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Children of mid-western Nepal are becoming socially aware and active. On March 12, local children were successful in stopping the underage marriage of 14-year-old Bimala Biswokarma and 17-year-old Sandesh Biswokarma, both from the district of Jajarkot. “When we learned of the planned wedding, we contacted local police, as well as women’s organizations and social activists to stop it,” says Sumitra BK, who is herself a student activ­ist. The parents of the to-be bride and groom were persuaded to postpone the marriage until both of them turn 20.

Local children and adolescents have been active in a campaign against child marriage after taking part in an orientation program on the issue organized by two local NGOs.

The initiative is timely. Says Sakuntala Acha­rya, a female supervisor at the Jajarkot Women and Children Office, 74 percent adolescents in the district get married before the age of 19.

Raju BK, 16, and Sapana BK, 15, from Sanibheri rural municipality of West Rukum (also in mid-western hills) got married on March 10. (Both names have been changed.) But their marriage did not last more than a day. Child activists, with the help of the local police, were able to persuade the parents to get the marriage consummated only after the bride and the groom reach 20. These are not isolated cases. As many as five underage marriages have been stopped in Rukum in the month Feb-Mar alone—all with the initia­tive of local students. All underage couples were later handed over to their parents. Sub-inspector Gagan Singh Thakuri gives full credit to young students.

He believes that children have become increasingly aware of the ills of underage mar­riage. “It’s illegal to get married under the age of 20. When children get wind of an underage marriage plan, they inform us, even though their parents try to hush things up,” he says.

Ram Prasad KC, child protection officer at the Rukumeli Society Development Center, which has been facilitating the campaign against child marriage, corroborates the view. “The chil­dren’s initiative has led to a visible decline in the number of child marriage,” he says.  

By Rajendra Karki/Mahesh KC | Jajarkot/Musikot

All kinds of questions are being asked about Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s upcoming trip to India (April 6-8), in what will be his first foreign visit after assuming office. If he is determined to maintain a balance between India and China, as he has consistently done in recent times, why is he blindly following the ritual of a Nepali prime min­ister always making New Delhi his first foreign stop? Why couldn’t he make a strong statement by, for instance, going to China first? Is he afraid of India? Or does it indicate that mending frayed ties with New Delhi will be his top foreign policy priority? “I have a feeling that Oli’s India trip is a bluff,” says Khadga KC, head of the Tribhuvan University’s Masters in Interna­tional Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD) program. “I think PM Oli wants to gain India’s confidence to the extent that he can then freely pursue his pet agenda—enhancing Nepal’s relations with China.”

KC makes an interesting suggestion. “The best-case sce­nario would be for the prime minister to first fly to New Delhi and from there directly go to Beijing,” he says. “In fact, if you follow interna­tional relations, you will see that foreign leaders routinely make such back-to-back visits to two rival countries to show that these leaders value both equally.” Such smart diplo­macy, KC reckons, would place PM Oli in good stead with Nepal’s two neighbors, whether or not he is bluffing India right now.

Indra Adhikari, deputy executive director at the Institute of Foreign Affairs, has a slightly different reading. “Whether we like it or not, the depth of relations between Nepal and India is incomparable to Nepal’s relations with any other country, including China,” she says. “I think by making New Delhi his first foreign stop, the prime minister is acknowledging this indubitable fact and doing what is in the national interest.”

That is how it should be, says Adhikari, as “India’s per­ception towards Nepal has also changed markedly since the time of the blockade.” There is no need to provoke India unnecessarily, she adds, when we have repeatedly paid the high costs of doing so.

Those close to Prime Minister Oli say the visit will focus on economic issues and steer well clear of any contentious polit­ical ones, as this is a ‘confidence-building’ trip. We may have to wait for PM Oli’s subsequent visit to Beijing, whenever that happens, to find out who is bluffing whom.

Kathmandu: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has thus far taken action against 84 people for littering. KMC fined these people and collect­ed Rs 237,350 in penalty. Chief of the operations section of KMC’s Environment Manage­ment Division, Meen Bahadur Thapa, informed that 84 people have been booked, the majority of them from Putalisadak, Bag Bazaar, New Road and Jamal areas. The penalty for litter­ing ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 100,000. KMC has been man­aging 800 metric tons of solid waste a day. RSS  

Pokhara: Minister for Youth and Sports Jagat Bishwakar­ma has said a well-equipped international standard stadium would soon be built in Pokhara. Speaking at a press conference organized by the Nepal Sports Journalists Forum, Kaski, he also pointed out the possibility of linking tourism of the lake city with sports.

Acknowledging that sports can­not progress unless athletes can earn a living through their cho­sen profession, he also prom­ised a cricket ground. He high­lighted the recent success of the national cricket team, which has just earned the right to play international ODI cricket for the next four years. RSS