Of the 1,656 people who came to the hospital for maternity services from last July to December, 112 were under the age of 20.
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In the first six months of the current fiscal year, 112 adolescents under the age of 20 have come to Hetauda Hospital to give birth.
Of the 1,656 women who came to the hospital for maternity services from last July to Poush, 112 are under the age of 20.
Devaki Khatiwada, Nursing Coordinator of the Maternal and Child Department at Hetauda Hospital, said that teenage mothers from some wards of Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City, including Manahari, Bhimphedi, Bagmati, and Bakaiya Rural Municipality in Makawanpur, have come for maternity services. She informed that some 16/17-year-old girls even come to give birth to their second child.
The highest number of women who gave birth to children under the age of 20 at the hospital are 55 girls from Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City. Of these, 5 have given birth to their second child. After Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City, women from Makawanpurgadhi, Bakaiya, Manahari, and Bhimphedi Rural Municipality in Makawanpur have given birth to children under the age of 20.
Apart from Hetauda Hospital, which is run as a district hospital, maternity services are available in all nine municipalities of the district, so the number of women giving birth under the age of 20 is also significant in the health institutions in that area, according to health workers.
There is no plan to have children, take care of them, or provide guardianship to the teenage girls who come to the hospital to give birth before reaching the age of 20, said Dr. Ramkaji Maharjan, a women and maternity health specialist at Hetauda Hospital. ‘If the number of teenage girls who come to Hetauda Hospital to give birth is this high, how many will be in the birthing centers of Raksirang and Kailash rural municipalities?’ he said. Raksirang and Kailash rural municipalities have the highest number of child marriages in Makawanpur.
Even though the government has legally banned marriages under the age of 20 with the aim of reducing maternal mortality, child marriages continue in practice. Sub-section 1 of Section 173 of the Criminal Code of 2074 BS stipulates that a person shall not marry or cause to marry before the age of 20 years. Sub-section 2 of the Act states that a marriage contracted before the age of 20 years shall be automatically void. Sub-section 3 stipulates that a person who contracts or causes to marry before the age of 20 years shall be liable to imprisonment for three years and a fine of thirty thousand rupees.
The government has announced that it will end child marriage in the country by 2030. The Bagmati Province government has passed a policy and program to end child marriage in its province by 2078 BS, but it has not been implemented.
