Education and women’s uplift

By PADMA DEVKOTA

Woman, her cultural make and her political longings have featured significantly in academic and intellectual discussions of the latter half of the twentieth century. Today, gender issues cover a larger ground than that of the narrower political feminism. Both these approaches have pinpointed some commonalties in the problems of women all over the world and have even proposed socio-linguistic, psychological and other solutions to these problems. All the theorizing and intellectual debates essentially underscore the necessity of awakening to the realities of a woman’s existence, the acceptance of female potentials and the need for a concerted effort to achieve women’s rights.

Feminism as a political movement is a historical reaction in the West to a patriarchal tradition that dominated "the weaker sex." The same tradition exploited children too. British coal mines once hired both women and children as cheap labour not because they worked less than men did but because they were considered to be physically weaker than them. Similarly, feminism is a reaction to a notion that goes all the way back to Aristotle’s Greece: the notion of women as inferior beings, like cattle, with an inferior soul. It is also a reaction to the Western belief that women were fragile and sentimental beings who were intellectually weaker than men. This, and not the lack of education, seemed to explain why they could not write any serious work or take part in intellectual discussions. It is a reaction to the tradition that treated them as mere wombs, dolls and playthings while whimsically adoring them as angels or denouncing them as witches.

Not all societies have treated women in the same way. Madan Mani Dixit’s Bhumi Sukta argues the existence of an ancient matriarchal civilization, which changed over the years. However, this is hardly a consolation when we look at the present day situation in Nepal. Here in the capital, women and children hammer away at solid rock to earn their living. Many girls still do not go to school because of their parents. Women-trafficking is still an unchecked and booming business. The weak dowry still ends the life of many a new bride in one way or the other. Many women still believe that they should not read holy scriptures such as the Chandi. Like Hiramaya Thing, they are still beaten to death by their own family that believes them to be witches or, like Marani Devi, they survive the physical ordeal and the social ignominy with a bitterness that is life-long. The list could go on and on.

These are specific instances of social evils with special focus on women. The focus could shift to children, to men, to the social and economic low class such as the Dalits and the Kamaiyas, and to many other sectors of marginalized human existence. Fortunately, Nepal has never been hit with the double force of "being Black and female" in the southern cotton fields of America. This too is hardly any consolation for the women of Nepal. Similarly, although racism exists in Nepal too, it has never existed to the extent that a whole nation is segregated in ghettoes and made to wear badges on their breast whenever they go out. People in Nepal have never been thought of as animals without a soul on the basis of the colour of their skin.

Our problem is quite different. Our religious indoctrination has made the beyond more real than the here and the now even as our religious practices have deteriorated over the ages because of our intellectual dependence on the ersatz intellectuals we have chosen as our priests. We have never really tolerated the priestess except at home where she would be under good control. Our religious beliefs and superstitions have spilled over abundantly into our daily practices to provide norms of social conduct. We choose to dictate, to memorize, to repeat rather than to experiment, to adopt, to change. Once the spiritual side is taken care of, we are too complacent as individuals to worry about mundane affairs that require intellectual adventures, which are opposed anyway to the great metaphysical nothing beyond. We rule over ourselves with sentiments and feelings and lord it over our women and children with the same and call it love.

Our reality is quite different. Our men are just as exploited as our women and sometimes even more so because of illiteracy and ignorance. Our national battle cannot be only against male domination since it has also to be against corruption and exploitation of all kinds. For this, we need an education that will awaken us to the need for not just women’s uplift but also that of men and children.

Interestingly, almost half a century ago, educationists such as Sardar Rudraraj Pandey, Kaiser Bahadur K.C., and Dr. Hugh B. Wood who jointly edited Education in Nepal: A Report of the Nepal National Education Committee, a Nepali publication of the College of Education in 1956, were well aware of the need for women’s education. They write,

"It is meaningless to dream of any sort of development in a country where there is no women’s education. Man too remains half-educated as long as his woman is not educated. In Nepal, it is more important to emphasize woman’s education than man’s education. All evils such as family quarrels, bad feelings between bothers, and social superstitious practices exist because of the absence of women’s education" (72). They argue that in a country where more women than men are born, women’s education must receive top priority. Aware too that the condition of education was depressing to the women of their time, they were nonetheless unable to escape their traditional male/female binary thinking when they discussed the development of an educational system that would "develop the soul (âtmâ) of women so that their mind will incline towards family life, upbringing of children, fine arts and music" (72). They are very explicit in their insistence that exercise for the boy and song and dance for the girl should be made compulsory.

Today, the situation is different. Many women are educated and even well-placed in various decision-making positions. The division between man’s work and woman’s work is beginning to break down. Woman in her role as mechanic, taxi driver, rickshaw puller, manager, parliamentarian, etc. fills the news. With this gradual emergence of women in various spheres of social activity, despite all optimism, we still have to ask several questions. First, to what extent has the male/female binary thought been broken down among the vast majority of illiterate and semi-educated population of Nepal? Second, how shall we define exploitation of women? Third, are the political slogans of the educated females really directed towards consciousness raising or towards individual self-promotion as women in the third world?

