KATHMANDU: Madhesh Province’s Minister for Social Welfare, Pramod Jaiswal, has emphasized that social reform is crucial to eliminating the unjust treatment of women and girls.
Speaking at a program organized under the ‘Reducing Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (R-CEFM)’ project in Janakpurdham on Friday, Minister Jaiswal stressed that laws alone are insufficient to end discrimination; a change in social behavior is also necessary.
The R-CEFM project, implemented by USAID’s Breakthrough ACTION, has been active in Madhesh Province from 2020 to 2024.
It aligns with Nepal’s government policy to prohibit child and early marriages, aiming to strengthen the capacity of local governments to design, implement, and monitor activities that reduce child, early, and forced marriages.
The project has reinforced local systems to protect children through community-based, multi-sectoral, and data-driven initiatives.
Six municipalities—Durga Bhagawati and Rajpur in Rautahat district, and Jaleswar, Matihani, Loharpatti, and Pipara in Mahottari district—have collaborated to enforce the project’s goals.
For the first time, political leaders, ward officials, religious and community leaders, local and ward child rights committee members, parents, teachers, and young girls have come together to lead the process.
They have generated local solutions, allocated necessary resources, and supported one another to foster transformation in their communities and reduce child, early, and forced marriages.
During the program, it was shared that in just three years, the R-CEFM project in Madhesh Province successfully provided technical support to municipalities, mobilizing over 2,500 community stakeholders, including child protection systems.
The project also empowered nearly 70 children’s clubs to actively participate in their ward and municipal efforts.
Minister Jaiswal felicitated the participating municipalities for their leadership in reducing child, early, and forced marriages in their communities.
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