KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 12
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to 'free and full' consent to a marriage while acknowledging that consent cannot be 'free and full' when one of the parties involved is not sufficiently mature to make an informed decision about a life partner. Yet in Nepal, marriage before age 18 remains common, especially for girls.
The newly released Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2024-25 shows that child marriage affects women far more than men. About one in three women aged 18-49 were married before turning 18, compared to roughly one in nine men.
Walk through any neighbourhood in Nepal and the numbers tell similar stories. Among teenage girls aged 15-19 right now, about 14 in every 100 are already married. For boys the same age, it's fewer than 2 in 100.
Madhesh Province shows the highest rates in the country. Nearly half of all women there were married before reaching adulthood, almost double the national average and significantly higher than any other province. In Bagmati, particularly urban Kathmandu Valley, the rates are lowest at around 20%. But even within the same province, the differences are stark. In rural Bagmati, nearly 39 in 100 women were married before 18, close to the national figure.
The data does show progress across generations. Women now in their late 40s had much higher rates of child marriage than women in their early 20s today. But the change has been slow, taking about 25 years to drop by roughly 13 percentage points. At this pace, child marriage might remain common for years to come.
Money makes a massive difference as well. Among the poorest families, about 42 in every 100 women were married before 18. Among the wealthiest, it's 21 in 100. For men, the wealth gap is even wider: the poorest are five times more likely to marry before 18 than the richest.
Right now, among teenage girls who are married, more than 20 in every 100 come from the poorest families. Only about 3 in 100 are from the richest families.
But education shows the clearest pattern of all. Women with no formal schooling were married before 18 at rates of about 52%. Women with higher education were married before 18 at rates of just 5.5%. The progression is steady: more education means later marriage, almost without exception.
Among currently married teenage girls, more than half have no education at all. The cycle feeds itself: child marriage interrupts schooling, and lack of schooling increases the likelihood of child marriage.
The survey covered nearly 14,000 women and over 4,600 men aged 15-49 across all seven provinces. What it reveals is a practice that's declining but still widespread, affecting girls far more than boys, and concentrated among the poor, the uneducated, and those in certain provinces.
The numbers are not just statistics. They represent girls whose education ended early, whose choices were limited, whose futures were decided before they were old enough to decide for themselves. In Nepal today, despite progress, marriage before adulthood remains a reality for millions.