The answer to the first question, I believe, is quite obvious. The nation has a long way to go in terms of breaking down conservative concepts of male superiority over the female. The urban-rurban-rural gradation of human awareness yet feels too real in Nepal. To break this down, consciousness-raising programs by feminists and humanists must supplement a well-considered education.

However, one has also to understand what it is that one is attacking. To do so, exploitation of women (or, is it male domination we are talking of?) has to be defined in clearer and more rational terms than mere slogans can provide. Does it mean traditional forced labour in the kitchen and the cowsheds, exploitation of the nude female body in media advertisements, lack of equal educational and other opportunities, male control of female freedom of self-expression or of movement, or all of these? And such clear statements have to be made in the context of the Nepali national culture and its visions of the future.

Since many NGOs have sprouted and starved for innovative approaches to the problem of women in Nepal, one is led to ask the third question. One need express no surprise when a human being seeks to take advantage of a favourable situation. If it was once a double curse to be a Black and a woman in the United States, it is a double blessing to be a feminist and a citizen of a third world for many women from a good social and economic background today. Could it be because of this that women’s right to parental property receives more serious media coverage than their right to work and education? The first seeks dependence, the latter independence. The first says women too have wants; the second says women too have human potentials. At present, the nation needs (men and) women who have more potentials than wants.

Rewriting history ?

By TILAK POKHAREL

Once there was a time when a citizen shot dead used to hit the headlines in the Nepalese media. And now the number of people killed in the shoot-out decides its placement. In the textbooks at school, children give great importance to incidents in history when hardly a dozen people were killed. But now the times have so changed that it gets very least importance even in the daily newspapers when a dozen citizens are gunned down.

The outlawed Maoists are busy making history in the name of changing the real history of the country by uprooting the constitutional monarchy, while the government is making another history in the name of counter-insurgency operations. If this is to go on for long time, maybe our children will be the luckiest citizens in the world to have exceptional history books.

There are some other possibilities still in making our children the luckiest. The political parties which are responsible for making such plight for the country are themselves busy making history of another kind. Talking about the ruling Nepali Congress, its leaders every six months start playing the game of power, which has made the country most unstable. Simply, they are going to amend the history textbooks by making the country most unstable.

Another side of history and talk-of-the-town is that almost every cabinet is historic in Nepal. Jumboness has been the principle idiosyncrasy of Nepalese cabinets. Four dozens ministers in a cabinet is no longer new in the country where 40 per cent of the people are living in absolute poverty. But, we should take pride in it because the tradition is still on. Second significant characteristic of our cabinet is that most of the ministers get the coveted post only if they prove to be ahead in the race of corruption and bureaucracy.

The number of opposition parties itself is history in Nepal. On top of that, the leaders of the main opposition CPN-UML are always busy in splitting the party. But this has been the age-old tradition of Nepalese communist parties. They sometimes make a drama by reuniting. More interesting still is that the communist parties sometimes forge alliances for mass movements, which in Nepal are significantly meant for vandalising state property and creating unrest. Anyway, they are into making history of a different kind.

Maybe it could be a new buzzword for foreigners visiting Nepal for the first time when they come to hear the word – bandh (shutdown). But, it has been a tradition among the opposition parties of Nepal. They are just writing a peculiar history by calling for more and more bandhs .

This might be enough by way of describing the history makers. But the history makers may not know that they themselves have become history by blackening the existing history.

But finally, the Nepali citizens, though residing in an "extremely" democratic country cannot freely raise their voice and move freely in their land, have become history for people dwelling in the other
parts of the globe. Isn’t it interesting?

Proven international initiatives and internal policies

By BINOD P BISTA

A momentous change is taking place the world over, more so in The Third Millennium. Globalization of economies and markets has been one of the major instruments of change. While one can engage in several prolonged arguments over the motive of globalization, it has, undoubtedly, changed the way of doing business by everyone everywhere. Preceding globalization, global campaign for democratic governance and observation of human rights by each country, mainly started by the developed nations of the west, had swept the world. These two important events have now become a permanent phenomenon in most countries. Other international issues such as ‘sustainable development’, ‘social development’, ‘population and development’ and many others relating to safety and security matters, too, have left a distinct mark in the conduct of domestic policies and programmes of all nations.

The latest trend of events shows that the once simple task, be it economic management, good governance or social development, is being compounded by the addition of other tasks to it, related however indirectly, but falling under the category of an "integrated approach". These days, globalization means not only an active interaction of economic agents in a worldwide level, but it also appears to entail environment, labour standards and other social issues that are the subjects of current discussion in the World Trade Organization. In a similar vein, democratic governance is to be understood by reformed practices, mostly in developing countries, not only in free and fair elections, transparency and accountability of the government but also in adherence to international agreements and initiatives reached on environment, children and women issues, role of civil society in development and the like. The list is burgeoning almost every day.

