WOMEN IN NEPAL
Women in Nepal are expected to defer to men in public. At home there are more assertive. Girls often marry in their teens and are expected to do housework, raise children and take care of aging in-laws. Mother and child are considered polluting until the 11th day after birth when the child is formally given name.
Women who belong to ethic groups are generally freer and more independent than traditionally Nepali Hindu women. They are allowed to freely interact with boys when they are teenagers, have less pressure on them ro be virgins when they get married; have an easier time getting divorced; and there is no so stigma attached to children born out of wedlock. These women often do many of the paid labor work, such as portering, that men do. Some curse, smoke and drink in public. Among some groups premarital sex is encouraged as part of growing up.
Percentage of the population that is female: 54.4 percent (compared to 50.5 percent in the United States, 53 percent in Estonia and 37.1 percent in Bahrain) [Source: World Bank data.worldbank.org ]
According to the United Nations: As of February 2019, 32.7 percent of parliament seats were held by women. However, work still needs to be done in Nepal to achieve gender equality. The proportion of women aged 20-24 years old who were married or in union before age 18 is 39.5 percent. The adolescent birth rate is 88.2 per 1000 population as of 2015, up from 71 per 1000 population in 2013. In 2016, 11 percent of women aged 15-49 years reported that they had been subject to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. Moreover, women of reproductive age (aged 15-49 years) often face barriers with respect to their sexual and reproductive health and rights: despite progress, the proportion of women who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods in 2014 year stood at 56 percent.
Gender Statistics:
Employed population below international poverty line (over 15 years of age): 12.9 percent for women and 12.4 percent for men.
Enrollment in secondary school: 61 percent for men and 63 percent for women
Mortality rates for infants (per 1,000 births): 28 for males; 23 for females.
[Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division, genderstats.un.org ]
Gender Roles in Nepal
Elizabeth wrote in the Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Gender roles are very well defined in Nepal. Expectations of girls and boys and women and men are clearly outlined, from social interactions to family communication to examples in school textbooks. Generally speaking, boys are valued higher than girls. Stories remain of families seeking to abort female fetuses, although these tend to be related by word of mouth. Men are usually the patriarchs of their families — although women have power within a social context. In many areas, men are expected to work outside of the home, and women are expected to tend to the home and the children. These values differ, however, based on the location of an individual community. In some of the hill communities, women may travel, while men remain in the community to tend to the home or family. In these communities, tasks are not gendered in any evaluative way. Folk beliefs about witchcraft remain in some areas, especially in the Terai (the southern plains). These generally target women, particularly elderly and/or widowed women, who are sometimes beaten publicly as part of an exorcism ceremony. [Source: Elizabeth Schroeder, M.S.W, Encyclopedia of Sexuality, 2002]
Some people report that seclusion rituals for girls and women during menstruation still exist in the rural areas. The most common ritual reported is having a girl or woman gather a week’s worth of food and water and enter a hut where she stays for the duration of her menses. Other people maintain that these rituals are no longer practiced. However, menstruation is still seen as dirty. A menstruating woman is not supposed to cook or come into contact with anyone’s food or water except her own.
Rural women in Nepal have traditionally taken care of children, cooked, collected firewood, fodder and dung for fuel and washed clothes while men have done the heavier agricultural tasks and worked outside the village, doing things like trading, portering, and labor to earn money. Plowing is regarded as men’s work while fetching water is considered women's work. Both men and women do hard, physical labor, but women tend to work longer hours and have less free time. They used to die younger but that is no longer the case. In urban areas, men have traditionally had more work opportunities than women but that is less the case as women become better educated. There are now many women professionals. Women also do a lot of market work and take on significant roles in family businesses and shops. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
The senior female member played a commanding role within the family by controlling resources, making crucial planting and harvesting decisions, and determining the expenses and budget allocations. Yet women's lives remained centered on their traditional roles — taking care of most household chores, fetching water and animal fodder, and doing farm work. Their standing in society was mostly contingent on their husbands' and parents' social and economic positions. They had limited access to markets, productive services, education, health care, and local government. Malnutrition and poverty hit women hardest. Female children usually were given less food than male children, especially when the family experienced food shortages. Women usually worked harder and longer than men. By contrast, women from high-class families had maids to take care of most household chores and other menial work and thus worked far less than men or women in lower socioeconomic groups. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
The economic contribution of women was substantial, but largely unnoticed because their traditional role was taken for granted. When employed, their wages normally were 25 percent less than those paid to men. In most rural areas, their employment outside the household generally was limited to planting, weeding, and harvesting. In urban areas, they were employed in domestic and traditional jobs, as well as in the government sector, mostly in low-level positions.
Status of Women in Nepal
Women have often described themselves as "the lower caste" in relation to men and have generally occupied a subordinate social position to them. However, the freedoms and opportunities available to women vary widely by ethnic group and caste, with women in higher castes often having their lives more constrained than those in lower castes. Upper caste women have traditionally been expected to stay secluded and at home. Their reputation is critical to family and caste honor. Lower caste women often have a larger money-earning role, have more freedom and mobility, and are less constrained about speaking their mind. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
The United Nations has defined the status of women in the context of their access to knowledge, economic resources, and political power, as well as their personal autonomy in the process of decision making. When Nepalese women's status is analyzed in this light, the picture is generally bleak. In the early 1990s, Nepal was a rigidly patriarchical society. In virtually every aspect of life, women were generally subordinate to men. The status of women in Tibeto-Nepalese communities generally, was relatively better than that of Pahari and Newari women. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
In the early 1990s, a direct correlation existed between the level of education and status. Educated women had access to relatively high-status positions in the government and private service sectors, and they had a much higher status than uneducated women. This general rule was more applicable at the societal level than at the household level. Within the family, an educated woman did not necessarily hold a higher status than her uneducated counterpart. Also within the family, a woman's status, especially a daughter-in-law's status, was more closely tied to her husband's authority and to her parental family's wealth and status than anything else. *
One tangible measure of women's status was their educational attainment. Although the constitution offers women equal educational opportunities, many social, economic, and cultural factors contributed to lower enrollment and higher dropout rates for girls. Illiteracy imposed the greatest hindrance to enhancing equal opportunity and status for women. They were caught in a vicious circle imposed by the patriarchical society. Their lower status hindered their education, and the lack of education, in turn, constricted their status and position. Although the female literacy rate has improved noticeably over the years, the level in the early 1990s fell far short of the male level. The level of educational attainment among female children of wealthy and educated families was much higher than that among female children of poor families. This class disparity in educational attainment was also true for boys. In Nepal, as in many societies, education was heavily class-biased.
