Voices against child marriage
Nepal’s south, thanks to learnings from the Rupantaran programme, young girls are finding the confidence to speak out against child marriage and usher in much-needed change in their families and communities
Rautahat, Nepal: Priyanka Kumari Mahara often relives the day, not too long ago, when her parents had come to her with a proposition: they wanted her to get married to a boy from a village close to where they lived in Rautahat District in Nepal’s southern plains. Priyanka’s father Vijaya Ram had already met with the boy’s parents by then, and plans had been made for the two families to get together so that an official wedding date could be set.
For Priyanka, who was just about to turn 13 years old at the time, this was not entirely unexpected. Child marriage is all too common in her community and many of her own friends and acquaintances had been married before they turned 18. She also understood the pressure her parents were facing with the meagre income they were earning as agricultural labourers with five children to fend for, Priyanka being the eldest among them.
Still, she was certain that this was not what she wanted for herself.
“I spoke openly with them and said that if I got married now, that would be child marriage, which is a crime,” Priyanka says. “I told them that I just wasn’t ready to take that step, not physically or mentally.”
She also gave her parents examples of other girls from the community who had married early and even given birth, but who were now suffering various health issues and mental distress.
“I said that I would not agree to marriage before the age of 20, that I had so many things I wanted to do before that,” she says.
So assertive and strong was Priyanka’s statement that her parents were surprised at first, and ultimately, after several rounds of conversation, gave in to her wishes and promised to cancel the wedding plans.
Later on, Priyanka’s mother Reeta Devi had asked her how she had known all this information - about the legal age for marriage and the lasting and harmful effects that early marriage can have on one’s mind and body. Reeta Devi also attended the Rupantaran parenting session which helped her better understand her role in supporting her daughter’s dreams and aspirations.
“I told her that I had learned it all at Rupantaran,” Priyanka says.
Indeed, just a few months before the conversation with her parents, Priyanka had enrolled in the Rupantaran (“transformation”) life skills programme.
Indeed, just a few months before the conversation with her parents, Priyanka had enrolled in the Rupantaran (“transformation”) life skills programme.
Priyanka had never been able to attend school, compelled as she was to help out her parents with household chores and looking after her younger sisters from a young age. But she had always retained the wish to learn. So when she was approached by a young woman asking if she wanted to enroll in the Rupantaran programme, she jumped at the chance.
Rupantaran comprises a comprehensive training package based on imparting social and financial skills to adolescents between 10 to 19 years of age. The package was developed by UNICEF and UNFPA, in partnership with the Nepal Government, with the objective of empowering young people from marginalized communities and challenging circumstances. The programme is currently being run across communities in Nepal as part of the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, generously funded by the Governments of Belgium, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, the European Union and Zonta International.
Through weekly sessions, Priyanka and her fellow classmates learned and discussed a range of key issues, including social skills, finance, livelihood, personal hygiene, reproductive health, child marriage and child rights, among a range of other topics. This was how she had become so well-versed with the negative repercussions of early marriage.
Mother Reeta says she has witnessed her daughter blossoming into a confident, intelligent young woman before her very eyes over these few months.
“She is so much more responsible now, she takes care of herself and others better, and her outlook on so many things has changed,” Reeta says. “I’m proud to be her mother.”
