Empowering Women
Some Obstacles

By Uttam Maharjan

Men and women are equal in the eyes of the Creator. But as things stand, they are as different as chalk and cheese. It is this chalk-and-cheese situation that has been hampering women’s development for decades, if not centuries.

Deplorable

The condition of women in Nepal is very deplorable. The country has a society built upon the edifice of patriarchy, where males have overwhelming dominion over females.

Although sons and daughters are not discriminated against by law, the Nepalese society prejudices the latter in favour of the former. This is because the filial misconceptions have been inveterate from time immemorial. One of the reasons is that daughters are considered mere objects to be married off, whereas sons are considered the props of the parents in their old age and only sons are allowed by Hinduism to perform the last rites and other obsequies.

It need not be reiterated that the country consists of more rural areas where agricultural and allied activities from the basis of livelihood for the people. In the rural areas, a very negligible number of girls vis-à-vis their male counterparts are got off to school because the people are opposed to the idea of imparting education to girls.

The rate of illiteracy among women is higher than that of men and most women are even ignorant of their rights. Ironically, most women have no say in decision-making, even if the decisions obviously concern them. Such as those concerning reproductive matters.

Being born a woman has certain disadvantages. It is the women who have to struggle everywhere in life for their protection. A woman may fall victim to domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, mental torture and trafficking. Domestic violence is often confined to homes and so very infrequently comes out into the open. Similarly, most rape cases go unnoticed for fear of losing the victims’ prestige. Even if a rape victim tries to seek redress from law, she has to undergo further victimisation at the hands of medical and legal professionals.

In the same vein, thousands of women end up in the brothels of India and other countries every year and they are destined to live a hellish life there. As per the survey conducted in 1997 by Saathi, an NGO concerned with sheltering domestic violence victims, 87 per cent of women fall victim to domestic violence, 30 per cent are rape victims and 93 per cent are subjected to mental torture. This situation is very appalling and staggering indeed.

The predicament of women in the country may be imputed to discriminatory laws, lack of appropriate laws, weak implementation of international laws against violence and so on. So women’s empowerment has become the catchword nowadays. For women’s empowerment, education and awareness are a must. With this reality in view, the government has initiated women awakening and income generating programmes. The cynosure of the programmes is the women themselves, with the leadership lying with them. This would motivate the women to take interest in the programmes.

The modus operandi of the programmes is such that groups of a certain number of women are formed and loans are granted to them without any mortgage but under their collective guarantee. With the loans, the women can engage in income generating activities. So such programmes aim at awakening women economically, socially and politically, thus raising their standard of living and helping them out of economic and social backwaters.

The government considers women the main target group of poverty alleviation and human resources development. There is the Women Agricultural Division under the Ministry of Agriculture, which is responsible for arranging for informal education for women, improving women’s health, reducing maternal mortality and guaranteeing safe motherhood.

The main obstacles to women’s empowerment are illiteracy and dependence on their male counterparts to such an extent that even their reproductive rights are often violated. So for women’s uplift, the male-dominated inegalitarian societal set-up should be dismantled, women’s participation in the mainstream of development should be enhanced and women’s education should be made gender-sensitive. Further, programmes should be initiated and implemented on a topographical basis so that more and more rural women may be co-opted into the mainstream of national development. Moreover, the government, political parties, NGOs, the media and civil society should work hand in hand to empower women.

Keeping in view the importance of women’s empowerment, which has reached a crescendo over the last many years, the fourth world conference on women was held in Beijing in 1995 AD. The country expressed its commitment to 12 critical areas of concern enumerated in the Beijing Platform of Action. The Platform of Action is considered a precondition for all-round development of women from all strata of society. Also, the Platform binds a nation to adopt strategies of involving women in the mainstream of national development.

In 1997, the country formulated the National Action Plan for all 12 critical areas of concern and developed a prototype for positive portrayal of women in the media. Also, the Multi-Sectoral Women Empowerment National Programme-2054 BS, was drawn up pursuant to the Beijing commitment. The National Action Plan should be strictly implemented not only in urban centres but also in rural areas, where the need of the plan is exigent.

Over the five years since the Beijing Conference, some positive advances have been made by the government. The Ministry of Women has been established, a national policy against girl trafficking has been formulated, a women’s cell in the police service has been set up and awareness raising programmes have been initiated. These activities may be considered major breakthroughs in the field of women’s uplift.