Burden of Girls and Preference for Boys in Nepal
Girls are often viewed as a burden and have traditionally been put to work at an early age. Parents favor boys and have traditionally done this for several reasons. A boy's value in agricultural endeavors is higher than a girl's, and after marriage a boy continues to live with his parents, ideally supporting them in their old age. The strong preference for sons is a deeply held cultural ideal based on economic roots. Sons not only assist with farm labor as they are growing up (as do daughters) but they provide labor in times of illness and unemployment and serve as their parents' only security in old age. S
In Nepal, there is no universal, government-sponsored social security. Having boys is regarded as a kind “insurance policy, unemployment policy, sickness policy and old-age pension all rolled into one." Sons are expected to live with parents, earn an income, look after property, inherits land and care for parents in their old age. They are also needed to light the funeral pyres after death to ensure a smooth trip to the afterlife. One of the primary reasons that Hindus wish for a son is that only sons can carry out funeral rites. Some Hindus believe they can not have positive things occur in the afterlife unless they are cremated by a son after they die.
In contrast to boys, girls are seen as burdens because their family must raise money for their dowry and then they leave to take care of their husband's family. A daughter’s responsibility to her family ends when she gets married. She moves in with her husband and becomes part of her husband's family, and help care of them. This is an added bonus for parents with sons. Dowries are expensive. Sometimes dowries leave the family in debt. There is a great deal of stress for parents to find a good husband for their daughter. A lot of time and energy goes into this effort. In the state of Haryana, the is an expression: raising a daughter is like watering someone else's fields."
Rural Women in Nepal
Women have traditionally done most of the field and house the work. They carry fire wood and water, cook, work in the fields, care for the children, clean the house, dry, winnow and husk grain, gather leaves for animals and collect dung used as cooking and heating fuel. Among some groups, women till the soil, plant and harvest the crops and widowed and divorced women engage in trade and shopkeeping. Because village men are often gone working elsewhere, women are more often in charge of farming and often know more about it than men.
In some rural areas of Nepal, women are little more than beasts of burden. They are possession of their father until they get married and then are possessions of their husband. Often women do all the work while men sit around. For a while Nepal was the only country in the world where the lifespan of women was shorter than that of men but that is now longer the same (it is now 72 years for women and 69 for men).
One village woman was asked why she didn't take care of money. "Women can't handle money because they don't go to school," she said. She was then asked why women can't go to school. "There's too much work for them to do. There's not time for girls to go to school."
In many places women make daily trips to the forest to gather bundles of branches and grass that can weigh up to 30 kilograms and carry them to their homes on their backs. One survey in the 2000s found that 80 percent of Nepalese women in their 20s and 30s routinely gather firewood.
Magar Gender Relationships: in Marriage, Family and Work
Magar are the third largest ethnic group in Nepal. According to the CIA Factbook in 2020 they make up 7.1 percent of the population of Nepal. They are a Hindu people who live in the middle Himalayas and Terai and west-central and southern Nepal.
Magar women are expected to be subservient to men. Women have traditionally been expected to regularly reaffirm their bond with their husband with a ritual in which they wash their husband’s big toe and then touches the water to their lips. According to the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “In many ways the relationship Between husband and wife is biased in favor of the husband. When she marries, a wife leaves her natal home and moves to her husband's. In many daily situations she is expected to show her husband deference. For instance, if he is late in Returning home, she feeds the children but herself refrains from eating until he comes home. In the morning she gets up Before he does and carries out a ritual that implies she is worshiping him as if he were a god. She pours specially drawn water regarded as pure over one of his big toes and into one of her palms, and then she touches the water to her lips. Although in these and many other instances the wife has a subordinate role, some factors strengthen the wife's position in relation to her husband and his family. [Source: John T. Hitchcock, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1992 |~|]
“For a brief period the newly married couple live with the husband's parents, but soon they almost always move to a house of their own. This all but erases the possibility for a continuing servantlike relationship with an authoritative mother-in-law. Another important support for the wife is the gift (pewa ) her parents Usually present to her when she marries. Often it consists of livestock such as goats, cows, or buffalo. Chickens are also a common pewa. Wealthier parents sometimes give land, such as a paddy field. Whatever the gift, a husband has no right to it: it provides a wife with an independent source of income, small or large, and it may be transferred by her in her will or before her death to whomever she wishes. Further support lies in the fact that at marriage a woman acquires a share of her husband's property, to be hers if she is widowed or abandoned. The births of children diminish the size of her share, since at birth they also acquire rights to a portion of the estate. But so long as she does not remarry, a wife's share is hers until her death. Only then does it revert to her husband's estate. It is significant too that natal homes of most wives are not more than 8 kilometers distant. Wives go home often, and the tie to parents and brothers is frequently strengthened by exchange of gifts. A wife sometimes returns from a funeral for someone in her natal lineage with a cow or a calf to be added to her pewa. |~|
“The majority of the marriages are monogamous, but circumstances sometimes lead to polygyny. The most common reason is desire for a son in a sonless first marriage. |Two paths are open to a wife who is not happy with her husband: she may return to her natal home or run away with another man. Very often the first option is a precursor of the second.
