Empower women

The other day, the Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare disclosed that the government has drafted a new "law" to curb women-related violence across the country including girl trafficking. This disclosure no doubt sends a new message to the victims of social atrocities that the country’s concern for justice extends to women as well. Many a time, human rights and women’s rights groups have criticized the government for its passive response to the brutal treatment and repression of women both at home and at the work place. Also, the minister’s disclosure indicates the government is more concerned about actually empowering women than merely making a show of interest in the problem. However, will the government be able to correct the mistakes in the Civil Code that directly undermine women’s rights? Has it realized the necessity of family courts to deal with domestic violence? How confidently can the government overturn traditional customs, if it feels these customs have denied women their basic rights? What are the measures to be taken to raise the women’s literacy rate and, at the same time, to prevent pregnancy-related deaths also? These are a few questions that remain unanswered.

Statistics show that 90 percent of deliveries in Nepal are performed at home and about 40 percent of all pregnancies are risky affairs. No wonder the country’s maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. This unfortunate state of affairs can be mostly attributed to the dismal health infrastructure, particularly the maternity facilities which leave much to be desired. Life expectancy for women is lower than that for men, something unusual in the world, and women engaged in agricultural labor are paid less than their male co-workers. More than sixty percent of women remain illiterate and only 17 percent of girls have access to secondary education. The reason for this lopsided picture is that the present judicial system, which is directly derived from the Civil Code of 1963, does not treat women on par with men. This is the result of the age-old tradition that reflects the subordinate status of women in our society.

Any attempt to improve the situation must necessarily take a multi-dimensional approach. For it has become clear that reducing the high rates of mortality and illiteracy calls for much more than just having medical and educational facilities in place. Rather, it has to do with improving the overall status of women in the country. This, however, will not be possible unless and until we recognize women’s contribution to the household as well as to the national economy. Improving women’s status will not be possible without empowering them not only legally but also through policies that are specifically aimed at providing them with the right opportunities.

Cost of university education in UK

By Ronald Nash

In my first article, I described some of the features of university study in Britain which may attract Nepali students. In this second article I deal with issues of cost. These are quite high, and scholarships are only available in limited cases (on which the British Council can advise). However the costs of tuition and accommodation can be offset by employment, which students are now permitted to undertake.

Most degree courses in England are for three years full-time study, though there are some variations. Some specialised subjects, by contrast, have longer study courses, for example, medicine takes 5-6 years and architecture 3-5 years; though both of these courses include 6 months to one year’s work placement.

Tuition fees: Average annual tuition fees across the United Kingdom are in the region of 7,000 pounds sterling (roughly Nepali rupees 750,000) for humanities and social sciences including management subjects; 9,000 pounds (Nepali rupees 950,000) for science subjects including engineering, architecture and computer studies; and around 16,500 pounds (1 million 750,000 Nepali rupees) for veterinary sciences and medicine.

The differences come in because of the amount of technical equipment and support required for the short specialised subjects. The actual fee varies according to the specific institution, and some universities and colleges are significantly more expensive than the averages quoted above. These include, for example, Imperial College London, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Edinburgh University and some of the other colleges in London University. Tuition is obviously not the sole cost. Students have to contend with many other local cost factors, including accommodation, food, transport, books and clothing as well as others. The costs will depend in part on where in the UK the student chooses to live and study. We judge, very roughly, that living costs in the most expensive parts of England (London, the south, Oxford, Cambridge) are in the region of 8,000 pounds annually, whereas costs in other parts of England as well as in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may be in the range of 6,700 pounds.

Employment: These costs can be offset, to some extent, by the newly adjusted regulations which allow overseas students to work and earn during their period of study. In broad terms, although there are certain conditions, the student is permitted to work up to 20 hours a week in term time and full time in the vacations. The minimum wage in the UK is 3.50 pound (NRs 350) per hour, and many students who work in the catering, retail and other sectors earn more. If we assume 30 weeks a year part-time work and 20 full-time, calculating at the minimum wage a student might earn in the order of 5,000 pounds per year. Many of course earn considerably more.

