After decades of raising voices against discrimination, the women’s rights activists can feel a relief that they are now being heard more than ever before. Whether in the priority given to women’s issues in the government’s forward-looking agenda or higher level of receptivity about their problems among the conservative society, everybody is acknowledging that Nepalese women have been unfairly dealt with. Still, the situation of women in Nepal is dismal. High maternal mortality, strange social discriminations, and lesser literacy – all suggest that problems run very deep. Worse, the ongoing conflict has hurt the women most. As such, the women’s movement in Nepal has a long way to go before it can take rest

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

On the eve of 94th International Women’s Day when womenfolk around the world were preparing to celebrate, a 40-year-old lady of Hangdewa VDC in eastern hilly district of Taplejung died due to lack of basic health service compounded by restrictions of movement due to conflict situation in Nepal.

Damanta Bhandari went into labor on the night of March 6 but could not be brought to hospital, which was far away, on time. There was lack of maternity facility and absence of qualified health personnel at the local health post of the VDC. And she could not be transported to the hospital immediately because there was night-time curfew in place, imposed to control security situation.

When on March 7 she was brought to the hospital premises, it was already too late. Bhandari died of ‘excessive bleeding’ at the gate of the hospital.

This news report was hardly noticed when leading dailies carried it on March 8 – the International Women’s Rights Day. But, it fully highlighted the current situation of Nepalese women.

While their counterparts in western countries and even in neighboring region are making big strides in every fields, majority of Nepalese women are dying due to lack of most basic of health care and caught between a frustrating conflict and social discrimination.

Health And Education

The basic indicators of health and education status of women are very dismal indeed. The rate of progress has been very slow in most cases. “With this rate of progress we might not be able to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as laid by the United Nations and approved by scores of countries around the world including Nepal,” said Bandana Rana, president of Sancharika Samuha, a women’s rights advocacy group.

Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, a member of National Planning Commission (NPC), at a recent program, had conceded that Nepal would need to double its efforts if it is to meet the MDGs – a comprehensive goals targeted for economic as well as social improvement of countries of the world.

Around 12 Nepalese women die every day while giving birth. A 1998 Nepalese government study on maternal mortality and morbidity reports a total of 4478 maternal deaths per year, or one death every two hours. This figure places Nepal among the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in South Asia and the world,” states the fact file. According to Census 2001, the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) per 100,000 delivery was 539 in 1991. Still it was a vast improvement from the figure of 850 in 1981.

The Census 2001 also showed that the life expectancy of women has increased gradually to reach 60.7 years in 2001 (against 60.1 years of men). Again, this is a vast improvement from the female life expectancy of 53.5 years in 1991 (against 55 years of men) and 48.1 years in 1981 (against 50.9 years of men). The Gender Development Index (GDI) in 2001 was 0.470 against 0.312 in 1991. Likewise, the Gender Empowerment Ratio (GEM) was 0.385 in 2001 up from 0.191 in 1991. The Tenth Plan of the government aims to raise GDI to 0.55 and GEM to 0.5.

“It is a matter of fact that women of Nepal suffer from various kinds of discrimination, which has led to this miserable state of their health,” said Babita Basnet, a prominent women’s rights activist and general secretary of Sancharika Samuha.

The threat of HIV/AIDS is also another dangerous problem facing women. As the disease is making swift inroads into society, women stand to lose most. “Girls and women are biologically more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS but once they contract HIV/AIDS, they not only face biological death but they also suffer social death. People with HIV/AIDS are often believed to have deserved what has happened by doing something wrong,” said Matthew Kahane, UN Resident Coordinator, at a program organized on the theme of “Gender and HIV/AIDS” on the occasion of the women’s day.

“The current trends of the spread of HIV/AIDS indicate that people with lower social and economic status are affected the most. The current situation of conflict and internal displacement in the country further aggravates people’s vulnerability to serious risks of exploitation and unseen vulnerabilities. Key among them is the vulnerability to HIV/AIDS,” said Kahane.

