By Ajit Kumar Jha, Inaruwa, Mar. 12: Sonudevi Sada of Musahar Village in Kosi Rural Municipality-1, Sunsari, got married at the age of 14. She gave birth to a girl-child a year after her marriage.

Aged 17 now, Sada is preganant for the second time, expecting a baby in a month.

Ananda Devi Rishidev of the same village got married when she was 13 years old. Like Sada, she also gave birth to a boy within a year of her marriage. She is now 17 years old while her son is two years old.

Likewise, Kaili Sada, 18, of the village is a mother of two children. Her daughter is 1.5 years old while her son is a month old.

These examples reflect that the practice of child marriage and teenage pregnancy is still prevailing in the rural areas of Sunsari district.

Lack of public awareness about risks of teenage pregnancy to the mother and infant amongst the people of Dalit community of the district has not brought any change in the practice of child marriage.

Various campaigns and awareness programmes have regularly been organised by the government by way of various meeting, conferences and assemblies. Even the National Civil Code Act 2017 has specified 20 years as the minimum year to get married.

These initiatives of the government, however, have not been impactful to the children of Dalit community. Numbers of children of the marginalised community are found to be engrossed in parenting at their playful age.

Various Municipalities, Rural Municipalities and ward offices have been organising different awareness campaigns against child marriage annually. Those campaigns, however, have been limited only in papers and conference halls.

Even the laws that stipulate punishment on child marriage have been ineffective to eradicate child marriage in the district.