COMMENT

Blame it on NC infighting

It was reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has blamed the infighting within the ruling Nepali Congress for the increasing level of corruption and also the growing Maoist problem in Nepal. A study team of the international fiscal institution based in Washington DC, USA had come to Nepal  about three months back. It has been mentioned in the news report that the IMF Board of Directors had discussed the situation in Nepal in detail and even submitted suggestions for the Nepalese government. How right it is for an international aid agency to direct a government of a sovereign nation on how it should function, is a debatable issue. But just because the modus operandi of IMF may not be to everyone’s liking, it does not mean that what it has said should also be taken negatively.

It is true the Nepali Congress, in spite of winning a majority in the crucial third general election held almost a year back, has not been able to do anything concrete for the welfare of the people. Meanwhile, after the present government led by Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai came to power, the Maoists have also escalated their activities and hundreds of people have been killed in the violence ensued by it. Like mentioned by the IMF, there were reasons for the people to be optimistic, when the government announced different plans including the project to increase employment opportunities and also the policy to decrease poverty by incorporating more income generating activities in its budget presentation some months back. But the constant tension among the top level leaders within the ruling party, has hindered the efforts to implement such pragmatic policies. In fact, with the resignation of Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya, who was the architect of that budget, the economic scenario became even more bleak and hopes that such people-oriented policies would take root, evaporated. But it is no question of what happens to one individual. The present problem is that the whole nation is suffering even as the Nepali Congress leadership indulges in political procrastination for individual interests. The party must snap out of the present situation and get on with providing good governance to the country. If the political situation is no better than when there was a Hung Parliament, then what is the use of the Nepali Congress having won a majority? Is this party incapable of ruling? If some positive indications don’t come forth in a few days time, then the people will definitely think so. The coming few days could be crucial for the future of the Nepali Congress and also more seriously, for the wellbeing of free and peaceful politics in the country.

Positive sign

Nepal has been burdened with the continuous influx of Bhutanese refugees for the last ten years, numbering  over a hundred thousand of them. The refugees are languishing in the UNHCR maintained seven camps in Eastern Nepal. The uncontrolled stream of such large number of people has been creating cracks in the social, economic infrastructure of the area. It has given rise to social disharmony, crimes and many other illegal activities. Bhutan, on the other hand has been turning a blind eye to the problem by postponing and adopting a delaying tactics. The scenario has taken a fresh turn with the secretary level talk between Nepal and Bhutan held in the Bhutanese capital Thimpu last month. Nepalese officials believe Bhutan may now have realised the necessity of resolving the 10-year-old issue without further delay.

Talking to journalists last week, Nepalese Foreign Secretary Murari Raj Sharma said the Bhutanese side has shown some positive signs, but a lot of hurdles needs to be crossed before the problem is resolved completely.  Ugyen Tshering, Bhutanese foreign secretary who heads the eight member delegation that arrived in Kathmandu on Monday also remarked that they have kicked off the meeting to a good start. This time the talks will focus on the technical aspect of the verification process of the refugees. Nepal and Bhutan had agreed to categorise the refugees into four groups during the third ministerial meeting in 1993. The groups are - Bonafide Bhutanese who have been forcibly evicted, Bhutanese who have migrated, non Bhutanese people and Bhutanese who have committed criminal acts. But Nepal’s only intention is that all the Bhutanese refugees are repatriated to their country. Hopefully the ongoing talks will find an amicable solution to the festering problem that Nepal can ill afford to continue to take on.

Empowerment is the key for Asian women

The profile of reproductive rights was significantly raised, when the universal right to sexual and reproductive health was recognised by the ICPD (POA) in 1994. Since then the importance of these rights has been re-affirmed at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995, and at the ICDP follow-up, in New York, July 1999. Many countries in South and Southeast Asia have adopted the POA recommendations and are incorporating them into their national reproductive health policies. However, there is a huge disparity between countries regarding programme implementation; and changes, concerning the empowerment of women in particular, are slow to take place. For example, 40% of the world’s women do not have access to reproductive health care services; approximately one woman every minute dies from pregnancy-related causes, nearly all in developing countries, and some 70,000 women’s lives are claimed through unsafe abortions, 95% of them in developing countries.

What are reproductive rights?
 Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights and are based on the recognition of the right of all couples and individuals to:  Decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children, and to have the information and means do so; Attain the highest standard of reproductive health; Be able to take decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

In the seven participating countries of the RHI, these rights—which should be visible and inalienable—are, despite efforts, still largely absent from most women’s lives. This is due to various factors, including religion, cultural norms attached to gender, and socio-economic and democratic conditions. Many problems arising from these societal values make the advancement of reproductive rights an arduous task. Such problems culminate in the lack of choice and power a woman has over her self and her body; acting as barriers to women’s empowerment through such factors as: Early marriage, lack of education (including sex education), lack of health service (including RH services), abuse and violence.

Marriage and the family
In many Asian countries the woman’s role in the family is very strictly defined. The man is considered the head of the family, and in this role he controls sexuality and reproduction. This means inevitably that women have little freedom to decide how many children they want, when to have them, and whether they can use contraception. Motherhood is central to the structure of the patriarchal family, and thus pregnancy and childbirth is often forced on young married women too quickly and too often. This is shown by the average Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for the seven RHI countries, which is 4.4 children per woman, far exceeding the desired number. The TFR in Nepal, for example, is 4.6 children, yet the desired family size is 2.9 children.