In the education front, half a million children of school-going age are still out of school and over 60 percent of them are girls. The overall literacy for female is 42.5 percent compared to 65.1 percent for male in 2001 (up from 24.7 and 54.1 for female and male respectively in 1991). For every 100 literate male, there are now 65.8 literate females – up from 46.3 in 1991 and 33.8 in 1981.

“In comparative analysis, only women’s life expectancy seems to indicate a significant progress towards gender equity. In literacy and education, gender disparities are decreasing very slowly. Girl’s enrolment has not attended parity even at the primary level. The number of women with School Leaving Certificate (SLC) and higher degrees still constitute only 43 for every 100 men with such qualifications,” writes Dr. Meena Acharya, a prominent women’s rights advocate in her recent book titled “Efforts At Promotion of Women in Nepal”.

“Similarly, the number of women with graduate and higher degrees, is still only 23 to 100 men with such degrees. What is more the ratio has increased only marginally compared to the 1991 figure of 22.5. The female/male ratio of full-time students is still only 43:57. Further, these achievements are very unequally distributed as between the regions, rural and urban areas, among the castes and various ethic groups,” Dr. Acharya further writes.

Even government officials acknowledge the deep-rooted problems. “The government is aware of the situation of women and is prepared to work with civil society and donors towards improving their condition,” said Shashi Kanta Mainali, Secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, at a program organized to mark the women’s day.

“We are doing whatever we can to support and help women depending on the resources that we have. We will leave no stone unturned in achieving improvement in their condition,” added Shyam Sundar Sharma, joint secretary at the Ministry.

Dr. Pushpa Shrestha, the first-ever female member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), who looks after the Health section at the commission said, “The NPC is committed in providing policy support and has given high priority to the issue of women’s health.”

Economic Condition

The story is not different when it comes to the economic condition of women. When the condition of their health and education is so depressing, it is but natural that they will be lagging far behind in economic condition.

A recent report prepared for the National Women’s Commission, on the eve of the International Women’s Day, has revealed startling discrimination on women ownership of assets and properties in this conflict-torn and impoverished Himalayan Kingdom.

The report prepared after studying the situation in 68 out of total 75 districts in the country and by analyzing the data revealed by the Census 2001 exposes the extremely skewed nature of property distribution in this predominantly conservative Kingdom.

The report revealed that only 0.78 percent of houses were actually (legally) owned by women – that is just over three women out of 500 had houses in their name. Only 5.25 percent of women had land ownership certificate in their name. Likewise, only 5.45 percent of women owned their livestock.

Around 17 percent of women had some kind of properties/assets in their name like ornaments, jewelries, houses, lands etc. Only 16 percent of women had a regular income. The civil service had 8 percent and private sector 8 percent of women workforce.

“The report has only vindicated what we have been saying about the status of women in Nepal,” said chairperson of National Women’s Commission (NWC) Dr. Durga Pokharel.

According to Census 2001, the sex ratio (males per 100 females) in Nepal, which has the total population of over 23.4 million, is 99.8. Among the women population, 55.3 were economically active. In fact, they occupy 43 percent in the total economically active population – 48 percent in agriculture sector and 34 percent in non-agriculture sector.

“But the high percentage of economically active women could be misleading. Most of these women work within the periphery of their households and do not earn income. They work in fields, tend to household chores, which do not pay but by definition are economically active,” said Dr. Pokharel.

Sabitri Bista is a housewife living in Kalanki area of Kathmandu. “I do not know why our works are not considered to be worth any respect. Though I work hard all the day long in my family, my mother-in-law and father-in-law only respect my husband who works in a private company. Perhaps only money counts,” Bista quipped.

Take the case of another lady named Phul Maya Tamang. “We work in the fields all the day. We engage in household chores like cooking, feeding the kids, washing clothes, fetching water, feeding cattle and so on. But at the end of the day, it is only men who go outside to earn money that get all the respect,” said Tamang, a native of Sindhupalchowk, a district that is on the north-eastern side of Kathmandu. Tamang, 55, currently maintains a mobile shop in the streets of Kathmandu earning around US$ 4 per day selling cigarettes, candies etc. “After I began to earn money, I now get some respect from my husband who works in a brick-kiln in Kathmandu.”