“Women's position in Magar society is enhanced by the essential and many-faceted part they play in the domestic economy. After men plow the fields, women break up the clods with mattocks. They plant and weed, carry wood, water, and manure. They care for the farm animals and do the milking. Although older women do not climb the tallest trees to collect fodder, they do gather heavy loads of leaves from the bushes and low-growing trees. From time to time women work heavy mills to extract oil from mustard seed. They spend much of every day processing food. In the very early morning they operate the grinding stones and hulling beams and winnow away the chaff. They also spend hours squatting by the firepit doing the cooking. Other work, such as plowing, is strictly reserved for men, but many tasks may be done by either men or women and often are done by both together. Husbands and wives often join in group fishing, and although women mostly operate the hulling beams, when there is much hulling to be done, men frequently help. Men without daughters do the cooking when their wives are menstruating, and men also cook when traveling without women. |~|
Female Education in Nepal
Another traditionally barrier to education un Nepal has been the a common perception that there is little value in educating females. Still, gender disparities in education have declined. From 1990 to 2004, the percentage of female students at the “school” level (grades one to 10) increased from nearly 30 percent to 45.9 percent. [Source: Library of Congress, November 2005 **]
Traditionally girls have had to stay home and do family chores while boys went to schools. An effort is being made to get more girls into school. Japanese aid organizations have been involved in providing reading and writing classes for women to increase literacy rates for women. The classes also teach women about basic health care, conservation of resources and disease prevention. Women who have attended these classes have increased confidence, ore courage to go towns and stand up to their husbands. They have taken responsibilities usually taken by men in their villages.
Things have improved of the literacy level but still have some way to go. The literacy rate (age 15 and over can read and write) for females was 59.7 percent in 2018, compared to 14 percent in the 1990s. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020, 2002]
And there are still a lot of sad stories out there. The Kathmandu Post described one girl who had to quit school and go to work after the 2015 earthquake killed her father. Reporting from Sindhupalchok, northeast of Kathmandu, Anish Tiwari wrote in the Kathmandu Post: “Fourteen-year-old Rejina Tamang of Sigarche settlement in Gati VDC has been working as a daily wage earner to support her family after her father Tek Bahadur died in the 2015 earthquake. Her mother, Nirmaya, 48, was rendered disabled when the earthquake flattened her home. Besides her mother, she has an 11-year-old sister who goes to a local school. Every morning, Rejina walks to a local quarry to carry stones for the villagers building their homes. The home that she lives in with her mother and sister these days is a shabby hut cobbled together after the destructive earthquake . [Source: Anish Tiwari, Sindhupalchok, Kathmandu Post, December 25, 2016]
“Rejina says she had to quit school after the earthquake in order to support her mother and sister. Her family had no money to buy food after the earthquake, much less books and stationery. Being the eldest child in the family, she decided to get a job, any job, as long as her family did not have to beg. “I was studying in grade six at a local school. Everything changed after the earthquake,” she says. As a 14-year-old girl, getting a job carrying stones at the quarry was not easy for Rejina. She remembers the quarry operator refusing to offer her job. “Seeing that I was just a little girl, they said I was not fit for the job. They took pity on me after hearing out my story and offered me the job.”
Rejina earns a few hundreds rupees a day. The money is spent on food and schooling her sister. “There is no other source of income. We didn’t get the aid from the government to build our home because the house ownership documents were taken by my uncles after father died,” she says. Rejina is not the only child working as a daily wage earner in Sindhupalchok, according to the District Child Welfare Committee (DCWC). There were around 7,000 child workers in the district according to the survey that was carried out by the DCWC two years ago. “Post earthquake, we have found 291 earthquake-affected children working menial jobs to help out their families. There could be more such children but we do not have the exact figure,” says Rewati Raman Nepal, information officer at the DCWC.
Women in Government in Nepal
The percentage of women in Federal Parliament: 33.5 percent. The composition of the 59-seat National Assembly is 37 men and 22 women (37.3 percent women). The composition of the 275-seat House of Representatives is 185 men and 90 women (32.7 percent women). [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Year women obtained the right to vote in Nepal: 1951, the same year men did when Nepal became a semi-democracy (compared to 1893 in New Zealand and 2011 in Saudi Arabia) [Source: infoplease.com ; Wikipedia
Proportion of seats held by women in national legislatures: 33 (compared to 53 percent in Bolivia, 20 percent in the United States and 3 percent in Kuwait) [Source: World Bank worldbank.org]
Although the number of voters in 1999 was evenly split between males and females, only 143 of the 2,238 candidates for the House of Representatives were women, and just 12 women were elected. In the same election, there were 205 election constituencies, 6,821 polling centers, and 100 political parties, 39 of which stood for election. Parties’ election expenditures were legally limited. To run for office, a party must have received 3 percent of votes in the previous parliamentary election, and 5 percent of its candidates must be women. [Source: Library of Congress, November 2005 **]
The leading female politician in Nepal for many years was Angur Baba Joshi (1932-2020). She was a pioneer in many fields for women. She was Nepal’s first woman university graduate, the first female school principal and for many years the only woman in government policymaking circles.
Increasing the Number of Women in Nepalese Government
“Nepal now has one of the world’s largest gender quota systems, intended to swiftly increase the number of women in politics. Since the civil war between Maoist rebels and state forces ended in 2006, the government has adopted quotas that reserve seats for women and, in particular, women from disadvantaged caste and ethnic groups – like Basel. In 2007, quotas were enacted at the national level; this year, in the country’s first local elections in 20 years, they are being enacted for cities and districts. [Source: Tricia Taormina, Christian Science Monitor, September 14, 2017]
“Quotas are a controversial solution, with critics saying they propel women past more qualified male candidates. Yet, for the most part, the quotas here have been welcomed, and the elections have spurred hope of change. But the real challenge, women’s advocates say, comes after the ballots are turned in. Gender quotas guarantee women are elected, but experts say additional efforts can help them participate meaningfully once in office.
