Poor reproductive health plagues Musahar women

Early marriage is the driving force behind adolescent pregnancy and serious reproductive health problems.

Jaikal Devi Sada from Maintole in Sonama Rural Municipality-7 got married when she was all of 14. The criminalisation of child marriage in the country hasn’t stopped Musahar parents here to marry off their children that young. When she gave birth to her first daughter, Jaikal was 15. Now she is 27 and a mother of five children—the youngest is just three years old. But Jaikal does not have the resources to feed herself and her children. Most days, the family goes to bed hungry, with the young children pestering their mother for food.