 |
| |
|
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
|
|
Nobody’s refugees: The shame of Bhutan , Nepal and India
By Kuldip Nayar, INDIA
No school bus stops here to pick up children. No postman comes here to deliver the mail. Not even a curious visitor turns up to know anything about them.
They are refugees from Bhutan who are sitting in protest in front of the United Nations House at Kathmandu. Most of them, about 150,000, which constitute one-sixth of Bhutan's population, are spread all over Nepal and India without much of shelter or succour. The UN gives most of them two square meals.
"That is the maximum we can do," says UNHCR representative Abraham. "It is, however, criminal to keep them in camps for so long."
Reminiscent of the Afghan camps in Pakistan, over the years the children are born into refugee households that do not know other realities. The camps have become a base for pro-democracy dissent activity against the present Bhutanese establishment. The refugees are not radicals. They have never questioned the monarchy which is a history in the country, Nepal, where they have sought refuge. But they do want to have a future.
It was not that any green pasture which attracted them. They were forced to leave their lands and homes.
Royal Bhutan government found them too insistent on the question of democracy and human rights, too restive against the king's occupation of large tracts of land. They still want to go back to the same setup, confident to overcome the difficulties in Bhutan and work for the country's development. But neither Bhutan, nor any foreign nation, is bothered about their future.
A law was passed by what was known parliament overnight — some 16 years ago — to declare Bhutanese of Nepal origin non-citizens. They were born in Bhutan. Their fathers and forefathers had lived there for hundreds of years. Yet they were bundled out. The Bhutanese officials forced many to sign a document of voluntary migration. About one lakh of them who could trace their ancestry to Nepal took shelter in the country, already in dire economic straits. They petitioned to Kathmandu which took up the case with Bhutan.
After negotiations spread over months, Bhutan agreed to take back 600 families. Even they await repatriation. The American government has volunteered to absorb 60,000 of them in the US.
The proposal has, however, been met with conflicting responses. Many Bhutanese refugee leaders feel that while the offer was welcome, the US should be exerting pressure on Bhutan to deepen democracy by taking back its nationals and restoring their dignity and right to be full citizenship of that country.
Others feel that the proposal is not a long-term solution to the problem and could, in fact, act as a destabilising factor within Bhutan and among the refugees. The US ambassador in Nepal, James F Moriority, said it was a human problem which required immediate attention.
He didn't react to the plea to remonstrate with Bhutan except to say: "We are in touch with India." New Delhi should have been active. What is happening in Bhutan or the manner in which one and a half lakh citizens were pushed out should have made India to take some steps.
An authoritarian regime which is solely dependent on it for defence should have been pressured to get refugees back to their homes. But New Delhi is afraid to even ask questions lest Bhutan should be annoyed and tilt towards the next door China.
New Delhi should, however, recall how Bhutan sealed its border in 1950 when the Tibetans were running away for refuge elsewhere. It cannot afford to go near China.
Bhutan, on the other hand, knows from its experience that India has never given it any room for grievance. In fact, New Delhi is revising the existing treaty for deleting any curb that Bhutan may be feeling. Diplomatically and economically, the two countries are close to each other. Therefore, India's role becomes all the more important.
The people or organisations with which I interacted at Kathmandu expressed the urgent need for India to take an active role in resolving the refugees' issue.
With its tradition of multi-party democracy, its pluralistic society and its role as a leading economic power in the region, India is seen the only power in the region which could and should involve itself more closely in the issue and urge Bhutan to sit with its community in exile to resolve the issue. But refugees have a difficult experience.
T.N. Rizal, leader of Bhutanese refugees, said that even though he pinned hopes on India, he was convinced that it would not step in to help. His own experience was not a happy one. When he reached India as a refugee, he was put in jail. The authorities threatened him either to leave India or spend the rest of his life in jail. He preferred to travel to Nepal because it allowed him to live freely and propagate the cause of refugees.
A report by South Asian Human Rights (SAHR) has put the whole thing in perspective: "A major human rights deficit in the South Asian region is the prolonged exile of Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal and India. Both host governments have often ruthlessly cooperated with the Bhutanese government in forced repatriation, arrest or denial of freedom of association and expression to the refugees. This tri-governmental alliance has demobilised the Bhutanese refugee population. Their visibility is low and all attempted solutions lack coherence."
