Nepal's law makes child marriage a social crime. Even though it is forbidden by law, child marriage still exists due to traditional religion, culture and social values. According to the amended law, marriage under the age of 20 is considered child marriage. Legal provision has been made for those who get married under the age of 20 to be punished and for such marriages to be annulled. Until a few decades ago, it was customary to get married at the age of eight / ten. That tradition of the grandmother generation has now become like the story of Ekadesh. Although the law stipulates that a boy or a girl must be at least 20 years of age, the practice of marrying at an average age of 16 has not been abolished. In modern society, it is still believed that parents consider it their duty to marry their daughters at the age of 16/17. This is still very much applicable to poor families. It has been more than a decade since the government launched a campaign called 'Behavior Beyond Twenty Years'. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that daughters should be educated. Government and non-government organizations have been conducting publicity and awareness programs against child marriage. However, the number of child marriages is increasing.
There are 38 complaints of child marriage in the fiscal year 2073/74. In 2073/74 this number reached 45 while in 2075/76 it increased further to 68. The statistics of the current fiscal year so far have also shown an increase in child marriage. In particular, child marriage is on the rise in all the districts of the Terai. In some places, underage marriages have even been canceled. There is a tendency for those who get married before reaching the age of majority not to register their marriages to avoid the legal provisions, due to which this number is missing even if child marriages do take place. Child marriage has not been reduced due to the tendency to marry voluntarily. There is no alternative to being 'secret' in the case of children who marry voluntarily without parental control. Because let's not accepted the marriage, it is not under our control and let's accept that the crisis of falling into the trap of law has fallen on the parents. With the proliferation of the Internet and social media, it is estimated that child pornography is on the rise as teenagers are affected by sexually explicit material and lose control of their sexuality. However, no in-depth study has been done on this issue.
Child marriage is becoming a global problem. Among the South Asian countries, India, Bangladesh and Nepal are among the top child marriage countries. Nepal is still in third place. Nepal ranks eighth out of 10 countries in the world at a high risk of child marriage. The challenge of reducing child marriage has increased due to the inability of laws to be implemented in practice. Nepal has announced to make the country child marriage free by 2030. This is not impossible if there are collective effort and cooperation. Despite the enactment of the law, child marriage is still prevalent in many names due to weak implementation. Although the eleventh amendment of the Civil Act, 2020 has brought equality in the age of marriage for boys and girls, it has not been implemented in practice. Poverty, illiteracy, ignorance of the law, lack of health awareness, dowry, the selfishness of domestic work and tradition are considered responsible for child marriage.
According to the Census Survey of Nepal 2068, 40 percent or 1.3 million adolescents get married before the age of 19, out of which about 5.5 lakh adolescents become mothers before the age of 19. It is necessary to conduct awareness campaigns from family, school and government bodies to discourage child marriage as marrying at an early age is against the law and even considered risky from the point of view of reproductive health.
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