Reform in social behavior reduces unjust treatment to women, girls: Minister Jaiswal

Kathmandu, Aug 31: Minister for Social Welfare in Madhesh Province, Pramod Jaiswal, has stated that reform in social behaviour was essential to eliminate unjust treatment of women and girls. Minister Jaiswal said it during a programme organized under the ‘Reducing Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (R-CEFM)’ project in Janakpurdham on Friday.

“Laws alone are not enough to end discrimination, but reform in social behaviour,” he underlined, adding that the R-CEFM project has initiated this in six municipalities by strengthening local systems. The USAID’s Breakthrough ACTION implemented the R-CEFM project in Madhesh Province from 2020-2024 in support of Nepal’s government policy of prohibiting child and early marriage with the mandate to strengthen the local government’s capacity to design, implement, and monitor activities to reduce child, early and forced marriages.

The project strengthened local systems that protect children against child, early, and forced marriages through community-based, multi-sectoral, and data-informed activities. Collaboration was set up among six municipalities: Durga Bhagawati and Rajpur municipalities of Rautahat district, and Jaleswar, Matihani, Loharpatti, and Pipara municipalities of Mahottari district for the enforcement of the undertaking.

The local levels mobilized political leaders and ward officials, religious and community leaders, local and ward child rights committee members, parents, teachers, and young girls to work together for the first time to lead the process, generate local solutions, allocate necessary resources, and support each other so that it would foster local transformation in their communities and reduce child, early, and forced marriages.

It was shared on the occasion that in just three years of implementation, the Breakthrough ACTION’s local system-strengthening R-CEFM project in Madhesh Province was able to provide technical support to the municipalities to reduce child, early, and forced marriages. Over 2,500 community stakeholders, including child protection systems, were mobilized under the initiation that supported nearly 70 children’s clubs to actively participate in their ward and municipality efforts.

During the experience-sharing programme, the municipalities were felicitated by the minister for their leadership in reducing child, early, and forced marriages in their communities. —RSS