“Ila Sharma, an election commissioner, says the government plans to train newly elected women for their positions. And after Nepal’s turbulent path to democracy, she believes the quotas are essential. “Everybody – women, Dalits, minority groups, Muslims – they all have to be here,” she says, sitting in her office near a framed photo of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Nepal’s first female head of state. “Then only can we practice democracy.”
“Today, Nepal leads South Asia with the most women in parliament, and since May has elected 11,630 women to local government bodies, according to its Election Commission. But even with the quotas, women’s political representation still trails behind other equality indicators, like their access to education and paid work opportunities.
Discrimination Against Women in Nepal
Elizabeth wrote in the Encyclopedia of Sexuality: As children and adolescents, boys have much more access to just about everything than girls do, from recreational activities to education to job opportunities. The literacy rate is significantly lower for girls than for boys. As adults, women face systematic, society-wide discrimination in many facets of life. This is particularly true in rural areas, where religious and cultural tradition, lack of education, and ignorance of their legal rights keep women from accessing such basic rights as voting or holding property in their own names. Access to jobs is much more limited for women than for men, and salaries for women are significantly lower — even though the Constitution specifically requires equal pay for equal work. [Source: Elizabeth Schroeder, M.S.W, Encyclopedia of Sexuality, 2002]
According to legal experts, there are over 20 laws that discriminate against women. For example, the law on property rights also favors men in its provisions for inheritance, land tenancy, and the division of family property. The Citizenship Law discriminates against foreign spouses of female citizens, and denies citizenship to any children they may have together, even if those children are born in Nepal. Many other discriminatory laws still remain.
There are restrictions on women's rights to own property and women are generally restricted from inheriting property from their parents or their in laws. Inherited property has traditionally been — and still is — passed down to sons. Laws on abortion and divorce are considered discriminatory towards women. Hindu women are expected to wear a red dress and make offering to thank the gods for their husbands once a week. But they are not allowed to participate in important ceremonies such as delivering last rites to the dead.
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”: “Women are subject to gender discrimination, especially in traditional rural areas. The present constitution has strengthened provisions protecting women, including equal pay for equal work, but few women work in the money economy. Women's inheritance and marriage rights have been strengthened, but women suffer discrimination in both areas. Domestic abuse and violence against women are serious societal problems that citizens and governmental authorities do not recognize. The tradition of dowry remained strong and the killing of brides for default are still reported in 2004. There are also reports of women being abused because they are suspected of witchcraft. The abduction of young girls to be taken to India to work as prostitutes is a serious problem. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Women’s Rights in Nepal
The constitution of Nepal guarantees women certain rights. In the early 2000s the National Women’s Commission was established to protect women’s rights. The Forum for Women and Development is a woman’s rights group.
Elizabeth wrote in the Encyclopedia of Sexuality: . More and more nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are pressing for increased women’s rights. Aside from the teaching profession, women seem much less likely than men to progress in their jobs. An increase in female volunteers in the health sector has increased awareness among women, and has encouraged more women to seek out health services. At the same time, however, they are unpaid and untrained in medical or health service provision. [Source: Elizabeth Schroeder, M.S.W, Encyclopedia of Sexuality, 2002]
This is an area in which NGOs in Kathmandu are currently working to change. Over the last decade, efforts at increasing women’s rights and equality have redoubled. In 2001, the Nepalese government created a National Women’s Commission, designed to promote women’s “active participation in the development of the nation” and promote women’s rights. In addition, a law passed in September 2002 allows women for the first time to inherit property from their parents.
Part of the impediment to equal pay and treatment is that the Government has not taken enough action to implement its own provisions, even in government industries. Of the 265 members of Parliament, 21 are women. These women are only members of Parliament because a quota was established guaranteeing this many female representatives.
Women Seeking Justice in Nepal
In 2011, AFP reported: “In a dusty courtyard in southeastern Nepal, around a dozen women in matching blue saris sit cross-legged and discuss their neighbours. “I heard that a landowner beat an 11-year-old boy just because he suspected the child of letting his animals escape from their field,” says one. “In my village, there is a Muslim man who wants to take a second wife,” says another, while a third tells the story of a 13-year-old girl whose father is rumoured to be planning to sell her to a man from neighbouring India. [Source: AFP March 23, 2011]
“To the outsider, these stories might sound like mere village gossip. In fact, they are part of a groundbreaking effort to deliver justice in Nepal, where law enforcement is weak at best, and non-existent at worst. Since 1999, women in many parts of the impoverished Himalayan nation have been meeting every month to fight back against the discrimination and abuses they and other marginalised groups have been subjected to for centuries.
“Known as paralegal committees, they were first set up in 1999 as part of an anti-trafficking programme run by the UN children's agency, UNICEF. Since then they have expanded their remit to include many other forms of abuse, with a focus on issues the authorities have tended to turn a blind eye to, such as child marriage and domestic violence.
“There are now 644 paralegal committees working in the 23 districts of Nepal where UNICEF is active, and the UN agency has plans to expand the scheme to cover all 75 districts by 2013. The members are given basic legal training covering a wide spectrum of issues, from trafficking and sexual harassment to property laws and the rights of divorced women. Their role is three-fold — prevention, detection and victim support — and a 2008 UNICEF study found they made a “significant contribution” to ensuring victims of violence and other crimes seek justice.
“UNICEF child protection specialist Patrizia Benvenuti said the committees played a vital role, particularly in areas where the state has little or no presence. “We hope that over time the links between formal and informal mechanisms will increase, but in the meantime we are investing in community-based protection structures because they are necessary,” she told AFP. “They are also important in promoting the role of women and children in society. “When you talk to authorities, they say that abuses of women are now starting to be reported, although that is only the tip of the iceberg. But cases of child abuse rarely even come up, so much still needs to be done.”The district of Saptari in Nepal's southeastern plains, on the border with India, has more problems than most.
