Nepal, Childhood and Light

Exploitation of underage girls - 27.02.2021 - Journal La Croix, du 27 février 2021

Although Nepalese law firmly punishes child prostitution, numerous networks exploiting under-age girls have been growing for decades in Kathmandu, taking advantage of the extreme poverty in certain remote regions of the country.
In its April 2019 survey, the NGO Plan International, which specialises in the protection of minors who are targets of human trafficking, estimated that 8,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked each year for various purposes.
Many of them are sent to India or China for exploitation. Others are sent to Kathmandu.

The enslavement of these young girls, most of whom are victims of ambush, was documented over several months by photojournalist Lizzie Sadin. [...] Part of her investigation was published on the TV5 Monde website, under the title "Le Piège.

"Le Piège. Trafficking in women in Nepal".

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Early marriages - Human Rights Watch report, "Our Time to Sing and Play: Child Marriage in Nepal".

This report analyses the economic and social pressures that lead to child marriages, and the disastrous consequences of such marriages. Nepal has the third highest rate of child marriage in Asia, with 37% of girls married before the age of 18, and 10% before the age of 15. 

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There are 3 types of marriage in Nepal: 

Arranged marriage: a traditional marriage agreed by the parents of the future spouses. It is still widely practised, although, unlike in the past, the bride and groom are increasingly involved in the decision.

Love marriage: this has become part of Nepalese practice thanks to Western influence in recent decades. In this case, the man and woman fall in love and decide to marry.

The third type of marriage is the "run marriage", which most concerns children. This marriage enables them to escape difficult family situations (hunger, violence and poverty) and find refuge with someone by marrying them in the hope of a better future. [.....]

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The final cause of early marriage is girls' lack of access to education. There are several related factors, but the main one is that parents prefer to use the few resources they have to send boys to school, as they are destined to stay in the family and are therefore seen as a good investment. The cost of education is very high in Nepal: although state schools are theoretically free, families still have to pay for uniforms, equipment and school bags. This is compounded by the poor hygiene of school toilets, which makes it almost impossible for girls to attend school during their menstrual cycle.

Finally, it is important to point out the extent to which the rate of early marriage is higher among the indigenous populations (Janajati), who are much more exposed to the causes mentioned above.

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Consequences of early marriage
According to the World Health Organisation, marrying before the age of 18 has harmful health and social consequences for both girls and boys.

Early marriage is seen as the gateway to teenage pregnancy, which is the second biggest killer of teenage girls aged 15-19 worldwide. Having to prove their fertility and/or often knowing nothing about contraception methods, young girls find themselves pregnant at an age when their bodies are not ready to cope with pregnancy and childbirth. This has a disastrous effect on their health and that of the unborn child.

At the same time, on a social level, young spouses have not yet reached the maturity and financial stability needed to manage a new domestic environment. They are therefore forced to drop out of school and work to survive.

Adolescent girls have to leave their families to join their husbands' families, who are often violent towards them. 

Although the Nepalese government declared early marriages illegal in 1963 and banned them under the age of 20 in 2006, they remain widespread in the country due to weak application of the law and a lack of control by institutions. (HELPCODE article)

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In Nepal, an uphill battle for women's equality" - 02.02.2021 - Extract from an article by Akiko Uehara for Swissinfo
"It is still not easy to make people understand that women are respectable citizens, just like men, that they should be treated equally and that society should take seriously the creation of an environment that ensures their participation", says Tham Maya Thapa, one of the three women members of the Nepalese federal government. [...]
Constitutional reforms and legislative measures are necessary, but not sufficient to bring about the societal changes needed to achieve genuine equality. [...]
The 2015 Constitution guarantees at national level that at least 33% of parliamentarians should be women, at local level that 40% of all leading political roles should be held by women; [...] it also requires that the country's presidency or vice-presidency should be held by a woman. The same rule applies to the presidency of parliament and the head of the judiciary.
And in the communes too, the mayor or deputy mayor must be a woman. Each district of each municipality must reserve two seats for women, one of which must be occupied by an elected member of the "dalit", known as "untouchables" in neighbouring India. [...]
More than half of the 13,486 seats won by women in the last local elections went to representatives of Dalit communities [...] but this does not prevent Dalit women from continuing to endure the discrimination and violence of the old forms of social hierarchy. And Dalit women politicians are also discriminated against in the exercise of their office. They have to fight tirelessly to be heard, respected and followed by their parties, by members of the local authorities and communities, and even within their own families. [...]
For many women's rights activists, the quota system is only the first step. [Bandana Rana, a member of CEDAWL (the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women), admits that Nepal's Constitution is one of the most progressive in the world, but the country "faces a big challenge because it lacks a mechanism for monitoring and following up victims and survivors of violence". [...]

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Domestic violence and rape often remain within the family and go unnoticed by the general public," explains Chanda Chaudhary MP. A next step would be to ensure that women have the necessary resources and time to participate in public life. Women are still obliged to look after their families and children. Many women politicians have money problems and have to ask their husbands' permission to stand for election or even sometimes to simply leave home and travel. [...]
Some women activists say that it is not only up to them to change Nepalese society, but also to men. [...]

"When my husband asks me for a cup of tea, I make it for him after his day's work," says Bimala Rai Paudyal MP. "But even when I'm exhausted after a day's work, I make my own tea".

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