Nepal: El matrimonio infantil acaba con el futuro de las niñas

Transcript

OPENING:

[FOOTAGE GIRLS IN THE PARK]

 

TESTIMONY SHARMILA G.:

I used to imagine that life would just go by laughing and playing.

But now, there’s no laughter.

 

TITLE:

OUR TIME TO SING & PLAY
Child Marriage in Nepal

 

TESTIMONY SHARMILA G.:

I’m 14 years old.

I’ve been married for a year and a half.

When I see my friends going to school, I wish I could go with them.

And I wonder why I got married so soon.

 

TEXT ON SCREEN (TOS):

Married at 12

Married at 16

Married at 15

Married at 14

Married at 15

Married at 12

Married at 15

 

 

VOICEOVER

Nepal has the third highest rate of child marriage in Asia.  37 percent of girls marry before they’re 18, and 10 percent before 15, despite the fact that the legal age of marriage is 20.

 

Why are so many girls married?

 

LOWER THIRD:

SUMNIMA TULADHAR

Executive Coordinator

Child Workers in Nepal

 

TESTIMONY SUMNIMA:

The society is structured in a way that gives women status of second-class citizen in most of the South Asian countries.  They are viewed as economically inactive citizens. Families are happy to marry them off because what will they bring?

 

LOWER THIRD:

VOICE OF MANJUSHREE THAPA

Writer & Activist

 

VOICEOVER

Girls are often seen as a “burden.” Families, struggling to get by, send girls to work. And then they unload them through marriage.

 

(TOS):

CHILD LABOR

 

LOWER THIRD:

CHILD WORKER

9 years old

 

TESTIMONY SELINA T.:

I help my mom with her work.

I put the bricks in a heap.

I make tea and shape the bricks.

 

VOICEOVER

Child labor is common in Nepal, with about 40% of children working. Girls are more likely to work than boys (TOS 48% VS. 36%) and most of the children in hazardous work are girls.

TOS [60%]

 

LOWER THIRD:

CHILD BRIDE

Married at 14

 

TESTIMONY ANJANA M.:

I wanted to study, but my parents didn’t let me go to school.

They just sent me away from them.

Men came to take me [to work as a maid] but I cried and said, “I don’t want to go, I want to stay home.”

But my father had already taken 3000 rupees [28 USD] for me, so I had to go.

 

VOICEOVER

Girls who work often have to leave school. And once they leave school, they’re more likely to get married.

 

TOS: BARRIERS TO EDUCATION

 

VOICEOVER

What keeps girls out of school? Child labor, domestic burdens, boys being prioritized over girls, and poverty.

 

TOS:

CHILD LABOR

DOMESTIC BURDENS

BOYS PRIORITIZED OVER GIRLS

POVERTY

 

LOWER THIRD:

CHILD BRIDE

Married at 15

 

TESTIMONY KALPANA T.:

I lived with [and was raised by] my grandparents. I used to study but we had [financial] problems.

So I had to get married.

Even if the education is free, we have to buy books, pencils, uniforms.

Of course it was costly

so we couldn’t afford it.

I thought if I got married, it would help my grandparents a little. 

After I left home, there would be a little more [for them] to eat.

 

VOICEOVER

Rumors and gossip can have life altering consequences.

 

TOS: SOCIAL PRESSURE

 

TESTIMONY ANJANA M.:

I didn’t care much for boys. I didn’t even want to get married.

Then girls from the village started teasing me [suggesting I was in a relationship with a man in the village].

So I started to cry.

There were too many rumors, so I told him I would marry him.

I didn’t have any options.

 

VOICEOVER

With a dearth of options, children are choosing to get married on their own, some as young as 12 or 13.  In Nepal, these unions are called love marriages and they’re on the rise.  Often, they’re born of desperation – children are looking for a way out of abuse or poverty at home, hard labor, or an arranged marriage.

 

LOWER THIRD:

CHILD BRIDE

Married at 14

 

TESTIMONY TILMAYA M.:

[My parents] told me not to marry him. They told me to marry somebody else from another village.

They berated me.

That’s why we eloped.

 

VOICEOVER

Whether it’s a forced child marriage or a love marriage, the damage to the lives of girls and their families is often the same.

 

LOWER THIRD:

CHILD BRIDE

Married at 12

 

TESTIMONY SHARMILA G.:

I’m pregnant now.

Seven months.

I’m still a child and I’m pregnant so I feel strange.

I didn’t know anything about babies, how they’re conceived, I had no idea.

 

LOWER THIRD:

CHILD BRIDE

Married at 12

 

TESTIMONY LALITA B.:

I had three children but two of them died. This is the third one.

[The doctor] told me it was because I was too young, my body couldn’t handle pregnancy.

They said, “Your uterus is small.”

I don’t want what happened to me to happen to [my daughter].

My life is destroyed. I hope it will turn out differently for her.

 

TESTIMONY KALPANA T.:

When I see my friends going to school,

I wish I could go to school too,

to study more, to stand on my own feet,

to do something [with my life].

 

VOICEOVER

Education and empowerment shouldn’t be a distant dream for girls in Nepal.

 

LOWER THIRD:

YASODHA MAJHI

Student

19 years old

 

TESTIMONY YASODHA:

People think that girls can’t do anything.

But once we’re educated we’d be equal to [boys].

They wouldn’t be able to oppress us for being girls and say that we’re not equal to them.

 

LOWER THIRD:

MOHNA ANSARI

National Human Rights Commission

 

TESTIMONY MOHNA:

Nepal has the best law [on child marriage] in South Asia,

but now is the time to look at how well it’s being enforced.

We must enforce it.

 

VOICEOVER

Nepal’s government promises reforms, but in towns and villages across the country, change is coming far too slowly.  The government needs to come up with a real plan, and quickly, before more children see their futures stolen from them by child marriage.