COVER STORY (Spotlight Weekly)

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Property Versus Stability

Led by a few women belonging to the urban elite, Nepal's women's movement has ignored many genuine problems faced by rural and middle-class women. In the name of granting equal rights to daughters on family property, activists are ignoring the importance of a stable family unit that safeguards their interest during times of crisis. Are we rushing headlong for a remedy that may be worse than the malady?

By KESHAB POUDEL

Bir Maya B.K., 30, a resident of Dhangadi in western Nepal, wept twice. Her eyes were swollen as she narrated her pathetic situation and requested Maiti Nepal's President Anuradha Koirala to take in her two daughters in the Shelter home. Koirala accepted B.K.'s request.

However, that did not stop B.K.'s tears. Although it was a painful moment for a mother to leave her children, B.K. did so with a strong heart and with hopes of a good future for the girls.

Disowned by her husband, who left home after marrying a second wife, B.K., a mother of two daughters and a son, did not have any property. Nor did she have a place to live with her three children. For B.K., Koirala came as a savior. She helped her to establish a tea stall in Dhangadi a few years ago.

Young Girl : Unaware of their right

With hopes of providing good education to her two small daughters in a good atmosphere, B.K. came to Maiti Nepal's office after an 800-km bus journey.

B.K. believes that education is the best way to build self-confidence in women. After her husband's second marriage four years ago, she understood the importance of building confidence. "I don't want my story to be repeated. If my daughters get educated at Maiti Nepal, they will have gained the confidence necessary for survival," B.K. said. "Education is the only way to change the fate of poor people like myself who do not have property either in their parents' home or spouse's house."

The women's movement in Nepal has passed through several phases of struggle and made some important achievements. However, problems faced by women like B.K. are yet to be addressed. The campaign led by the urban elite on ensuring equal rights to daughters on parental property has pushed the real issues of women in the backburner.

In a country where millions of rural women live under the absolute poverty line, ensuring the right to parental property will make little difference. Since the parents do not have property in the first place, what can they expect to share?

B.K.'s plight is just one example from tens of thousand of cases in Nepal's rural areas where a husband remarries at the slightest pretext, such as a small dispute.

"I have to accept hundreds of such girls and women along with young girls returning from Indian brothels," Koirala said. "In the last few decades, we have made some important progress in generating awareness among women, but we are yet to instil a sense of confidence in them. As long as women remain illiterate and unaware about their legal and other rights, nothing can change their fate."

Status of Property Rights

Compared to other countries in the region, Nepal's legal system is regarded as more progressive in terms of partition of property. The Human Development Report in South Asia 2000 says that Nepal's laws are relatively women friendly. According to the existing laws, women and daughters are given two different legal statuses in terms of property rights.

As a daughter, she is entitled to get property equal to the son if she remains unmarried beyond the age of 35 years. As a married woman, she is entitled to half of the share of her husband's property. Where then is the question of inequality between men and women and husband and wife?

Experts from industrialized countries and women belonging to the urban elite do not see things this way. They insist the lack of access to the family property and control over resources are one of the major factors that hamper women's equal participation in development activities and the decision-making process.

They argue that the Civil Code of Nepal 1963 has many provisions that deny the right of a woman to parental property. "The sooner an amended act is passed, the better the future of the women," said advocate Pushpa Bhusal. "It will replace some of the discriminatory provisions."

As daughters are denied the right to parental property, their access to credit is limited because both formal and informal credit institutions cater to those who can provide collateral. All formal credit institutions seek tangible collateral for loans. Hence, women are effectively excluded from institutional credit since they have little access to inherited property.

In a country where a large number of people who live below the poverty line do not have ancestral property to divide, changes in the system would only benefit the upper strata of the population who are already enjoying many benefits. Women in rural and poor families will have to bear greater burdens and consequences that could drastically change the structure of the family as a social unit.

Instead of advocating the genuine concerns of women, women groups are proceeding on the wrong assumption that inheritance of family property is going to end all forms of discrimination against them. Experts argue that the proposed bill will bring more trouble to the family of rural and urban areas where the social structure will be altered.

Consequences of Proposed Bill

In urban areas where prices of property are very high, giving equal rights to daughters on parental property will have some significant impact. But it will come as another burden for families who are already reeling under a system where undeclared dowry in the form of gifts has come to be accepted as the norm.

The daughter's right to parental property will make the situation worse in rural areas where the husband physically assaults a wife merely for failing to lend 100 rupees. If she takes property, she may fall into a death trap.

In the prevailing situation, less than 10 percent of top-class elite have valuable property to share equally with sons and daughters. Even under the existing laws, they are free to distribute property as they wish. If someone is capable and willing to grant property to their daughter, no law prohibits them. In many cases, parents are granting property and daughters are enjoying it.