Lack of education
The Cairo POA declared education one of the most important means of empowering women. Educated women marry later, want fewer children, are more likely to adopt effective methods of contraception, and understand the overall importance of their reproductive rights. The disparity between boys and girls in receiving education, however, means, awareness is slow to develop. The ultimate preference of sons over daughters in Asia in terms of education—usually influenced by social norms relating to marriage and sexuality— results in an education “gender gap”. This is evident in some RHI countries, most notably in Pakistan, where the gender gap score (based on an average of primary and secondary enrolment rates), is 36%. Consequently, literacy levels for women are low, as is enrolment in secondary education. With the exceptions of Sri Lanka and Vietnam, all RHI participating countries have female literacy levels below 50%, Nepal being the most extreme example, with only 14%. The percentages for secondary school enrolment are similarly low. Coupled with this is a distinct lack of sex education, which means women do not have the knowledge to make decisions regarding their own reproductive and sexual lives.

One alarming consequence of this is the widespread growth of HIV/AIDS, estimated by the World Health Organisation to be spreading faster in Asia than any other part of the world. Recent estimates suggest that close to 1 in 4 HIV infections originate in Asia, accompanied by a steep rise in infection rates among women; which constitutes 30% the total.

Lack of Health Services
It is perhaps the lack of services that has the most detrimental effects on women’s health and reproductive rights. Maternal mortality in the RHI countries is still exceptionally high, the average of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, in the seven countries is 434.5, a large figure when the comparative amount of maternal deaths in the United States is 8. In Pakistan 25,000 women die every year from avoidable pregnancy-related caused. Estimates are that for every woman who dies, approximately 30 are left with temporary, or chronic post pregnancy illness.

In Nepal, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 is 1,500, due largely to the number of unsafe abortions being carried out each year, which account for 50% of all maternal deaths in the country. In Nepal, abortion laws effectively forbid any hospital from performing abortions as medical procedure, thus illegally induced abortions are common.

This situation is not exclusive to Nepal. In Asia, as a whole, 20-25% of maternal deaths are attributed to poorly performed abortions. In five of the seven RHI countries, abortion is either illegal or only permitted in certain circumstances, thus poor reproductive health as a result of unsafe abortion is a serious concern. Women’s lives are not the only cost of unsafe abortions. Between 10 and 50% of all women who have unsafe abortions need medical care for complications, such as incomplete abortions, sepsis, hemorrhage and abdominal injuries. Long-term health problems from this include chronic pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease and secondary infertility.

Abuse and violence
Since the 1975 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, governments have increasingly called for an end to violence against women. Such violence is still, however, widespread, and usually occurs against women in the context of sexuality and reproduction. Abuse against women is broad and includes physical, sexual and psychological abuse of female children, dowry-related violence, marital rape, trafficking in women, forced prostitution, female infanticide, and selective malnutrition of female children. A large percentage of women are beaten while they are pregnant, often causing miscarriages, premature births and low birth weight babies. In Cambodia, 16% of women have reported being physically abused by a spouse. This physical or emotional abuse of women by their male partners stems from the socialisation of women to be submissive while accepting a ‘male dominating’ culture.

RHI efforts to improve reproductive rights
One of the three regional dimension projects of the RHI is Gender Equity and Reproductive Health and Rights, conducted by the Italian Association for Women in Development (AIDOS). The purpose of this project, which began in July 1999, is to produce a generic Gender Training Manual, which accurately reflects the different conditions in the seven RHI countries, whilst simultaneously addressing the overall objectives of the RHI. The resulting manual will then be used as a tool for operational partners in the field. Additionally, a bibliography of local, regional and international gender and reproductive health and rights materials along with a resources database will be compiled.

Reproductive rights education components, especially for adolescents, are incorporated into many RHI country projects, to help raise awareness of every individual’s fundamental freedom regarding their reproduction. In Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Sri Lanka the country focus is on adolescent needs for sex education and information as well as the necessary RH services. It is hoped that through the facilitation of discussion and education, reproductive rights can be brought into the spotlight and extended to all.

TALK BACK

Corruption ridden country
In present Nepal corruption is rampant. It is pervaded in whole system. This is what we get to read in different newspapers every day. An ordinary citizen cannot expect to get things done in any office without bribing. If one can offer bribe rules regulations could be positive to him/her. If not, they turn to be negative. Now most of the people are poorer in this country how they can bribe. If they approach to party leader or workers, they also demand contribution (bribe) for the work. Now helpless people don’t whereto go for help.

The past one so-called democratic decade has driven the people towards the most horrible situation. Sometimes they regret for changing the polity. They feel they did great mistake by changing the past polity, though it was bad.

Bishnu Singh

Nothing great
I read your article about "Hats off to Bhuban KC". I don't think he deserves it . What is so great about him just because he got a minister to act in the movies. I don't see anything great about it. There is nothing great about our corrupted politician and ministers in Nepal. If they were doing  good things for the country then that is a different issue. But what has Sarad Singh  done?  Please next time please don't give him such a big credit for nothing. He doesn't deserve it at all.

Shova Kasam