Nepal is not doing enough to end child marriage, with more than one in three girls married before they reach the age of 18, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. Child marriage is illegal in Nepal, but the law is rarely enforced and a government pledge to end the practice by 2020 was recently delayed to 2030. “Many children in Nepal -- both girls and boys -- are seeing their futures stolen from them by child marriage,” said senior women’s rights researcher Heather Barr in a statement from HRW. Many are forced to marry, but HRW’s research also found a rise in voluntary child marriage to escape abuse or poverty, or because they wanted to choose their own partner. “My parents wanted me to marry someone they had chosen.

Source: Hindustan Times September 08, 2016 09:00 UTC