Baglung, Dec. 9 -- year-old girl from ward no 3 of Nisikhola Rural Municipality, Baglung, got married without the consent of her parents. At the age of 16, the girl is pregnant now. Four other girls, aged 16 and 17, at the same ward have also gotten married. Three of them are expecting babies now.

Nisikhola Rural Municipality is in remote Baglung, a hill district of Gandaki Province. Many girls and women below 20 years of age are married in the local unit's rural areas. Many of them are pregnant or have already given birth to their babies.

The Civil Code 2017 states that the minimum age for marriage-for both women and men-in Nepal is 20. Though the country abolished child marriage in 1963, the social practice is still rampant in rural a...