There are hundreds of thousands of women who have no opportunity to prove their capability like Tamang. “They are suffering silently,” said Tamang.

Women rights activists believe that the poor property rights of Nepalese women is a major reason for their financial as well as social depravation. “As they are economically dependant, their other rights including health, education as well as employment is also neglected,” said Sharu Joshi Shrestha, program coordinator at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Nepal Field Office, which has been actively advocating for non-discriminatory rights to properties for women . She added that due to lack of rights on properties and assets, women are treated discriminatorily and, therefore, has resulted in abysmal situation in their education and health, among others.

“There are still dozens of legal provisions that are discriminatory to women,” said Sapana Pradhan Malla, president of Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD). “Nepalese women are suppressed under these discriminatory laws.”

Agrees Dr. Pokharel. “We have a problem right from the constitution. It is absurd that even in 21st century, citizenship certificate is provided to only those people whose father or husband are known. Mothers and wives do not count. Tens of thousands of eligible people have been denied citizenship because the whereabouts of their fathers are unknown,” she said. The Citizenship laws of Nepal state that citizenship based on inheritance can be provided only on the basis of fathers (in case of children) or husbands (in case of married women).

In fact, there has been a widely reported case of Badinis of western Nepal. Badini are the women of far western Nepal who have been traditionally working as prostitutes to support their family. As many badini women get pregnant, their children fail to get citizenship if the mother is unable to identify the father of the child. District administration officers have frequently stated that they are unable to provide citizenship based on the existing legal provisions to children whose fathers are unknown.

Due to intense pressure from the women rights activists, the government had introduced 11th amendment to the Civil Code, in 2002, bringing about major changes in inheritance laws.

The new amendment recognized the daughters’ birth-right to the property of her ancestors at par with sons’. Earlier daughters were entitled to parental property only if they remained unmarried till the age of 35. Besides, the parents are now liable to take care of their daughters just like their sons and provide them with education and health care. But the women rights activists still complain that because of the provision forcing daughters to return their share of property once they get married, it is incomplete.

“However, we do call it progressive,” said Shrestha. “Rights of divorcees and widows have been recognized by the amendment.” Activists believe that this new amendment will bring about gradual change in the distribution of property, which is too skewed in favor of male population at present.

There are also some skeptics. “There is no ground to believe that women’s access to land and other economic resources has increased in the last 20-25 years as their legal rights over property and inheritance has not changed much during this period. Even the recently promulgated amendment to the law on property rights of women does not change her access to parental property substantially. The law, however, does provide easier access to property in her afinal household,” writes Dr. Meena Acharya in her book.

According to Acharya, the Per Capita Purchasing Power Parity Ratio (Female to male) is 0.50. Only 0.8 percent of female had ownership of all house, land and livestock with 82.9 percent having none.

Mohini Maharjan, president of an NGO called Mahila Margadarshan Sangh, said, “Women must be fully taken on board and participated in all spheres of our life. Excluding them will result in dire consequences.”

Of late, the Nepalese government has shown signs of improving its gender track record. “We have decided to provide 20 percent reservation to women in civil service. We hope this will improve their situation to a certain extent,” said government spokesperson and Local Development Minister Kamal Thapa.

Conclusion

The conditions of overwhelming majority of women, particularly rural women, are yet to improve substantially. However, the women’s rights movement has been able to achieve quite a lot in the past decade.

Whether it is in the sector of awareness or policy influence, they have been successful to a certain extent. Because of their relentless advocacy, women’s issues are now at the limelight. On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has come up with an action plan to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The action plan has separate time-bound programs to improve the health, education as well as employment participation of women.

Their role was crucial in influencing the government to amend Civil Code allowing a certain degree of economic right to women as well as in many other legal changes that were effected in the period.

But like Bandana Rana says, ‘there is a long way to go’. The poor MMR, the dismal education statistics and poor representation in various fields of life means that the country will have to work tirelessly in order to address the concerns of half of its population. And without the participation and representation of the half of its population, Nepal can never expect to move on the path towards peace and prosperity.