“The blue-uniformed women of the Bakduwa paralegal committee in Saptari say they are forcing the authorities to take the problems of their community seriously.” In 2010 “the Bakduwa committee managed to resolve 41 cases, most of them involving either domestic violence or child abuse. They also forced a prosecution in a gang rape case that police had been refusing to investigate, probably because of pressure from influential members of the community.
“Committee members are trained to report any case in which laws have been broken to the police, and will often put pressure on officers to investigate crimes against women and children that might otherwise be ignored. “I think the paralegals succeed because women have themselves had much to deal with in our communities, and that helps them to understand the problems faced by others,” said the committee's 38-year-old chairwoman Kusam Acharya. “This is a society in which men are heard. A woman's voice is not recognised. But here, over time, we have been able to achieve recognition.”
Kamlari: Bondage System That Traps Girls
Kamlari is a bondage system practiced by the Tharu ethnic group that forces young children, particularly girls, to labor for rich landowners and keeps them out of school. Reporting ly from Ghorah in southern Nepal, Mark Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “The scrubbing, cooking and sweeping started as early as 3 a.m. When the landlord's children awoke hours later, the 9-year-old girl got them ready for a school she could only dream of attending. Afternoons and evenings were spent cutting hay and tending animals. Around 10 p.m., she'd collapse for a few hours before starting again, seven days a week. It must be my fate, she thought, a feeling eventually replaced by anger and bitterness. [Source: Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2011]
“Every January or February she'd see her family for a week, only to watch her father "sell" her back into another year of drudgery for a mere $25. Although some of her friends spent most of their childhood this way, she was lucky: A civic group persuaded her parents to end the arrangement after three years.
“For generations, ethnic Tharu girls as young as 6 have been handed over to landlords and brokers under a bondage system known as kamlari. The legacy of crushing poverty, caste and intergenerational debt has left many of the young victims scarred by sexual and emotional abuse. "The landlord's son beat me many times," said Bishnu Kumari, 17, who was rescued a few years ago. "I felt dirty, unlucky to be born a girl. I was a slave." "Sometimes the landlords try to hit us," said Manjita Chaudhary, 21, a former indentured servant. "They lie, saying they educate and help the girls. But we usually wear them down."
“In addition to carrying psychological scars, rescued girls have missed many years of schooling. Aid groups fund accelerated training to help them get back into mainstream classes, or in extreme cases, enter school for the first time. A major parental concern is lost income. Although $25 to $50 for a daughter's annual labor may sound piddling to an American, it's huge in these dirt-poor communities.
“The poverty fueling the kamlari system was evident in remote Suraikula Narayanpur village, where 12-year-old Asha Chaudhary, who is not related to the other Chaudharys, was recently freed by aid groups after four years of servitude. Her father had leased her out to pay back a loan for fertilizer. The nine-member family lives in a two-room house where several undernourished, half-naked, sore-covered siblings play on the dirt floor as Asha chews on a dirty blue comb.
“Life wasn't always so difficult for lower-caste Tharu.A century ago, they controlled these fertile plains near the Indian border, in part because of a natural resistance to malaria that higher castes lacked. After malaria's eradication in the area around 1960, higher-caste people streamed down from the mountains. In 2000, a related kamaiya system involving adults was outlawed, as were debts passed down for generations, but child servitude wasn't made illegal until 2006. After that, the government promised free housing, retraining and education to dispossessed Tharu, although corruption and government inefficiency have undercut implementation, civic groups said.
Combating the Kamlari Bondage System with Music Dramas and Piglets
Mark Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “These days, former kamlari victims are fighting back with notable success, the result of changing laws, activist pressure and nascent democracy in Nepal. Charity groups” rescued thousands of girls in 2010, “generally during the brief period when the annual agreements are renewed, by convincing parents that the practice is unjust, a daughter's education is worthwhile, and that there are far less exploitative ways to earn family income. Since most deals have traditionally been struck during the winter Maghe Sankranti holiday, rescued girls assisted by aid groups are staging street dramas, anti-exploitation marches and musicals. They also mount rescue missions in which parents and landlords are confronted and embarrassed into releasing the girls during the annual festival and other high-profile events. [Source: Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2011]
“The approach has proved so successful that the U.S.-based Nepal Youth Foundation estimates that just 1,000 Tharu girls remain indentured, most in remote villages or with powerful families in Kathmandu, compared with about 14,000 a decade ago. Former victims Sunita Chaudhary, 17, and Anita Chaudhary, 18, who aren't related, sing, act and write scripts for the street plays put on here in this rural part of south-central Nepal, drawing on their experience of dire poverty, alcoholic fathers, exploitative landlords and low female social status. At the end of the drama about girls forced into bondage, the troupe asks audiences who is to blame and how the play should end, sparking spirited debate. Many villagers are illiterate, have never seen a play and forget that it's not real. "People grab me and threaten to beat me up," said Hom Roka, 23, who plays the landlord. These are complemented by "girls clubs," composed of former victims who urge new kamlari recruits to resist, backed up by adults in the community who have agreed to help fight the practice.
“Although $25 to $50 for a daughter's annual labor may sound piddling to an American, it's huge in these dirt-poor communities. So activists started providing the families of liberated girls with a baby pig or goat, which sells at maturity for a similar amount. "Who'd have thought a piglet could save a girl?" said Som Paneru, the Nepal Youth Foundation's in-country director. Another concern, in a region with widespread alcoholism, is that fathers will drink the money away. "The women told us, under no circumstances give money to the men," said Olga Murray, the charity's founder. So piglets — or goats for some very poor families who lack even table scraps to feed a pig — are explicitly given to the daughters who, once educated and empowered, can better stand up to the men than can their mothers.