If we take a three- year course in business studies or hotel management with a tuition fee of 7,000 pound per year in, say, the English Midlands, the total cost over 3 years could be estimated at 3x (tuition+local costs) or roughly 42,000 pounds; whereas the student might be able to offset this with 15,000 pounds of earnings or more.

It is germane to note, in comparing costs with other countries that some of these might involve courses of 4 rather than 3 for the particular course, thus increasing the cost to the parent and delaying the time before a young person can return to Nepal to take up full time employment.

(The author is British ambassador)

Festival of colour and vigour

By C B Dahal

For the whole of last week everyone, especially girls, dreaded walking along the streets of Kathmandu. ‘Lolas’- balloons filled with water (dirtier the merrier) seem to fly from nowhere, and leave them drenched and dripping. Many bashful maidens suffered to remain cooped up at home for whole week fearing a barrage of ‘lolas’.

Nepalis seems to love celebrating ‘imported’ events like Valentine's Day, Rakhi and Holi in real earnest. All the events are good in the sense that they highlight certain social aspects. But the Nepali mentality seems more prone to adopt the ‘hooliganism’ associated with them.

To make things clear, let’s see what Holi is all about and why it is celebrated.

There are many myths associated with Holi, celebrated every year on the full moon day of the month of Falgun. The one that give it its name concerns Holika, who being immune to death by fire had connived with her brother Hiranyakasepu to immolate herself along with Prahlad. Prince Prahlad survived unscathed but the fire consumed Holika herself. This is the Holika that is burnt the night before Holi as the triumph of good over evil.

There is however another social aspect to it. The night before the bonfire - the symbolic burning of Holika - could possibly have been a way of clearing away winter debris and making ready for the spring sowing.

Next morning, ‘gulal’ is smeared on the idol of Krishna, deemed as the ultimate lover among his ‘gopis’, a bunch of beautiful women Krishna forever seems to be chasing (or is it the other way round). And, yet this icon of love seeks out only his Radha, the epitome of the freshness of youth amidst all its playfulness. Without Krishna and his lover Radha there can be no Holi.

Another mythological association of Holi is with the celebration of the death of Pootna - the demon woman who had tried to kill Krishna by feeding him on her breast smeared with poison. The effigy of Pootna burnt the night before signifies the death of Pootna (who also typifies winter and darkness).

This is where the colours come in. Holi is supposed to be an exuberant show of goodwill and cheer. The colour play amidst the sprinkling or shower of coloured powder follows. And when this is mixed with water it is anything but awful drench.

Smearing of colours on friends and dear ones is the basic idea of Holi. Normally, the fun is limited within your own circle. But, somehow, we go around in the streets or become vigilantes on rows of balconies, armed with tonnes of colours and balloons and big syringes filled with coloured water to drench everyone and everybody. Holi has its own images and flavours across India also (Nepalis are late entrants to it). While the bonfire takes place everywhere, another thing common is the depletion of tons and tons of sweets and ‘lassi’ (curd shake?) smeared with ‘bhang’ (hashish). ‘Bom Bhole’ is the universal cry as each glass of ‘lassi’ flows down the gullet.

Holi’s closest cultural affinity with the West’s is possibly Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Holi should be played with colours and celebrated amidst friendship and merriment, just as Halloween is done in the West. Holi is also reminiscent of Thanksgiving and Christmas inasmuch as all these festivals are celebrated with one’s own kith and kin - never with strangers. After all, people all over the world cherish the same dreams and desires, no matter how narrow or broad the boundaries. So, in Nepal (particularly in Kathmandu) let's play holy as we should- in a more civilised way, without giving a harrowing time to those who don’t want to be a part of it.

Happy Holi to all!

Media : The absent majority

By Pratyoush Onta

In my last column, I argued that there are several structural characteristics of Nepali media that bear upon its potential as a vibrant force for the democratization of Nepali society. These include spatial concentration of production in Kathmandu, minority representation in the work force, ownership pattern, and educational attainment of the media personnel. Previously, I elaborated on the Kathmandu-centric nature of our media and made some suggestions regarding how Kathmandu’s monopoly over nationally significant media could be broken. In this essay, I discuss minority representation in the work force. By the term ‘minority’, I indicate the disproportionate absence of women and members of specific caste and ethnic communities - namely, dalits, and janajatis - in the mainstream media work force in Nepal. These mutually non-exclusive categories constitute a majority of Nepal’s population, but their representatives are absent in the newsrooms and management of mainstream media.