My fear is that one of the consequences of allowing the problem to fester is the possibility that dissatisfaction and unrest among the refugees could lead, over time, to fomenting militant sentiments.
This could create new conflicts in the region. India could experience the negative fallout of this situation. The Naxalites' strongholds are not too distant from the refugee camps. Contact between the two is said to have been established on a regular basis.
Some day the militants may shut down the camps and move out. Bhutan would be more exposed to dangers than today. New Delhi will also get involved, willy-nilly.
It is time that it develops South Asia as a region that values and strengthens human rights and democracy.
[Courtesy: Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka.]
Project Will Hit India’s Iron Ore Exports: Indian Perspective
Big mineral find made China build Tibet rail
Saibal Dasgupta, INDIA
What motivated China to spend a colossal $3.7 billion on the Tibet railway? At least one of the secret reasons has now tumbled out. Chinese geologists have disclosed having found 16 large copper, lead, zinc, iron ore and, possibly, crude oil deposits along the Qinghai-Tibet railway. The deposits promise to reduce China’s dependence on minerals from several countries, including India.
Critics had questioned China’s claim that development of Tibet was the sole purpose behind the investment, which is not likely to be realized through income from passenger traffic. Some of the reasons cited were Beijing’s need to integrate Tibet with the Chinese mainland and improve military capabilities along the Himalayan border touching India, Nepal and Myanmar.
The deposits are expected to yield 18 million tonnes of copper and 10 million tonnes of lead and zinc, Meng Xianlai, director of the China Geological Survey, has announced. China is starved of mineral resources to feed its burgeoning industry and spends several billion dollars a year on imports.
Chinese steel mills are heavily dependent on imported iron ore, a large portion of which is sent from India. In fact, iron ore is the most important export from India, accounting for more than 50% of Indian exports to China. The CGS has now announced that it has found estimated reserves of 760 million tonnes of highgrade iron ore along the rail line in the Kunglun mountains on the western Qinghai-Tibet plateau and the southern Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.
Though it was known that China has been prospecting for minerals in Tibet, the nature and size of mineral deposits was largely unknown. This is what makes the latest revelation by the China Geological Survey astonishing.
[Courtesy: Phayul online]
The Economics of Decentralization in Nepal
Dr. Mohan Man Sainju, Nepal
Introduction
With the revival of multi-party democracy and the promulgation of the democratic constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, the time is ripe to take a great leap forward in development which is a process of political, economic and social change in the country. Once again in the history of Nepal political change has focused on “people” both as instruments and as the objects of change. The directive principles of the state enunciated in the constitution of Nepal clearly call for the equitable distribution of economic gain on the basis of social justice by preventing the concentration of economic resources in the hands of a limited section of the society and by preventing economic exploitation of any class or individual. Most importantly, it calls for providing opportunities for the maximum participation of people in the governance of the country on the basis of decentralization.
The importance of decentralization is much more heightened by what we see in the current drama of development. Some of the issues of national significance are as follows:
1. The country is continually facing the prevalence of widespread poverty. The official estimates revel that 49 percent of the population live in absolute poverty and if concrete steps are not taken to alleviate this problem the number and the percentage will increase in the face of a still higher rate of population growth. This means almost half of the population neither has access to the basic minimum human needs nor are involved in the mainstream of the development process.
2. The poverty problem in the country is much more aggravated by the presence of massive underemployment or a surplus labor problem in the country. The estimates show that 63 percent man days in the country is not engaged in productive employment. These surplus man days particularly in the agricultural sector indicate the state of our agriculture production system on the one hand and show almost stagnation in savings, investment and income functions on the other. This clearly shows the potential of utilizing the huge labor surplus for increasing agricultural production and also for reviving non farm productive activities.
3. Despite the heavy policy rhetoric and at times even the flow of resources from the centre to the rural or local areas, rural development programs are yet to show their impact. In many instances they end up benefiting the small segment of population by their skewed distribution and not benefiting those for whom they were intended thus making the poor poorer. This situation has not helped restructure rural economy in order to create necessary conditions for industrialization and the growth of the non-farm sector.
