KATHMANDU. Sept 16: Located just 50 kilometers away from the capital city Kathmandu, the village Simle falls in Lalitpur, one of the three major districts that fall in Kathmandu Valley. Simle is one of the many villages around the valley struggling for basic sustenance. The people here depend on the scarce agricultural produce of the village. Due to dire shortage of water, very few crops can be grown on the barren hills of Simle, and the villagers here can afford to rear only a few cattle.
The day-to-day life at Simle is one full of adversity. Poverty, barren and difficult landscape, and lack of potable water create so many hardships in the day to day life of the villagers that children’s education becomes a luxury they simply can’t afford. In such a scenario, child marriage is rampant, with young girls bearing children at ages as low as 16. Most of the youths have migrated abroad or moved to the cities in search of jobs leaving the village in the hands of the children and elderly.