Law & Civil Society

THE citizens of Nepal did not enjoy human rights during the dark days of the Panchayat system. The voice of the political parties, the press and the people had been muzzled and there was hardly any one who could speak up even when there were blatant rights violations. But fortunately, after the re-ushering in of democracy in the Kingdom, the Constitution guaranteed all fundamental rights to the people. Now, after ten years of democracy, it has been felt that, legal measures alone are not enough to ensure that the human rights of the people are not violated. A stark example of this is manifested through the ongoing Maoist insurgency, in which more than one thousand people have died and many displaced. Just the other day, it was informed at an inter-action programme that the members of the recently formed Human Rights Commission met a group of 240 people, who were now residing in temporary shelters in Kathmandu after being displaced from their homes because of the insurgency. They had arrived in Kathmandu after trekking for 28 long days and were now living on handouts.

It is indeed sad that innocent people are suffering unnecessarily because of the terror unleashed by some people who are unwilling to come into the constitutional fold. But it is not only from the insurgents that the poor villagers, mostly in the Maoist affected areas are being victimised. There have been reports of how security personnel belonging to the government too have violated the fundamental rights of the people. Perhaps keeping such unsavoury incidents in mind, even the members of the newly formed Commission admitted that the human rights situation in the country was not satisfactory. And this, when there is a free and democratic environment in the nation and it has already ratified 16 different international human rights conventions. One member of the Commission rightly pointed out that legislation only would not be enough to stop human rights violations. Yes, the government must punish those found guilty of committing atrocities, but at the same time the society as a whole must also create moral pressure so that any would be rights violators would be highly discouraged. It can be hoped that the currently formed Human Rights Commission will be able to keep a sharp eye on any violations that takes place and pressure the government to initiate tough action against the culprits. Only thus can the people live a life of dignity, as guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

Health For Women

AT A time when women representatives from 188 nations including Nepal are meeting under the aeigis of the United Nations and assessing the progress made five years after the Women’s International Conference in Beijing, rural Nepalese women are far from feeling any improvements in their life standards. They are facing the same problems which they were facing before the Beijing Meet. In fact, Nepalese women, a majority of whom live in the villages and are illiterate, have been deprived of even the basic facilities such as health, education and opportunities for their development. Till date most rural women in the country are found to be confined to preparing meal, rearing children and looking after the cattle or fetching fuelwood, fodder and water from incredibly long distances and difficult places. Their chances of breaking free from the traditional bondage of society to look out for better opportunities are minimal in most cases. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 grants equal rights to both men and women, but in practice it is not so. Especially when it comes to securing the health services, women are likely to remain ailing rather than visiting hospitals because that involves time, energy and money which they cannot afford to spend on their treatment. As a result, every year a large number of rural women die of various curable and preventable diseases.

It is reported that the maternal mortality rate of Nepal is higher compared to other neighbouring countries in the region. Such high maternal mortality occurs in the far-flung villages and is often attributed to the absence of health facilities for women’s pre-natal and post-natal care. Better health services, including those related with maternity care, are usually limited to urban centres, with Kathmandu receiving the biggest share. The poor rural farm-women who cannot afford to come to the urban centres for these facilities have no option but to rely on the locally available traditional mid-wives or the local health posts, if they are there, that often lack needed equipment and qualified manpower. Though efforts have been made to the direction of reducing the high maternal mortality in the country, they are not effective and sufficient. To reduce the mortality rate to a desired level, urgent measures have to be initiated to equip the local health posts in each VDC with trained manpower and necessary equipment. Before that can be done, the traditional mid-wives need to be trained to handle the delivery cases and the expectant women themselves have to be educated about how to save theirs and their babies’ lives .