The other category, which involves more than 20 percent of poor families who have poor parents, has no property to partition. For them, the bill is meaningless. Enshrining into law something they cannot get would not make any difference to them. Another 50 percent of the population live below the poverty line and do not have anything to share. The upper-middle-class, who comprise 30 percent of the population, are already offering so much dowry in marriage and regular gifts to the daughter. They will come under greater burden.

For the middle-class population, marriage has became a very difficult ritual. It is very hard for them to find a suitable grooms for their daughters even after offering undisclosed amounts of substantial gifts. If the proposed bill become law, then the question of giving and getting dowry cannot arise. Instead, the prospective groom will put a pre-condition to the prospective bride and her family: bring parental property.

In a society like ours where dowry is rampant and unnecessary expenditure increases the cost of marriage, daughters will fall victim as soon as the family property is apportioned equally among them. Partition of property includes the sharing of both assets and liabilities. If a woman if found to carry debts, who will be ready to marry her. In the present situation, no family would welcome a girl coming with debts.

What proportion of the population is talking about property rights? The law would affect less than 10 percent of the population but destroy the entire family unit in the country. Under existing law, when a girl or daughter gets married she has the right to get half of the husband's property, whereas the daughter of husband's family does not have such rights. The newly married is going to get a better life in the husband's house in terms of property rights.

The remedy is going to be more dangerous than the malady itself. It will affect the institution of family, the interest of daughter and a society as a whole. In the quest for making an equal society, it will create more complications.

"As long as discriminatory laws against women continue to exist, women will not get equality. How can a woman claim equality when she does not have the right to claim parental property," said advocate Shanta Thapaliya at a seminar titled "Women in Nepal's Socio-economic Development", organized by Women Entrepreneurs and Media Line. "Although the constitution guarantees equality to women, there are many discriminatory laws that need to be amended."

If the existing property laws are executed property, they will be more than enough to guarantee the rights of women. The problem is illiteracy, lack of awareness on women's rights, limited access to justice, ineffective execution of judgements of the court. Women are not able to enjoy what the law has given to them.

Women's Achievement

According to the country briefing paper "Women In Nepal" prepared by the Asian Development Bank, Nepalese women have made significant gains in social indicators like female literacy rate (6 years above) increased to 27 percent in 1996, compared with a meager 4 percent in 1971. Mean age of marriage for girls increased by more than 2.5 years between 1961-1991. The total fertility rate has fallen to 4.2 in 1996 from 6.3 in 1976. Maternal mortality has gone down, universal immunization has been achieved against certain diseases, and no gender discrimination is observed in nutritional status. There has been progress in immunization and the breast-feeding of infants and young children. Male and female infant child mortality rates have fallen significantly and life expectancy of women has increased by more than 11 years in last 25 years.

Despite these achievements, there are persistent problems combined with emerging issues, such as increasing female trafficking and the feminization of agriculture. In education, both the low level of women's participation and the gender gaps in literacy rate, enrolment rates and attainment rates are staggering and early marriage remain major problems in the rural areas.

One can see the disparities in the available infrastructures. Women in the high mountains and remote hills and economically disadvantaged groups face greater accessibility problems than women in the better-off households, urban areas, and the terai plains in general.

"We have to build confidence among women so that they can become more powerful and strong in the world," said Laxmi Sharma, a prominent women entrepreneur who started her business from scratch. "I am proud to say that I have been able to achieve success through confidence and dedication," said Sharma, the first women tempo driver. "Nepalese women have to show that they can stand on their feet if the right opportunities are given."

A large number of women are today involved in non-agriculture sectors. From administrative to the professional sectors, women are emerging as a major work force in urban areas. Because of education, many women are taking a leading role in the industrial sector.

"Women are coming up in different fields. More and more women are involved in the scientific sectors including forest, engineering, animal husbandry, electronics," said R.B. Shrestha and R.B. Pradhan in their paper presented at the seminar in the "Women in Nepal's Socio-Economic Development". The right kinds of opportunities are the most important things for the development of women.

"The opportunity I received helped me to become self-reliant," said Jamuna Shrestha, another participant. "As a daughter born into an average family, I could not get adequate money from my parents to start my business."

There is a marked difference between women belonging to the upper-class urban elite who have been involved in foreign-financed NGOs and members of radical wings of political parties. For the past several years, this class of women has been in the forefront of demanding drastic changes in parental property rights. As a result, the family relationship in Nepal is coming under threat.

