COMMENT

Time running out

Time is gradually running out. No matter what Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi may be saying, the people are steadily losing faith in the ability of the government to maintain the law and order situation in the country. Last week’s barbaric killing of more than half a dozen policemen, including a well known Inspector from Lalitpur, and also innocent people in a village in Jajarkot, has rudely rattled the general populace. However, apart from the routine messages of condolence offered by the Home Minister and the Inspector General of Police, no concrete measures have been taken to either provide better arms and equipment for the police personnel at the war front, nor does anything seem to be happening to bring the Maoists to the table for talks. Yet, once more, while speaking at a programme organised by the Tarun Dal in Kathmandu on Monday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said that he will go to the Maoist affected districts with a basketful of development packages. But it is doubtful how much the people believe in his words now. They remember that Koirala had promised he will make maintaining law and order the top priority of his government, but in the past one month, the attacks of the Maoist have been even more ferocious and continuous.

The time has come to act now. Mere words will not instill confidence in the people, nor will it atone the ultimate sacrifice made by the brave policemen in the line of duty. Yes, there must be the presence of security forces in all areas of the Kingdom, so that the laws of the land are upheld. But at the same time, policemen cannot be made sitting ducks for the insurgents. What is the logic of stationing under-armed, under-strength and untrained policemen who cannot defend even their own outpost in such places where the insurgents are strong? How can they provide security to the people when they can’t defend themselves properly? It is like sending these policemen on a suicide mission. Doesn’t some person here in Kathmandu, flashing around with sirens blaring in shiny new Prados have to take moral responsibility for what happened in Jajarkot and many other places like that? Don’t they have even an iota of proprietary feelings for these men who are risking their lives at their behest? If the politicians and the top brass in the police don’t do something even after such ghastly events, then they could now face the wrath of not only the Maoists, but their own men in uniform as well.

Haunting questions

Massacre is always senseless. What can be achieved out of killing someone’s parent, sibling, life partner, child, friend, neighbour.....? Nothing.  Killing is not the solution to anything.  Killing another human being to make a point or to terrorise people is a downright despicable and cowardly act.

Even in war, prisoners or the already wounded are spared of their lives. The basic human rights is being violated here endlessly in Nepal today, in the Maoist war. The talk of negotiation between the government and the Maoists have been going on for a long time. With each spurt of violence and the headlines it makes, the people are jolted back to reality of what is taking place in the Maoist affected areas.  Once the news becomes stale, the valley and the decision makers seem to lull themselves into inaction yet again, only to be shaken up by the news of yet another mass murder or attack or confrontation.

The recent killings and bomb blasts in Jajarkot was yet another news that had the same effect. The torture and murder of an inspector as he was walking to a health post after surviving a lengthily encounter, to treat his gunshot wound, just goes to show the kind of war that is taking place in this land that is no longer peaceful.

Singing accolades of the deceased and doling out certain amount for the dependents will in no way erase the shock and the deep scars left on the psyches of the concerned families, who lose one of their own, in such a brutal manner.  A few weeks later, the headlines will just fade away and for the public, the insurgency problem will be something that is happening in remote areas.

What is the government waiting for? How many lives need to be lost before this worsening situation is brought under control and then cured?  What is the government going to do about the increasing number of displaced population thanks to this unresolved war? How will it bring back the morale in the police force? And who is answerable to this nightmare? These questions are now haunting each and every aware and concerned  citizen of this country. A mere show of visit or forming committees is not going to solve the problem. It needs the will, the commitment to get down to the roots of the problem and cure the ills before it becomes it gets totally out of hand.

More needed to achieve equality

By Judy Aita

As the world’s women gather at UN headquarters for a review of their progress on a wide range of social, economic and political goals they set for themselves in 1995, the United Nations has released a statistical report card that gives a mixed picture of women’s progress around the world.

The report, entitled The World Women 2000: Trends and Statistics, is prepared every five years by the United Nations to enumerate the progress on the advancement of women worldwide in six areas - health, human rights, political decision-making, work, education and communication, population and families.

