It has been a long-standing tradition in her village for girls to be married off young. Often just as a teenager. The pressures of marriage were present for Bhawana since she started menstruating. She had seen her village sisters get married off while still in school.
Lekbeshi Municipality, her home, is a small hamlet with 31710 individuals in the foothills of western Nepal. Bhawana had witnessed her village get better road connections; the literacy rate had increased to about 82 per cent over the years. But these changes have not translated to an awareness that it was wrong to marry off girls at such a young age. No one in the village seems to know or care that the legal age of marriage in Nepal is 20 years for women. Bhawana’s fate was also sealed. Like others, life too would be limited to childrearing and domestic chores.
But through the unwavering support from EDGE club, she managed to escape the trap of early marriage. EDGE stands for English and Digital for Girls’ Education, a project implemented by the British Council. The Programme intends to increase access to various social networks and foster collaboration among Lekbeshi youth to learn and exercise their fundamental rights.
When joining the EDGE club, she was a very nervous student and struggled with basic lessons. She had a supportive group of peers, and together, they learned functional skills like English language and Microsoft Word. These skills helped her realize that she did not have to spend her life becoming dependent on a husband. She also learned about the pitfalls of addiction and the necessity of online safety. She shed her nervousness slowly and became a confident orator among her peers. “After joining the EDGE club, I underwent a significant transformation. Through the collaborative teaching and learning among the peers of 12 club members, I learnt a lot,” she says.
In Grade 11, she was chosen to work as a Peer Group Leader (PGL), the role of facilitator for the peers. She is a coordinator at four different Community Learning Centers in Lekbeshi and Gurbakot Municipality. “Acquiring valuable skills boosted my confidence, making me believe I could make a difference,” she says with a smile.