A follow-up meeting was held some months back in New York. The meeting concentrated on reviewing the fulfilment of the Beijing Commitment and the role of governments and civil society. The UN, at the meeting, recommended that as girl trafficking and sexploitation of women would violate women’s rights, governments should work together to extirpate such evils by 2005 AD and that adherence to women’s rights should be a prerequisite for gender equality, development and peace.

Awareness

For women’s empowerment to be stronger, the efforts of the government and other organizations only are not adequate. Unless women themselves try to be aware of their rights and to be self-dependent, the much touted women’s empowerment will remain a cry in the wilderness. So it is women’s awareness that counts much more than anything else.

New Strategies For Aged People

By Prem L. Chitrakar

Increasing population of older people has been becoming a major issue for the government, International organisations, non-governmental organisations and communities in Nepal.

According to 1991 census, more than 4.7 per cent people of Nepal belong to the aged group of 60 and 74 years.

Expectation

The number of the aged people above 75 years have been 184 thousand according to the same census and it is expected to be 234 thousand by the year 2001. According to the population projections of Nepal prepared by the National Planning Commission this group of people and their number would be 310 thousand by the year 2011.

Aging is cyclical process. All the people of the world whether he/she is rich or poor or learned or foolish have to pass through this clyclical process in their life cycle.

It is a human nature that aged people everywhere have been aspiring to live in a suitable environment, where they are taken care of, well nourished and have adequate latitude to develop their own personalities and to engage in creative works.

Of the 225 thousand elderly people (aged more than 75 years) in Nepal how many of them have been well taken care of by their family members ? How many of them are living in Homes for Old People and how many of them have been leading a hopeless life? Statistics on these areas are awfully limited owing to the lack of studies, undertaken in the country.

In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated 1st October as the International Day of Older Persons. In 1991, the General Assembly adopted the principles for older Persons.

Older persons should have access to food, water, shelter, clothing, health care, work and other income generating opportunities, education, training and a life in safe environment.

They should remain integrated into community life and participate actively in the formulation of policies, affecting their well-being.

They should have access to social and legal services and the health care so that they can maintain an optimum level of physical, mental and emotional well being. This should include full respect for dignity, beliefs, needs and privacy.

Older persons should have access to educational, cultural, spiritual, and recreational resources and be able to develop their full potential.

Older persons should be able to live in dignity and security, be free of exploitation and physical or mental abuse and be treated fairly regardless of age, gender and racial or ethnic background.

The above mentioned principles are highly essential in promoting the welfare of the older persons in Nepal. But they have not been duly considered in Nepal, yet.

The rapid growth in the numbers of older persons world wide is creating an unprecedented global demographic revolution. During the 20th century, improvements in hygiene and water supply and control of infectious diseases have greatly reduced the risk of premature death. Consequently the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years have been increased dramatically. In 1950, for example, there were only about 200 million persons above 60 throughout the world. Now there are more than 550 million persons over 60 and by 2025, the number of people over 60s is expected to reach 1.2 billion.

Under these situation meeting the demands of the older persons have been a daunting challenges.

In trying to meet the challenges of the increasing aging people all over the world, the United Nations General Assembly decided in 1992 to observe the International Year of Older Persons in 1999.

The main objectives of the year were to raise awareness of the fast changing demographic picture of older persons world wide, stimulate debate, encourage research and information exchange and promote action strategies.

Last year many institutions and NGO’s undertook many activities to celebrate the International Year of the Older Persons 1999 in Nepal. Most of the activities undertaken were concentrated in acknowledging the good works or services provided to older persons either by NGO’s or by "Old Aged Home". While observing the International Year of the Older Persons 1999. The activities initiated were not based on the International Plan of Action on Aging, adopted by the World Assembly on Aging in Vienna in 1982.

However, the observations of the International Year of the Older Persons 1999 had produced a vast array of initiatives and events organised by member countries of the United Nations, the United Nations System, Inter-governmental organisations and non-governmental organisations-scattered all over the world.

The General Assembly of the United Nations had decided to convene the Second World Assembly on Aging in 2002 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the First-World Assembly on Aging held in Vienna in 1982.

The Second World Assembly however, will be devoted to the overall review of the outcome of the first-world Assembly as well as to the adoption of a revised plan of Action and a long-term strategy on aging.

Specific Issues

Under this situation, Nepal should focus on three specific issues as new strategy options. They are undertaken a study to assess the situation of older persons living in all the agro-ecological regions of the country, develop a new strategy options to promote the welfare of the aging people, based on Vienna International Plan of Action and participate in the Second World Assembly which is going to be held in Spain in April, 2002 to develop a new strategy options for Nepal.