“A side effect of these efforts has been to swell the number of public classrooms: A dearth of girls' restrooms can sometimes force female students having their periods to walk more than a mile to find a secluded spot, and civic groups have had to focus on school construction.” But “with the kamlari system now under siege, former victims are daring to dream. "Before I was taken away, my brother once asked me what I wanted to be and I told him, a lawyer," said Anita Chaudhary. "Now that I'm back in school, I'd still like to be a lawyer. So many girls are without rights or hope. I want to help protect them."
Women and Abuse in Nepal
Women who say wife beating is justified: 29 percent.
Men who say wife beating is justified : 23 percent.
[Source: UNICEF DATA data.unicef.org]
Violence Against Women: proportion of women subjected to physical or sexual by current or former partner: 14.3 percent [Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division, genderstats.un.org ]
Acid attack occur in Nepal. According to Human Rights Watch: “While acid attacks occur throughout the world, they are highly concentrated in South and Southeast Asia. The problem varies from country to country in context, scope, and motivation. In India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, the vast majority of attacks are perpetrated against women. The motivations cited for attacks in these countries include rejection of love, marriage, or sex; the victim having been raped and bringing shame to the family; domestic abuse; seeking education; and dowry disputes. [Source: Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2019]
Elizabeth Schroeder wrote in the Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Statistics relating to domestic violence are as sketchy as the many other statistics relating to Nepal. However, in 2001, the Kathmandu Post reported that Nepalese nongovernmental organizations believe 75 percent of the female population have been subjected to some kind of domestic violence. Included in these figures are physical assault, harassment, and incest. When an adolescent girl is married off to an older man, this age difference is often seen as a cause or contributing factor to the domestic violence. In addition, citizens, law enforcement officials, health professionals, and government authorities tend to minimize the severity of violence against women. Forty-two percent of respondents in one survey said that they experienced medical practitioners to be uncooperative or negligent in cases of violence against women and girls. [Source: Elizabeth Schroeder, M.S.W, Encyclopedia of Sexuality, 2002]
When working with teenagers in Kathmandu, there was much discussion of “teasing,” which translates in Western terms to “sexual harassment.” The term “sexual harassment” was not used, because it does not translate, both in terms of language and in terms of its significance. It is used in Western cultures as a legal concept — a term that describes behaviors and situations that can result in legal actions and remedies. Nepal, as other cultures, may use the phrase “sexual intimidation” or “teasing.” According to Nepali professionals, this is not to minimize the experience — it is culturally more accurate. Discussions have begun, however, in the media about sexual harassment of women in the workplace. These discussions, as the discussions of teen-to-teen harassment, tend to focus more on what the people being harassed should do to avoid giving mixed signals, and less on teaching men more appropriate, respectful behaviors.
Menstruation Huts in Nepal
In parts of western Nepal, woman are banished to chhaupadi huts, where they are secluded while they are menstruating because of Hindu and caste beliefs that women are dirty and polluting while they are having their periods. At her first menstruation in many parts of Nepal a girl is taken to another house and secluded. She is kept out of sight of the men and the sun. She is sometimes given special foods and is not expected to work, but overall her seclusion is recognition of the pollution associated with female sexuality and reproduction.
In the Nepali language, chhaupadi means “someone who bears an impurity.” Western Nepalese are taught that any contact with a menstruating woman will bring bad luck. Women retreat to the huts at night and sleep in them. Some are no bigger than a closet, crudely made from of mud or rock. The alternative is seclusion in a cow shed. Tradition dictates that any woman who has her period must be banished to the hut regardless of how cold or dangerous. It is. Reporting from a village in the mountains in western Nepal, Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in New York Times: “In this corner of Nepal, deep in the Himalayas, women are banished from their homes every month when they get their period. They are considered polluted, even toxic, and an oppressive regime has evolved around this taboo, including the construction of a separate hut for menstruating women to sleep in. Some of the spaces are as tiny as a closet, walls made of mud or rock, basically menstruation foxholes.
“The practice is called chhaupadi (pronounced CHOW-pa-dee), from Nepali words that mean someone who bears an impurity, and it has been going on for hundreds of years.” Even the Nepali government and advocates for women are trying to end it “many women keep doing it, out of intense social pressure or even guilt, and every evening, across these rippled green hills where little wisps of smoke melt into the darkening sky, hundreds of menstruating women and girls trudge out of their houses into chhaupadi huts.
“One woman, Mansara Nepali, sheepishly showed me hers. Made of stone, it was no more than three feet tall. As Ms. Nepali bent herself nearly in half to get in, she thunked her head on the tiny door frame. “We built this ourselves,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “That’s why it’s not so good.”
Menstruation Hut Deaths in Nepal
Inside the menstruation huts have died from smoke inhalation, snake bites and exposure to the cold. Reporting from the village of Turmakhand, Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in New York Times: Not long ago, in rural western Nepal, Gauri Kumari Bayak was the spark of her village. Her strong voice echoed across the fields as she husked corn. When she walked down the road at a brisk clip, off to lead classes on birth control, many admired her self-confidence. [Source: Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, June 19, 2018]
“But last January, Ms. Bayak’s lifeless body was carried up the hill, a stream of mourners bawling behind her. Her remains were burned, her dresses given away. The little hut where she was pressured to sequester herself during her menstrual period — and where she died — was smashed apart, erasing the last mark of another young life lost to a deadly superstition. “I still can’t believe she’s not alive,” said Dambar Budha, her father-in-law, full of regret, sitting on a rock, staring off into the hills.
“Ms. Bayak died from smoke inhalation in hers as she tried to keep warm by a small fire in the bitter Himalayan winter. Each year, at least one woman or girl — often more — dies in these huts, from exposure to the cold, smoke inhalation or attacks by animals. Just this June, another young woman was found dead in a menstruation hut, bitten by a snake. Her family tried to cover up the death, the police said, by destroying the hut and quickly burying her body, but the authorities exhumed it and are investigating what happened.”