Ignoring Family

Nepal's property rights are based on the family, but the proposed bill ignores the importance of its contributor. Unlike other countries, property can be transferred from family to family in Nepal. One cannot find such a system in the Hindu law of India, Muslim laws or laws of the industrialized western world. According to the concept, the family is a miniature of the state and the state cannot replace it. It disciplines the society, performs the welfare functions, and maintains law and order within the family. Because of relative stability in the family, Nepal has been able to cope with all kinds of upheaval. The results of a broken family will have far-reaching negative consequences.

International conventions on human rights and political rights also stress the need to strengthen the family. Article 23 of International Convention on Civil and Political Rights declares the family as the fundamental group unit of society that is entitled to protection by society and the state. Article 16 of the Proclamation of Teheran by the International Convention on Human Rights says the protection of the family and the child remains the concern of the international community.

Even international conventions do not encourage confrontation in the family. Article 6 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women calls for safeguarding the unity and harmony of the family, "which remains a basic unity of any society." All appropriate measures should be taken to ensure equal rights between genders, it adds.

Working women : Better enviroment wanted

Many covenants enshrine the principle that the upbringing of children requires a sharing of responsibilities between men and women and society as a whole.

If the proposed bill is passed, the family risk destabilization. An unstable family is always a threat to the safety of women and children. As weak members of the society, they are always prone to violence and atrocities by other groups. All documents relating to human rights emphasize the need for safeguarding the unity and harmony of the family, which remains the basic unit of society.

The existing property law in Nepal is based upon the need of promoting and preserving the family. The rights of the family supersede the rights of an individual, whether it is men or women. In urban areas, the traditional structure of the joint family system has been widely in practice.

The main hurdle to getting a share in parental property is the institution of marriage, as women are entitled to the property of the husband as soon as she gets married. For women, it would be unusual to live alone. As Simone De Beauvoir mentions in her book "Second Sex", women have a physically weak bargaining position for marriage. This makes them leave the parental family and join the family of the husband.

According to Nepalese tradition, a person can leave the family but the family does not permit the property to go with her. As a wife, she gets equal share with her husband. This has been the law in Nepal. It may seem very strange but it has endured since time immemorial.

The property law in Nepal confers the rights of a girl. The Muslim world offers no such rights to women and the present Hindu law in India is also much different than Nepal's. Despite abject poverty in villages, the family system has been preserved mainly on the basis of family ownership of property.

The wife has the right to an equal portion of the husband's property. The silent majority does not support the agitation of the urban women in favor of the right of women to the parental property.

"We will not allow the bill to be passed in parliament as it will destroy the family structure in the Madhesiya communities of the terai region. A bill that may suit Pahadiyas may not necessarily be suitable for Madhesiyas," said MP Badri Prasad Mandal, parliamentary party leader of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party.

We need a new economic foundation. Women will suffer in any kind of disorder falling on the family. Women lag far behind men in access to property, credit and modern avenues of education, skill development, technology and knowledge.

The position of the daughter is temporary. As soon she marries, she becomes the wife. If a woman remains unmarried, she will remain entitled to her parental property. Education and maintenance should be a mandatory parental responsibility and property should be based on a will system.

Women from all parts of the country have been striving for equal opportunities in all spheres. Their emphasis is on education and awareness for women's overall development.

‘Women Need Programs That Build Confidence’

— ANURADHA KOIRALA

ANURADHA KOIRALA is a prominent figure in Nepal's campaign against the exploitation of women. Koirala is the president of Maiti Nepal, an NGO working against girl trafficking and violence against women. She spoke to SPOTLIGHT on various issues relating to discrimination against women. Excerpts:

What are the major problems Nepalese women are facing?

Illiteracy, lack of awareness of their rights, trafficking, violence and sexual exploitation are some of the major problems being faced by women in Nepal. Women need measures that build confidence. If we instill confidence in women, they will be able to settle every problem on their own.

How do you evaluate ongoing programs aimed at uplifting the status of women?

Definitely, we have seen some changes in the quality of life in urban women, but the majority of rural women still live below the poverty line. We cannot claim that women are liberated on the basis of changes in the status of a selected group of women.

What do women activists need to do?

We should carry out more action-oriented programs in rural areas. Until a few years ago, girls were trafficked from Sindhupalchowk district only and most were illiterate. But now the situation has changed. Girls from all the districts are being sold. Some of these girls are high school dropouts.

What should the government do?

The government must offer greater educational and job opportunities for women.

How do you assess the women's movement in Nepal?

The women's movement is confined to workshops held in five-star hotels in the capital. How can they sort out the problems of poor women living in the rural parts of the country?

What has Maiti Nepal been doing?

We are running transit camps in border areas to check girl trafficking as well as giving shelter to girls returning from brothels in Bombay and other parts of India. But now we are facing a resource crunch, since donors countries are not providing sufficient funds to run such useful projects.