4. Financial constraints have always been a problem in the development scene. This has led us to heavily rely on foreign aid which still plays an important role. Even now over 60 percent of our development budget depends on resources that come from outside the country in the form of grants or loan. Recent trends show a gradual reduction in grant assistance and increased share of loan in external resources. Domestically, despite heavy reliance on foreign aid we are not able to reduce deficit financing as a means to narrow the gap between revenue and expenditure since the revenue surplus is dwindling.
The issues identified above are only some concrete examples of why a serious effort towards decentralization is sine qua non. It is abundantly clear that the top down approach has not worked in the past and has no prospects for now. It has become adequately clear that any serious efforts towards decentralization require a value based political context which believes in people and people’s power. The wave of democratization in the whole world and the subsequent political changes in Nepal potentially provides a conducive climate for serious implementation of decentralization policy. As people are considered both the instruments and the object of change and also as democracy provide opportunities for organizations with accountability, we can except a real participatory process to take its root for development.
Decentralization means the real transfer of authority and responsibility. It also means the absolute involvement of people in the governance of the country at the local levels. It is expected that this process will not only help accelerate local development based on people’s aspirations but will also help create an institutional base for democracy and a democratic culture. The very fact that Nepal has over 4000 local level units (over 4000 Village Development Committees, 36 Town Development Committees and 75 District Development Committees) which can be entrusted with the responsibility and authority becomes an added advantage to begin with at a time most of the developing countries are struggling to devise a mechanism of creating local level organizations for such purposes.
The first step towards the implementation of the decentralization policy would be the decentralized planning process which means planning from below or the grassroots. The users or the beneficiaries would be the ones to be involved in the planning, implementation and even evaluation process. This would require clear cut guidelines relating to what local level planning entails. Unlike the past it would be essential to transfer all development activities that fall under the District, Town or Village levels. This will help avoid the existing contradiction of posting civil servants of the Central Ministries to districts and making them accountable to their parental organizations instead of the real transfer of responsibility and authority in the matters of local level development activities.
Subsequent to the planning process a decentralization policy would require real transfer of resources and the authority to mobilize local resources in order to effectively undertake development responsibility at all local level. In deciding how much resources are to be allocated to the local levels, several considerations can be of use such as: (a) viability of development potential, (b) population, (c) population below the poverty line, (d) the area, and (e) remoteness. An innovative approach will have to be devised as to how foreign assistance could be of help to local initiatives and undertakings. Unlike the past bureaucratic approach, foreign assistance must be highly selective so that it does not spoil local initiatives and benefits the intended target population.
The mobilization of local resources is the critical feature of decentralized development process and should be given high priority in implementation. This should include mobilization of manpower, locally available technology and know-how, and of course material. The need for proper accounting of the expenses has always been a very sensitive issue and of course an issue of public importance. Hence the account system at the local level need not only be audited regularly but the whole accounting system must be open for public review so that credibility is not eroded and corruption has minimum chances to flourish.
The technical and administrative manpower has an important role in making any policy implementation a success. If loyalty of the bureaucracy is a prerequisite to an effective and efficient administration, decentralized administrative mechanism also requires a loyal, honest and efficient cadre of manpower at the local level. Merely posting them in the district is not enough. Such a manpower cadre has to be under the control of the local administration and accountable to the elected officials at the local level. A lesson has to be learnt from the post where dual responsibility and multi-master system failed to deliver intended results.
Similarly the role of the private sector and non-governmental organizations also play an important role in the areas of local development. With the fresh wave of liberalization and open economic policy such possibilities have become much more imminent. The openness that came with democracy has encouraged many governmental organizations to emerge and expand their activities at the local level. Whereas these are conducive and potentially useful for an effective implementation of a decentralization policy, the lack of coordination with all these activities could harm the very process of effective mobilization of local resources and the intention to benefit the general populace.
In a nutshell, decentralization which conceives change in the political and economic attitude is a tool or strategy which has the potentials of bringing about a rapid economic growth with wider participation of the people. Moreover this primarily depends on the potential strength of the people at the local level and their knowledge, know-how, resources and ingenuity. Hence, the following hypotheses are suggested in order to bring about a radical but sustainable change in the development scene of the country.
