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“Our Time to Sing and Play” Child Marriage in Nepal WATCH

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“Our Time to Sing and Play” Child Marriage in Nepal WATCH HUMAN RIGHTS “Our Time to Sing and Play” Child marriage in Nepal WATCH “Our Time to Sing and Play” Child Marriage in Nepal Copyright © 2016 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-33986 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 978-1-6231-33986 “Our Time to Sing and Play” Child Marriage in Nepal Map .................................................................................................................................... I Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 19 Terminology ..................................................................................................................... 22 I. Background ................................................................................................................... 23 Weak Enforcement and a Weak Law ........................................................................................ 25 International Context .............................................................................................................. 27 II. Factors Driving Child Marriages .................................................................................... 29 Love Marriages ....................................................................................................................... 30 Poverty and Food Insecurity .................................................................................................... 30 Lack of Access to Education .................................................................................................... 32 Child Labor ............................................................................................................................. 37 Social Pressures and Harmful Practices ................................................................................. 40 Escaping Deprivation or Abuse at Home ................................................................................. 48 Dowry .................................................................................................................................... 49 Migration ................................................................................................................................ 50 III. Consequences of Child Marriage .................................................................................. 53 Termination of Education ........................................................................................................ 53 Early Pregnancy ...................................................................................................................... 56 Health Consequences of Early Pregnancy ................................................................................ 59 Domestic Violence and Abandonment ..................................................................................... 63 Sexual Violence ...................................................................................................................... 67 IV. Government Actions to Combat Child Marriage ............................................................ 69 Providing Universal Access to Education ................................................................................. 72 Access to Information about Sexual and Reproductive Health ................................................. 76 Access to Health Care ............................................................................................................. 79 Efforts by Law Enforcement to Prevent Child Marriage ............................................................ 84 Marriage and Birth Registration .............................................................................................. 91 Compliance with the Law by Religious Leaders ........................................................................ 93 V. Nepal’s National and International Legal Obligations ................................................... 95 Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination ............................................................................... 96 Right to Marriage, Choose a Spouse, and Minimum Age of Marriage ........................................ 97 Right to Education ................................................................................................................. 99 Right to be Free from Physical, Mental, and Sexual Violence .................................................. 101 Right to Health...................................................................................................................... 103 Right of Children to Express Their Views Freely ...................................................................... 104 VI. Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 106 To the Prime Minister ............................................................................................................ 106 To the Ministry of Women, Child and Social Welfare .............................................................. 108 To the Ministry of Health and Population ............................................................................... 109 To the Ministry of Education .................................................................................................. 110 To the Nepal Police ................................................................................................................113 To the Ministry of Law and Justice ..........................................................................................113 To the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development ...................................................... 114 To International Donors and the United Nations ..................................................................... 115 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 117 Annex: Letter to the Nepal Government ........................................................................... 119 Map I HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2016 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2 “OUR TIME TO SING AND PLAY” Thirty-seven percent of girls in Nepal marry before age 18 and 10 percent are married by age 15, in spite of the fact that the minimum age of marriage under Nepali law is 20 years of age. Boys also often marry young in Nepal, though in lower numbers than girls. UNICEF data indicates that Nepal has the third highest rate of child marriage in Asia, after Bangladesh and India. In interviewing dozens of children and young people, Human Rights Watch learned that these marriages result from a web of factors including poverty, lack of access to education, child labor, social pressures, and harmful practices. Cutting across all of these is entrenched gender inequality, and damaging social norms that make girls less valued than boys in Nepali society. Many of the marriages we heard about were arranged—and, often, forced—by girls’ parents, or other family members. In some areas of the country, families marry girls at ages as young as one and half years old. We heard some children describe their unions as “love marriages.” In Nepal, the term love marriage is commonly used to refer to a marriage not arranged by the bride and groom’s families. Usually it refers to a situation where the two spouses have decided themselves to get married, sometimes over the opposition of one or both of their families. Although different from arranged marriages, love marriages among children are often triggered by the same social and economic factors. The consequences of child marriage amongst those we interviewed are deeply harmful. Married children usually dropped out of school. Married girls had babies early, sometimes because they did not have information about and access to contraception, and sometimes because their in- laws and husbands pressured them to give birth as soon, and as frequently, as possible. Early childbearing is risky for both mother and child, and A girl plays in a public park in Patan, Nepal. Thirty-seven percent of girls in Nepal marry before age 18, and 10 percent many girls and their babies suffer devastating health are married by age 15. The minimum age of marriage under consequences. Six of the young women we interviewed had Nepali law is 20 years of age. babies that had died, and two of them had each endured the April 24, 2016. death of two of their children. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 3 Tilmaya M., 18, eloped and married a 20-year-old
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