Journalists in Nepal tend to be overwhelmingly male and from the Bahun, Chhetri and Newar (BCN) caste groups. The percentage of women reporters and editors, both in print and electronic media, continues to be small. Surveys done in the past have indicated that women constitute about 15 percent of the work force in print editorial departments. However a recent survey has suggested that this number is even smaller. In the second half of 2000, a team of researchers from the Kathmandu-based Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD) did a survey of 114 print publications in the Kathmandu Valley and 22 other cities of Nepal. CSRD researchers found out that women constitute about five percent of the workforce in the editorial department (which the survey construed as consisting of all editors, reporters, desk and layout staff). Similarly, women constitute less than five percent of the regular columnists. Amongst top management positions (constituted by the chairman, managing director, director, circulation chief and marketing chief), a few women head marketing and circulation departments but they constitute a tiny percentage of their overall workforce cohort. Hence, despite much talk about "gender and development" for the last twenty years, the owners of most media organizations have done very little to increase the number of women in their editorial and management staff. Some feminist organizations (such as Sancharika Samuha and Asmita) have succeeded, to a certain extent, to put examples of pro-women analysis in the mainstream media through print feature service or radio programming. But even their best effort has not been enough to effectively address the disproportionate absence of women in all media organizations.

Similarly, one rarely finds members of non-BCN groups in the editorial or management departments of mainstream media. In the 104 mainstream publications surveyed by CSRD researchers (10 of the 114 publications were omitted in this part of the survey because they were specialist dalit or janajati publications) dalits constituted less than two percent each of the staff of editorial and managerial departments, and less than one percent among regular columnists. Janajatis constituted about 14 percent of the editorial staff, 22 percent of the managerial staff and 12 percent of the columnists. But if you exclude upper caste Newars (all Newars have been included in the janajati group) from these calculations, all the three statistics regarding the participation of ethnic Nepalis in mainstream print media would be around 10 percent or less. Hence we can conclude that there is very little participation of women (half of the estimated 23 million population), dalits (about 20 percent), and ethnic minorities (about 40 percent) in print media in Nepal. Although we were unable to do similar surveys for the case of radio and television in Nepal, suggestive data generated for dalits and janajatis in radio show that the scenario is not very different in the electronic media.

The overwhelming presence of Bahun, Chhetri and Newar males in the world of Nepali media means that concerns and voices of women, dalits and janajatis are not adequately represented in all media products and institutions.

These mutually non-exclusive categories of the population constitute a substantial majority of the 23 million Nepalis. In other words, the demographic constitution of Nepali media institutions does not correspond even remotely with that of Nepali society. What is even worse is that most mainstream media institutions and elected officials of professional bodies of journalists do not even consider this absence of the majority to be a problem! Hence it is proper to ask how effectively media can champion the cause of democracy in Nepal when it has thus far failed to address the lack of democratic representation in its own organizations. This structural trait limits the functional capacity of our media institutions to be a full pro-democratic force.

So what is the solution? Since access to mainstream media is often very difficult or denied, feminists and activists promoting dalit and janajati causes have often found it easier to start their own alternative low-circulation publications, mostly magazines. Even though they have not been able to publish a consolidated minority-agenda setting publication thus far, these alternative publications transgress the dominant public domain with minority concerns. They also provide on the job training to minority media persons.

In addition, to challenge the BCN status quo, activists will have to target mainstream media organizations for their shameful demographic record and force them to alter their recruitment policy. At the same time, more women, dalits and janajatis must be encouraged to join media as a profession. Appropriate training, either on the job or prior to it, must be a part of the package of facilitation. Concerned activists should engage with media training programs regarding recruitment of trainees from the under represented communities. They will also have to build up appropriate networks to facilitate the entry of non-BCN rookies into the media profession. Some form of positive discrimination on their behalf in educational institutions must be supported. The latter will help prepare competent media personnel from the under represented groups and the former will increase their access to relevant work environments.