“Though menstruating women of all ages sleep in the huts, chhaupadi seems to disproportionately kill the young. Activists said this may be because young women aren’t as savvy about protecting themselves; for example, they might not know which type of snakes are poisonous or how important it is to keep the hut’s door slightly open if there’s a fire burning. “Our conclusion,” said Rewati Raman Bhandari, a former member of Parliament, “was that if we left this up to society to change, it would take hundreds of years.”
“In some villages, menstruating women are sent to cow sheds. Women who just gave birth are also considered polluted, and many remain isolated with their newborns for several days. Two years ago, said Ms. Kunwar, the women’s aid worker, a mother left her newborn alone in a shed for just a few minutes to wash her clothes. A jackal skulked in and snatched the baby. Reports of sexual assault on the women from men who seek them out while they are secluded are not uncommon.
A few months Bayak died, Bhadra Sharma and Kai Schultz wrote in the New York Times: Parbati Bogati knew what to do when her period came. Ms. Bogati, 21, sequestered herself in an abandoned house, in keeping with a centuries-old taboo. As the temperature dropped below freezing she tried to keep warm, apparently burning wood and clothing. By the next morning, her legs were charred and she was dead. “It seems she also died from suffocation,” said Lal Bahadur Dhami, the deputy superintendent of the area’s police. At least three other people died this year while following the same superstition.” A month before, “Amba Bohara, 35, and two of her sons — ages 7 and 9 — apparently suffocated in a menstruation hut after lighting a fire to stay warm.” [Source: Bhadra Sharma and Kai Schultz, New York Times, February 2, 2019]
“Officials said no men forced Ms. Bogati to follow chhaupadi in her village of Purbichauki, a small outpost in western Nepal. Ms. Bogati’s father-in-law was dead. Her husband, Shankar, was in Malaysia for a job. She stayed more or less on her own. On a recent visit to the village where Ms. Bohara and her two children died,” an aide worker “found shocking levels of resistance. “I realized that changing people’s mind-sets and ending chhaupadi was more difficult than hardships we endured while fighting in the war,” she said, referring to a conflict with a Maoist insurgency in Nepal in which thousands of people died.
Women Who Use Menstruation Hut in Nepal
Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in New York Times: “Like many other women I met, Ms. Nepali, who thought she was around 35, was illiterate. She had never gone to school and seemed embarrassed about her poverty. Her face was deeply grooved, cheeks reddened from laboring outside every day on a windy mountainside. In these villages, women are the workhorses. I saw one middle-aged woman shuffle into a market carrying what must have been 200 pounds of apples on her back, in boxes tied by ropes around her chest. [Source: Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, June 19, 2018]
“Another problem that many women in this area have, aid workers said, is a prolapsed uterus, a painful condition in which the uterus slips down and protrudes from the vagina. It can be caused by heavy lifting and difficult births, both common here. “It’s all part of the suffering and humiliation women have to endure because of harsh traditions,” said Pashupati Kunwar, who runs a small aid group to help women. “Domestic violence is still bad. Child marriage is still high. We are trying to convince people that times are changing, but superstition is still strong.”
“Some women have to sleep in the huts for an entire week. When it comes to meals, they are not allowed to cook, which several women said was actually a relief. They often sit by themselves in their menstruation huts and wait for family members to slide them plates of food. They are also not supposed to touch livestock; if a calf or goat strays into their hut, they have to yell for someone else to shoo it out, out of fear the animal will get sick. During the day, the menstruating women work in the fields like everyone else, though they make sure not to come in contact with other villagers; at night, they go to the huts. “These practices are done in the name of protecting the purity of the community,” said Kathryn March, an anthropologist at Cornell University who has worked extensively in Nepal. “That’s why it’s so hard for individuals to change them.”
Why the Menstruation Hut Tradition Continues in Nepal
The chhaupadi custom has its roots in Hinduism in which women having their periods are forbidden from touching other people’s food or entering temples. They are not supposed to use communal water sources such as a well or kitchen utensils. It is considered bad luck to touch them. Many women who abide by chhaupadi say they do so out of social pressure or guilt.
“A 2010 Nepali government survey, which was cited in a State Department human rights report, found that 19 percent of women age 15 to 49 in the country followed chhaupadi. But in Nepal’s midwestern and far western regions, some of the poorest pockets of Asia, the proportion climbed to 50 percent.
Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in New York Times: “The chhaupadi tradition seems especially hard to break. From the earliest age, people here are taught that any contact with a menstruating woman will bring bad luck. Most do not question it. “If a woman goes inside the family’s home during her period, three things will happen,” explained a farmer named Runcho. “A tiger will come; the house will catch on fire; and the head of the house will get sick.” Mr. Runcho spoke without any doubt or flourish. When asked if he had ever seen a tiger in his village, he smiled and didn’t answer yes or no, but then told a long story about how, maybe 10 years ago, he accidentally brushed up against his daughter when she was menstruating and lost his sight for several days. “It was a nightmare,” he said. [Source: Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, June 19, 2018]
“As he spoke, his teenage niece, who was having her period, was getting ready to crawl into a storage space beneath his house. The sun was setting behind the mountains, a cool wind sweeping in. The storage space was dark, cold, cramped and smelled like wet fur — and it was filled with itchy straw. “I’m happy to go down there,” said his niece, Devika. “I don’t want my parents to get sick.” Her uncle watched her closely. “The only problem,” she added, “is that our mobiles don’t work down there. We need to go outside to check our Facebook updates.” When I asked Mr. Runcho if he would like to sleep in the crawl space, he laughed. “Why should I?” he said. “It’s for women!”