The recently concluded meeting of the Nepal Development Forum 2002 assigns Nepal and her government with at least eight tasks defined as priority areas: macro-economic stability, civil service reform, anti-corruption initiatives, decentralization, financial sector reform, private sector development, aid effectiveness and the role of civil society in development. These were the commitments that Nepal made during NDF 2000 held in Paris. In exchange for following these reform agenda prepared by the government, Nepal is promised US $ 500 million annually to meet the resource gap for the next three years, now built under the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The donor community also stressed that the "reform agenda would call for enduring political commitment and stability, respect for human rights, building broad consensus and deeper partnerships".

Nepal is an old hand in these tasks. She has been dependent on massive external assistance, over fifteen years now, to carry on with her annual budget programmes. NDF 2000/2002 assignments were preceded by such other similar tasks as structural reform, privatization, economic liberalization and so on. A simple review of the outcome of the earlier tasks performed by Nepal in the privatization area, though fully desirable at the time and beyond, does not provide any ground to be optimistic. It is, in fact, difficult to understand the performance of the three public sector companies, namely Bansbari leather and shoes factory, Bhrikuti paper mills and Harisiddhi brick and tile factory, privatized under the then programme. Two of the companies were not financially weak at the time of hand over to private hands. Within few years of the privatization exercise, these two manufacturing units stopped producing (Bansbari leather and shoes facility was uprooted in no time) and the third one has become a sick project now. More and more public companies, that were given to private businessmen in very soft terms, seem to have fared no better than under the public management by way of productivity measure. Some of these companies, on a management contract, were handed back to government by the private businesses, which had incurred more liabilities, including wages and salaries unpaid to labourers and staff while in private hands.

When confronted to respond to America’s role and obligations to global environmental issues, particularly the Kyoto Protocol the leader of the most powerful and prosperous nation said something like this: "Can’t put Americans out of work; America will certainly take care of the environment issues as and when the economy provides resources for it." The importance of President Bush’s statement can’t be overemphasized. The message says it all. As a democratic nation, your first duty is to your people, and they (people) are happy when they have meaningful jobs. Global environmental issues are important, and they will be given full consideration. However, the additional resources that are required to fulfil the obligations of Kyoto Protocol (Specific commitment reached by and between State Parties of United Nations Convention on Climate Change: as of 8 November 2001, 186 members have either acceded or ratified the convention; by the same date 42 parties have ratified or acceded to Kyoto Protocol) must come from the economy itself. And it will not be done at the cost of American jobs. This is also a grand lesson in self- reliance policy.

In fact, this purposeful action by the key representative of the American people unfolded an important lesson on ‘prioritisation exercise based on cost-benefit analysis’. If the American President feels that the cost of either decommissioning or bringing technological change to the existing manufacturing and other facilities in America is far too high (financially as well as socially) in order to be in line with the most European nations for reducing green house gasses and other pollutants, can developing countries such as Nepal take such action? Surprisingly, yes. One of the cement plants, namely Himal Cement Factory was decommissioned recently. It didn’t occur, however, due to Nepal’s obligation to one of the treaties on environment. Nor, was there any significant international pressure to do away with a plant that not only helped Nepal’s feeble effort in import substitution but also provided the much-needed employment to her rapidly growing population.

Apart from the labourers and management staff whose livelihood depended on the successful running of the cement plant, the multiplier effect from just one tiny plant in a nation where newer factories are hard to come by must have been enormous. Granted that the air pollution emitted by the factory had not only produced a smoky cloud over Chovar (a location on way to Dakshinkali, famous for animal sacrifices), but it would have also harmed the health of the residents living sparsely in the area, but weren’t there other choices? Such as containing pollutants through electrostatic precipitator or by importing improved technology or building another road or rehabilitating residents away from harm’s way? What it required was a clear cut ‘cost-benefit analysis’ that had to support the present course of action fully. Anything short of that gives no authority to anyone to dismantle a factory that provided livelihood to many families.

Proponents of clean environment had made enough noise. So had the travel/tour operators who wanted to take the tourists through a cleaner route to Dakshinkali. But, how much did the general public understand the evils of bad environment and tourists’ distaste? When they see a well running factory put to ground, affecting jobs, disrupting the schooling of their children, stopping the manufacturing of construction material called cement (‘Himal Cement’ was once a pride of Nepal), displacement of commercial activities from the vicinity, how can they either love the foreigners who influenced their government, or local representatives who were responsible to bring about this change? The prime stakeholders have been missed out completely in the privatization process.

The reasons for failure of the early exercise may have satisfied many stakeholders except one- the general public. Since good governance is an integral part of democratic governance, which further defines transparency and public accountability as central to good governance, complete facts and figures must be made public without any delay.

(To be concluded...)