विवाह र प्रजनन

Nepal's fertility has fallen (TFR about 2.1 in 2022) but remains higher in some groups and regions. Main causes of high fertility are:

1. Early and universal marriage: Many girls marry in their teens, which lengthens the childbearing period.
2. Son preference: Couples keep having children until they have a son, because sons carry on the family name, perform rites and support parents in old age.
3. High infant and child mortality (past and in remote areas): Parents have extra children in case some die.
4. Poverty and dependence on agriculture: Children are an economic help in farming and household work, and a form of old-age security.
5. Low literacy and low status of women: Uneducated women have less say in decisions about family size and less knowledge of family planning.
6. Limited access to family planning: Contraceptive services are less available and less accepted in remote and rural areas.
7. Religious and cultural beliefs: Some groups consider many children a blessing or hold traditional norms against birth control.

20 years

According to Nepal's legal provision (Muluki Civil Code 2074), the minimum legal age of marriage is 20 years for both girls and boys.

Marriage at an appropriate age means marrying when a person is physically mature, emotionally stable and economically prepared — generally after the mid-twenties in the Nepali context. At this age, marriage provides adequate time for the preparation of future life in the following ways:

1. Time for education and skill development: If marriage is delayed until an appropriate age, a person gets enough time to complete school and college education and to acquire vocational or professional skills. This raises the person's earning capacity, which directly improves the standard of living of the future family.

2. Economic preparation: An appropriate age of marriage usually coincides with the beginning of a stable job or income source. The couple can save money, arrange a house and manage household expenses before bearing the burden of children. Early marriage, by contrast, catches a person before economic independence, leading to poverty and debt.

3. Physical and mental maturity: By the appropriate age, the body is fully developed and the mind is mature enough to understand the responsibilities of married life. This reduces the risks of maternal and infant mortality, complications in pregnancy and childbirth, and mental stress in handling family matters.

4. Better planning of family size: Mature couples can take informed decisions about the number and spacing of children. This helps them use family planning methods properly, keep the family small, and invest more in the health and education of each child.

5. Time for preparation of children's future: When parents marry at the proper age, they are still young and energetic when their children need support for education and career building. They can guide and finance their children's future properly.

6. Social and emotional adjustment: Adequate time before marriage allows a person to develop social skills, patience and the ability to adjust with others, which makes married life harmonious and reduces the chance of separation or divorce.

Conclusion: Thus, marriage at an appropriate age gives a person sufficient time to complete education, build an occupation, save resources and attain physical and mental maturity. All these together prepare the ground for a secure and prosperous future life. Hence, the statement is justified.

Determinants of marriage before 20 years (child marriage)

1. Poverty and economic insecurity – Poor families, especially in rural areas, marry off daughters early to reduce the burden of feeding and educating them, and to avoid the cost of a large dowry. In many communities a younger bride also brings a smaller dowry, which pushes parents to arrange marriage before 20.

2. Illiteracy, ignorance and social customs – Lack of education means girls and their families are unaware of the legal age of marriage (20 years) and of the physical and mental harms of early marriage. Deep-rooted traditions, the belief that a girl's prestige lies in early marriage, and the fear of "losing family honour" if she remains unmarried keep the practice alive. Weak enforcement of the law and low status of women add to it.

Steps for prevention

1. Compulsory and free education for girls – Enforcing compulsory school education up to secondary level and providing scholarships, hostel facilities and mid-day meals reduce dropout rates. Educated girls are more aware of their rights and more likely to resist early marriage.

2. Strict enforcement of the law – The legal minimum age of marriage (20 years for both) should be strictly implemented. Marriage registration should be made compulsory, and parents, priests and matchmakers who arrange child marriage should be punished. Local bodies, police and women's groups should monitor and report such cases.

3. Awareness campaigns and empowerment of girls – Conducting awareness programmes through radio, television, street drama and local leaders about the harms of early marriage; involving mothers' groups, teachers and health workers; and providing skill development, employment and self-defence training to girls so that they become economically independent and confident to decide the timing of their own marriage.

Fertility is the actual reproductive performance (number of live births) of women or a population. The four main groups of determinants are:

1. Biological determinants: Age at puberty and menopause (length of reproductive span), fecundity, health and nutrition of the mother, and the capacity to conceive and carry a pregnancy. Better health usually raises fertility, while infertility and disease lower it.

2. Demographic determinants: Age at marriage, marital status, sex and age structure, mortality (especially infant mortality) and migration. Early and universal marriage lengthens the childbearing period and raises fertility; high child mortality encourages couples to have more children.

3. Socio-cultural determinants: Religion, traditions, preference for sons, family size norms, caste or ethnicity, and the status of women. Where a son is strongly preferred, couples continue having children until a son is born.

4. Economic determinants: Income, occupation, standard of living, cost of child rearing and the value of children as labour. Poor farming families often see children as helpers and old-age security, so fertility is higher; in richer, urban families it is usually lower.

Education, family planning use and government policy also act through these four groups.