Nepal is an agricultural country where over 80 percent of people depend on agriculture for their livelihood and where 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is contributed by the agricultural sector. In the absence of a developed industrial base a significant share of Nepal’s export earnings is bound to be dependent on agriculture and forest products. In such a situation if the rate of economic growth is to be accelerated there is no option but to mobilize millions of farmers in the rural areas. It is only with their mobilization that agricultural practices can be improved and gradually modernized. * This paper was presented at a National Seminar on Decentralization and Development in Nepal organized by NEFAS in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) on September 16, 1993. Excerpts only-ed.
What is the present status of Nepali women in Nepal ?
Prof. Shanta Thapaliya , Nepal
A person (woman) irrespective of his/her age, sex, caste, race, religion and creed must be able to enjoy freedoms, full human rights and peace in the society. He/she must have the right to justice. He/she must be able to live as a dignified human being. The right to freedoms, human rights, peace and justice are basic ideals for human dignity
In order to put these ideals into practice, the United Nations identified areas, which directly affected the status of women - especially women's status starting from her home to the neighbourhood, society, community and nation as a whole. This also included the socio-cultural influences and variables interacting with women - influences upon the illiterate and well-educated women, problems faced by the professional women in administrative, technical, judicial, legal sectors and completion in male-dominated finance and business areas.
The lack of access to health and education, economic hardship in managing the household, long hours of un-paid domestic work, unclean, dusty and dirty work environment, frequent and unwanted child births, social injustices, superstitious beliefs and domestic violence were identified as the major causes which effected the status of women. Consequently the United Nations came up with strategies to improve the quality of women’s life starting from her childhood to a full-fledged individual member of the society. The main focus was given on right to equality, health, education and justice. The previous efforts, though well intentioned, have lacked effectiveness, precisely because they did not deal with the root cause of the problem.
The United Nations identified the empowerment of women as an important factor for achieving a sustainable peaceful and preposterous home and society. The UN launched various strategies for women’s full empowerment. The new principles and approaches like Women-in-Development (WID) Women-And-Development (WAD) and Gender-And-Development (GAD) were implemented to empower women.
The UN came up with a strong principle of WID in 1960s. It was based on welfare approach and women were to be considered as a contributory partner in the development process. The WID approach saw women as a sub-group who had to have special treatment, separately from the mainstream development processes. Even before the launching of WID programme, the necessity and importance of women’s contribution to the development of the society was recognized, since women related projects and programmes were frequently organized in Nepal. .
In the subsequent phases, women and development (WAD) approach was launched in 1970s, which highlighted the need to include women in policy and to address the specific needs of women. The women of different streams and walks of life were to be integrated to various aspects of development under these principles of empowerment. But this phase failed to bring the women into the mainstream of development process and the principles merely turned to be a loud cry. The women still faced same problems, experienced hardships and violation of their basic rights. The society did not change and no qualitative improvement were brought to the lives of women
In the 1980s, the Gender and Development (GAD)' approach acknowledged that women cannot be seen in isolation and that development must focus on the interactive links and relationships between men and women. The GAD principles were to be implemented with a view focusing on the gender based inequality faced by the woman folk of the country. The gendered role of men and women became the target of attack. The provisions of UN Conventions and Declaration on rights of Women provided new thoughts that women are in no way inferior to men. This principle offered a right-based approach – for example men and women must be treated equally in terms of job opportunities and enjoyment of full human rights
But, even the GAD approach proved inadequate for dealing with women's disproportionate share of the human costs of ongoing development processes. In a real world where the impoverishment and displacement of women worldwide have reached crisis proportions, piecemeal approaches are not enough. Women no longer want half-measures such as ' inclusion', 'participation' and ' integration' in a system that is fundamentally inequitable.
As Nepal is a member of the United Nations, it has obligation to adhere to various International human rights standards and ensure the equality of women with men. The women must be given equal rights with men in education, jobs, access to health care, bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit and land ownership. Nepal ratified the CEDAW, CRC, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention of the Political Rights of Women and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Thus, Nepal is under obligation to implement the provisions and principles of the UN Conventions and Treaties to improve the quality of women’s lives. The CEDAW convention is a comprehensive document of civil, political, economic, social, cultural rights related to women. It prohibits any kind of discrimination between men and women.
