In Jaimini Municipality, which is preparing to declare it child-friendly by the upcoming Ashar, 30 child marriages have been annulled this year alone. Some arranged marriages that are taking place before reaching the age of majority have been stopped, but runaway marriages have not been stopped.

Meera Sharma, head of the municipal education department, informed that 30 marriages have been annulled on the condition of marriage after reaching the age of majority. Parents and children who are preparing to get married have been included in the child-friendly campaign. Sharma says that even as the day of the child-friendly declaration approaches, the work of ending child marriage has become challenging.

According to Sharma, the evil practice of marrying at school age has made it difficult to meet the indicator. "We are stopping forced marriages by targeting the parents, but stopping runaway marriages is a challenge," Sharma said. "Despite trying to form child rights committees and mobilize committees against child marriage in the ward and toltol, we have not been able to make it zero." She said that it will be very difficult to complete the campaign to make the city child-free.

Similar difficulties are also faced in municipalities that have been declared child-friendly. Baglung Municipality, the district headquarters, was declared child-friendly on Magh 9, 2081. But here too, incidents of child marriage are being seen sporadically. The law has a provision that marriages cannot be done before the age of 20. But municipal education officer Dhan Prasad Pokharel said that people have been found getting married even at school age. "The child-friendly declaration is a campaign to correct some weaknesses and continue to meet the indicators," he said.

Galkot Municipality, which was declared child-friendly two years ago, has also faced the challenge of child marriage. Locals said that child marriage is taking place in some settlements here. Him Bahadur Bhandari, coordinator of the municipality's social development committee, said that despite the municipality's continuous initiatives, it has not been able to stop it. Along with marriage, children have also become addicted to smoking and drinking. Municipal Education Officer Shiva Khadka says that it is difficult to protect children from the work of transporting such things.

The indicator of a child-friendly city also mentions protecting children from addictions such as smoking and drinking. 'There is a problem with businessmen who sell cigarettes and alcohol to children,' Khadka said, 'It has not been possible to make the abuse from parents and other sectors zero.'

In Tamankhola Rural Municipality, Nisikhola Rural Municipality and Dhorpatan Municipality, child marriage can be seen in every settlement. Even in the meetings of the mother's group, people under the age of 20 are often found participating. Despite the problems with the main indicators, Jaimini has declared most of the wards within the municipality as child-friendly. There is a provision that a municipality can be declared child-friendly only after the 51 indicators specified in the Child-Friendly Local Governance 2068 BS are completed, and the Ministry of Social Development of the provincial government monitors and reports on the completion of the indicators.

The target is to meet the indicators for physical infrastructure at the local level that have been announced and will be announced with the internal budget. Most of the indicators for education and health have been completed. Deputy Mayor Harihar Sharma said that Jaimini has allocated a budget for the municipal-level children's park and started work. If sporadic child marriage cannot be ended, there is a high risk of failure in monitoring. There is no exact data on the number of cases of child marriage across the district.

The Nepal government has set a goal to declare the country child-friendly by 2087 BS. Baglung became the fourth child-friendly local government municipality in Gandaki Province. Earlier, Devchuli in Nawalpur, Bhirkot in Syangja, and Galkot in Baglung have become child-friendly, while Jaimini is set to declare it by Ashar.