Child marriage is impending child rape and has no place in Nepal

January 7, 2025

KATHMANDU – On December 31, 2024, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli took the first pledge with survivors to support the nationwide ‘Child Marriage Free Nepal’ campaign. The campaign is led by the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens and supported by Backward Society Education (BASE), Nepal and Just Rights for Children (JRC). Just Rights for Children, one of the largest networks of civil society organisations working for child protection internationally, aims to end child marriage in Nepal by 2030. In this connection, the Post’s Aarati Ray talked to JRC founder and noted child rights activist Bhuwan Ribhu.

What motivated you to support the ‘Child Marriage Free Nepal’ campaign and partner with civil society organisations like BASE in Nepal?

We, as Just Rights for Children, envision a child marriage-free world. To realise this vision, we must focus on countries where the prevalence of child marriage is acute. With a prevalence rate of 35 percent and 5.4 million girl victims of child marriage in the country, Nepal has the second-highest child marriage rate in South Asia.

Nepal is also a country with robust laws. What is needed is a push for the implementation of these laws at scale for the elimination of child marriage. Child marriage is nothing but impending child rape and has no place in today’s Nepal or today’s world.

Backward Society Education (BASE) has been working effectively and consistently for child protection and child rights for years. Moreover, their focus on grassroots activism and implementation of laws makes them the ideal partner to work across Nepal at scale.

And under the leadership of Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, we hope that civil society organisations, faith leaders and other stakeholders