It is not to say that there have been no efforts to empower women. Various efforts have been put forth to empower women. However, the benefits have not been able to percolate down to the society. Many people are still not aware of women’s rights.
The status of women compared to men is different in geographical regions (rural, urban, hill, mountain, terai) of the country. There are also varying practices among different classes, castes, ethnicity, tribes, dalits etc. The status of women as a single group does not provide the ideas of all the women in the country. It is not possible to measure the status of women on one parallel line. But, the woman as a whole are trying to be empowered, wanting to know more, practicing their inborn legal rights, feeling competent with their male counterparts, wanting to occupy positions, trying to make decisions within the family etc. The Women have been able to successfully amend the national code (Muluki Ain) and establish their inheritance right to property along with their brothers. Further, they have also been successful to amend the laws relating to marriage, divorce, rape and abortion etc. For the first time, a woman was able to exercise her reproductive rights.
Although the 2001 census report reveals women to be far behind the males in terms of education, employment, in decision making positions, in land ownerships, business etc. Women still have no control over economic and physical resources and lagging behind in terms of political power. The outlook of society towards women has not been changed to the desired extent. They are still suffering from economic crisis. They are still subjected to rape, trafficking and various kinds of domestic violence. They have no access to health and the domestic workloads are still on the shoulders of women.
2. I am a modern legal practitioner, a law professor and an activist. I do believe that a women is a power in herself. When we study Hindu philosophy, we find many instances of good and positive thinking towards women. But side-by-side, we also find negative perception against women. They are subjected to inhuman superstitious and evil practices Child marriage is rooted in the society. This has devalued the importance of a woman’s dignity and deprives her human rights. She has been treated as a subordinate body of a man. She has been subjected to the hard and orthodox Brahamihical system, which blatantly impinges her human rights. Widows are deprived of their right to live with dignity. She is considered as a machine for producing children. She is always referred to as fair sex and weaker sex etc. After a long time now we are talking about the empowerment of women, in fact, women is a power.
3 In fact lots of positive and far reaching initiatives have been undertaken for empowerment of women in the country.
The Ministry of Women and Children and Social Welfare and the National Commission on Women have been formed.
National plan of action on CEDAW has been initiated. The Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2001) has accepted the women’s mainstreaming in development process. Gender and development are integrated into sector wise policy and programmes of the country Commitment has been made in the Ninth Five Year Plan to review the existing legislation on women and enact appropriate laws in accordance with the international norms.
Amendment of the Local Self-Government Act with 20% reservation for women is an affirmative action in the direction of women’s empowerment This has helped approximately 40, 000 women’s participation in the local government. Labour legislation provides maternity leave and breast-feeding break.
However the prevailing strong patriarchal culture and social system, which emphasize traditional roles of women, prove major hindrances to implement the provisions of international Conventions, Treaties and even domestic laws for the empowerment of women. The basic fault lies with the traditional outlook of society towards women.
4. The National Code (Muluki Ain) Eleventh Amendment Act was passed in BS 2058. It took six long years for women rights and human rights activists to get this Amendment enacted. Its provisions are beginning to be implemented smoothly. Till now its impact has been very good. People have accepted the Amendment positively. They started to treat their daughters better than earlier. Parents are encouraging their daughters to have a good education too.
5. A section of traditional Nepali media has always downplayed women’s rights in the past. In fact, they underestimated the potential of women. This was evinced during the movement for women’s property rights. This section of media always highlighted only the negative aspects of inheritance right to property. Traditions, social values, customs and the culture have accorded women a subordinate to man. The patriarchal society of Nepal considers the male as a super manager of the home, society and the nation. This section of media always viewed women in stereotype traditional role. This is a sorry state of affairs, they failed to realize that time has been changed. If given an opportunity a housewife can also rule the state. There have been strong women rulers in South Asian region- Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan all had strong and capable women Prime Ministers and Presidents. There is no reason to believe that why Nepali women cannot occupy the position of their South Asian sisters, if they are provided with equal opportunity. Unhealthy writing against woman in editorial degrades the personality of the editor who is a special man.