“Many religions observe rules around menstruation, and Hinduism places a special emphasis on purity and pollution. Still, scholars are not sure why the menstruation taboo is so strong in western Nepal, where countless villages, across an area comprising hundreds of miles, still practice it. It may be because this region of Nepal is poor, relatively homogeneous, overwhelmingly Hindu and remote, and the houses tend to be small. (In other Hindu subcultures, menstruating women can be secluded to some degree within their homes.)
Combating the Menstruation Hut Tradition in Nepal
Chhaupadi was outlawed by Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2005 but the ban did little to discourage the custom. In August 2018, for the first time, it became a crime to force a menstruating woman into seclusion. The punishment: up to three months in jail and a fine of up to 3,000 Nepali rupees (US$25). The law came about in part because of pressure from women’s advocate groups. Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in New York Times: “Dharma Raj Kadayat is one of the chhaupadi rebels. He grew up in a small mountainside village in western Nepal, a couple hours’ drive from where Ms. Bayak died and where women still pound grain with a seesaw-like plank. He then spent nearly 20 years in Kathmandu. [Source: Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, June 19, 2018]
“When he recently came back to take a job as an administrator in a hospital, he said he felt ashamed that his relatives were still practicing chhaupadi. “It’s so backward,” he said. A few years ago during a Hindu festival, he stood up in front of the whole village and made a speech about how any woman who does not want to go into a shed when she was menstruating was welcome to stay in his house. “Are you drunk?” a man yelled out from the crowd. He said that activists had persuaded many families in his village to destroy their huts. But a few months later, people got scared and rebuilt them all.
“It was the death of Tulasi Shahi, an 18-year-old woman bitten by a snake last year while staying in a cow shed, that pushed lawmakers to write the new anti-chhaupadi law, several lawmakers said. Mr. Budha, the father-in-law of the woman who died, said : “But people don’t care. I say, ‘My daughter died, yours could, too.’ But then they say, ‘We are sorry but that is our culture.’ ’’
“It wasn’t lost on him that Ms. Bayak, who the family said was around 20 when she died, was something of a feminist, leading birth control classes and encouraging women to stand up for themselves. “But even she still followed this tradition,’’ he said. “The pressure’s too strong. If she hadn’t gone to the hut during her period, she would have felt embarrassed.’’ He misses everything about her, he said: the way she read books, her enthusiasm for life, her voice. Ms. Bayak moved in with her husband’s family after she married and grew especially close to her in-laws. After she died, it was her guilt-ridden father-in-law who smashed apart the menstruation hut with his own hands. Since then, he has insisted that his wife sleep in the main house during her period. “And you know what?’’ he said. “Nothing bad has happened. All these years, we’ve been fooled into believing a false superstition.’’
Man Arrested for Menstruation Hut Crimes Tradition in Nepal
In December 2019, for the time in Nepal, the authorities arrested a man for forcing his sister-in-law to sleep out in a menstruation hut. Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman wrote in the New York Times: Every winter, in Nepal’s snow-covered hills, young women keep dying because of a deadly superstition. But this winter, someone was finally arrested in such a death. Nepali authorities have jailed the brother-in-law of a young woman who died in a shed in the remote Achham District, in the far west. Many Nepalis have been disturbed by her death, and one newspaper called the taboo a “national shame.” [Source: Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, December 27, 2019]
“Human rights activists have been pressing the authorities to enforce a law that went into effect last year that punishes family members who exile menstruating women from their own homes. Still, villagers continue to do it, and many residents in Achham are upset that someone was sent to jail. “The police are just adding pain over pain,’’ said Krishna Budha, the chief of the village where the young woman died. “She had gone to the hut on her own, taking part of our culture.” But Nepal’s highest authorities intervened, leading police officers to make the arrest. An investigation is underway.
“In the past few weeks, villagers have been ordered to destroy dozens of chhaupadi huts, and Nepal’s home ministry has threatened to cut off government aid to families that do not comply with a law that bans the chhaupadi ritual. “The police did a good job this time,” said Pashupati Kunwar, a leading anti-chhaupadi activist. “This has sent a warning.”
On the day of her death, relatives of Parbati Budha, 21, sensed that something was wrong. Ms. Budha, who lived in a mountain village about a two-day drive from Kathmandu, was usually an early riser.But on this morning, she did not emerge from her chhaupadi hut. When her sister-in-law and brother-in-law went to check on her, they found her on the shed’s floor, face down. Investigators said she had built a small fire inside the hut to keep warm during the freezing night, and died from inhaling too much smoke. Ms. Budha had married about a year and a half ago and moved in with her husband’s family, as most women do in rural Nepal. Her husband worked in a sari showroom in neighboring India, and police officials say it was her husband’s brother, Chhatra Raut, 25, who pressured Ms. Budha to move out to the shed.
“The news about Ms. Budha’s death quickly spread, dismaying human rights activists. The activists, including Ms. Kunwar, asked the local police to investigate, but the officers refused. The officers said that nobody in the village had complained about the young woman’s death and therefore there was no case. But the activists kept up their pressure. And in Kathmandu, the tide has turned against chhaupadi, which has become something of an embarrassment to those trying to modernize Nepal.
“After hearing what happened, Nepal’s attorney general, Agni Prasad Kharel, stepped in and ordered police officials to open an investigation, which quickly led them to the brother-in-law. The police arrested Mr. Raut and are holding him in a small jail. He faces a three-month sentence if found guilty of breaking the chhaupadi law, which makes it a crime to pressure a woman into seclusion.
“Kedar Nath Sharma, a spokesman for the Home Ministry, said that any members of a family still practicing chhaupadi would not get the usual government allowances for elderly people and single women, concessional loans or recommendations for a school scholarship or government job. He said the Nepali government was serious about ending this tradition once and for all. “Women are dying in these huts,” he said.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np), Nepal Government National Portal (nepal.gov.np), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022