It was released May 31 just prior to the June 5 opening of the special session of the General Assembly on Women 200: Gender Equality, Development and Peace (also referred to as Beijing+5). The report will be used to track the progress made toward the goals set out in the so-called “Platform for Action” adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995.

Undersecretary General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai said that the report “does show some improvement in the condition of women - some narrowing of the gender gap, some narrowing of gaps in terms of economic activity - the participation of women in the work force, some decline in the incidence in early marriage and early child bearing.”

The report, Desai said, also shows “how difficult it is for women to reconcile their responsibilities at home - particularly with children and work.”

Angela King, UN Assistant Secretary General and special adviser to the Secretary General on gender issues and the advancement of women, said “it is extremely important to have this publication coming out on the eve of Beijing+5 because in addition to making an attempt to look at most of the 12 critical areas that were highlighted in the Beijing “Platform for Action,” it really is a ready reference and a tool for either policy makers at the government level or for activists to go and press governments and other policy makers to really implement programmes.”

“It pinpoints areas where there is still much more need for programmes” King said.

The report shows that women are making gains in their lives, but at the same time disparities persist between women and men, the UN officials said. For example, today women are having fewer children on average, they are entering marriage later in life, and the gender gap in primary and secondary schooling is closing. But two-thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterates are women and women continue to be significantly under-represented in governments and political parties around the world.

Women now account for almost half of all HIV/AIDS cases and, in countries with high HIV prevalence, young women are at a higher risk of contracting HIV than young men, the officials pointed out.

“We show that women are now, an increasing share of the labor force and, in fact, in some regions they are approaching parity with men. We also know that more women today are in the labor force during their child-bearing years.

“Family obligations were mentioned by women as one of the main obstacles in advancing careers. But we still don’t have enough data to understand clearly how women and men share family responsibilities and what needs to be addressed by policy makers in that field,” Perucci said.

Education of women and girls is seen as key to improving health, nutrition and education of the family as a whole and empowering women. The Beijing Platform set the goals of closing the gender gap in primary and secondary education and reducing the female illiteracy rate.

Nevertheless, the report says that is unlikely that the gender gap in education will be fully closed by 2005. In 22 African countries and nine Asian countries the gap is still wide and those populations are also among the fastest growing.

A large percent of women who did finish primary education or did have some years of primary education cannot, in fact, read and write so there is a problem with quality of education in many countries, Perucci said.

The Beijing Platform considers that early marriage and early motherhood can severely curtail educational and employment opportunities for women and are likely to have long-term adverse effects on their and their children’s quality of life.

In most regions of the world early marriage and early childbearing have declined except in most countries of Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report. Women are having fewer children on average but with more women of reproductive age, world population countries to grow.

In the health chapter “we show that maternal morbidity and mortality is still high in the developing regions. For instance, the lifetime risk of dying (in childbirth) for women in Africa is one in 16, while it is one in 1400 in Europe. And it is estimated that overall there are about 50 million women suffering injuries and disabilities from maternal causes,” Perucci said.

Regarding work, “in a few countries we have some indication that men’s attitude is changing, for instance, within the family on how they share responsibility,” she said. “But we have too few countries to provide data on that to draw conclusions.”

“More and more we need to understand the working conditions of women and how difficult it is for them to combine their role inside and outside the family,” Perucci said.

“The World’s Women” presents new findings in some main policy areas, Perucci said. “We now have an increased interest in demographic changes rather than on population growth.”

Fertility in the past was often presented as a simple demographic fact. “We now look at fertility as women’s and men’s choices in life and what kind of impact that has on women’s lives and their access to education and opportunity,” she said.

But some of the topics covered in the report have only recently begun to be investigated, such as violence against women and traditional practices that are harmful to women, Perucci said. “Few countries have undertaken surveys in this area and it is still difficult to make regional comparisons.’

“This document mentions trafficking in much more cogent terms than previous documents because it has become a burgeoning problem across borders. Also there is the need for governments and law enforcement agencies to cooperate to get statistics and really pin down those that are responsible for this,” King said.