Sancharika depicts the plight of Nepali women through film

Ours is definitely a male dominated society and will continue to be so for many more years to come until the literacy rate of the fair sex attains a new height and comes at par with the former. However, to observe that accomplishment by the women of Nepal, perhaps I will have already left for my heavenly abode.

Look how the Nepali males are:

If the male rapes some girl, it gives him pleasure. If the sister of the same male is raped, he brings heaven down earth.

The difference is in the perception. When someone attacks you, you retaliate forcefully. But when you attack others, you suppose that others should keep mum. The difference is here.

When you burn your newly wed bride on count of dowry, you take it as a pleasure. But when someone burns your own sister on the same count, you wish the criminals being punished.

A rapist must also think that yet another rapist could rape his sister much the same way you raped some one’s sister. The day you understand this logic, rape cases will automatically vanish.

Talking about Nepali traditions: Age old culture and traditions must be maintained. The preservation of such heritages enhance the prestige of the nation. However, if the tradition and culture become a burden, it has got to be changed as per the changed context of the society and the world at large. Here again, it is the womenfolk who have become the victim of such dogmatic traditions. For instance, in many places of Nepali Terai plains, a newly wed woman is practically burnt by the members of her new family. This is done so to ascertain the loyalty of the newly wed bride for her bridegroom. This has got to be stopped. The girl while being burnt is full of tears but yet bears the trauma because it is a case that is directly related to her loyalty for her husband. Unimaginable indeed.

Dowry: Here again it is the girl and her parents who feel the brunt of this curse: dowry. A newly wed girl undergoes tremendous and hellish torture if she doesn’t carry enough dowries during the marriage. If the bridegroom side is miser and possesses a lust for money then the result is ghastly. They pour kerosene on the body of the bride and burn her and seduce the police and make it a case of suicide.

A Nepali Muslim girl is married to an Indian Muslim. Her new family members begin torturing her. The husband himself takes up the lead and finally she is burnt. As the luck would have it, she escapes to her parent’s house but with her face half burnt.

A 38-year-old woman who has her grandchildren with her in the family is raped. The rapist is none other than her own brother-in-law. She is almost outlawed by her family and the society. She is living a hellish life.

Women in Terai plains have several other traumas to undergo or face and that too in the name of continuing tradition since centuries. For instance, in many places in Terai, a woman when she delivers a child, she instantly becomes "untouchable" and she is not supposed to live with the "civilised" family members. She is thus provided a closed and dark room, preferably the Goth—where animals live. She is provided less nutritious food for unknown reasons. She remains untouchable for as long as good 21 days. However, the general practice is that she becomes touchable item when a special ceremony called "Nwaran" is performed on the 11th day of the birth of the new child.

Not only in the Brahminic society but this practice prevails in other ethnic tribes as well. This has a religio-tradition fervour. However, what should not be forgotten is that the mother of the new baby needs hygiene and hygienci and nutritious foods. If she is lodged in the cow-yard, chances remain that she could come under attack by the virus, which cause Titanus—a deadly disease. The fact is also that our women in the far-flung areas are not provided nutritious food. Could have two reasons: firstly, the poverty factor; secondly, a thought that the female could do with what has been provided to her. Regarding the nutrition part, there is no knowledge in the villages which is greatly connected with illiteracy.

All put together, these are some of the inconsistencies, discrepancies accompanied with poverty and a sort of hatred for the women folks in the male dominated society that has been all along been retarding the overall development of the women in this country.

When women is considered a commodity, every thing goes up side down. When women is considered as a soul that has to be kept under constant guard and made captive and forced to do the household jobs only, the whole paradigm gets upset.

Thanks Bandana! Thanks your competitive and hardworking team that you all have managed to make a short documentary that talks of the plight of the womenfolk in the country. Kudos to you, The "SANCHARIKA Group" that you the enlightened women of the nation, I would call you all the asset of the nation henceforth, that the Kathmandu’s informed and highly qualified citizenry could know the actual pains of the Nepali women, the methods of torture that is being applied on them; the perverted traditions that causes more pain in the already panicked women; the religion that comes as a burden to the women folks and the sexual violence that they have to face by their own family members and the likes.

My salute to the Sancharika led by Bandana that jolted the entire intellectual and the media community last Saturday when they exhibited their new video creation "Mother, Sister, Daughter" which is a nicely depicted, edited and presented documentary which has very forcefully portrayed glimpses of the violence faced by the Nepali women.

I urge the informed citizenry and the international community to watch the film thus produced by the group of women communicators and do the needful in this regard so that the women in Nepal could save themselves from the dangers of tradition, culture and of all the dowry system.

O Ye! My Mother, Sister and Daughter! No one other than me—the male, is your culprit. Shame on me—the so-called male!

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