Incident Reports

Couple missing and entire family forcefully displaced following an inter-caste marriage

2014-09-01

Lumbini, Kapilbastu, Suddhodhan

Kapilvastu,Antar jaatiya vivah gareka yugal harayeko ra sampurn parivaar visthapit huna badhya. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a couple are missing and their family members have been forcibly displaced after an inter-caste marriage since 27^th July 2014. This incident had taken place in Labani, Village Development Committee-5, Kapilvastu in Nepal where Binaya Kumar Harijan, 21 years old belonging to the Dalit community and Sita Chaudhari Tharu 19 years, had married and are since been reported missing.* ** *They have been last seen at 6 a.m. on the 27^th July 2014. Binaya's family believes that the inter-caste marriage is the cause for this disappearance and suspect the couple may have even been killed. According to information received the Binaya's family has left their home and the village in fear of their lives, and has been hiding ever since, in order to avert further attacks. Nepal's laws stipulate the ages of 18 for a woman and 21 for a man to have the right to marry without adult consent. However inter-caste marriages with persons belonging to the Dalit community are not accepted by the Nepalese society due to the strong prevalence of the caste system and hence rampant discrimination against people of so called lower castes.

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