The challenge of keeping Nepalese girls in school | Emma Reynolds | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/sep/16/nepal-challenge-keeping-girls-in-school?intcmp=122
Caste and gender remain the major barriers to education. If you are a girl from a Dalit or an indigenous family, you are unlikely to go to school or complete primary education.
Keeping girls in school beyond puberty is nevertheless a major challenge. As the mothers’ committee of a primary school in the Rupandehi district of Nepal’s flatlands told me, girls’ education is not a priority for many families. Their daughters are often needed to work in the fields and at home. Many are married at an early age. At the same school, I met two thirteen-year-old married schoolgirls. I doubt that they will ever see the inside of a secondary school classroom.
Child marriage is not the only problem. Chaupadi – a practice in which girls face restrictions during menstruation – is widespread, even in Kathmandu.