Child marriage is prohibited by national and regional laws in South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. But the practice persists unabated. According to a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 24.4 million women between the ages 20 to 24 were reportedly married before they were 18 years old between 2000 and 2010.
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Change in attitude
Stephen Adkisson, UNICEF's Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, told DW it was crucial to engage communities to promote dialogue on issues such as child marriage, maternal deaths and gender-biased selection in order to change mindsets, which are the result of deeply embedded social, economic, cultural and political factors.
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HRW's report, based on more than 100 interviews with people who had been married as children, said girls were being denied an education and faced domestic violence. Many were also forced to have children before their bodies were ready, HRW said.
"My parents wanted me to marry someone they had chosen. There were two or three proposals. My parents liked them, but I didn't," said Sunita Lam, 16, who eloped with a man she had only spoken to on the phone.
Up to 37 percent of Nepalese girls marry before they are 18, according to United Nations figures, in part due to traditional practices and poverty.
The report said child marriage is prevalent in the country's Dalit or indigenous communities, where dowry practices, social pressure, and a lack of access to education all contribute to its acceptance.
Child marriages: A Nepalese drama
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Family pressure means girls are unlikely to complain to the authorities if they know their marriage is illegal. Even if they do police are reluctant to act, said Rashmila Shakya of Child Workers In Nepal, a children's rights organization.
"Police and authorities give least priority to child marriage cases because it is just accepted reality for them," Shakya said.
The Nepalese government insisted it has made significant progress in stopping child marriage and has new policies and laws to address the issue, including a new law that says both men and women have to be 20 before they can legally marry.
"For the first time child marriage is protected by the constitution, which says it is illegal," said Dr. Kiran Rupakhetee, from the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, adding the government this year also adopted a national strategy plan to end child marriages.
Violators can be jailed for three years and fined 10,000 rupees ($95), which is more than the monthly salary for many people.
