Status of Women in Nepal

Nepal is a small State in South Asia surrounded by India, China (Tibet), Bangladesh and Bhutan. It is dominated by the patriarchal society. Women are completely dependent on men for their survival. The position of women and girls has always been inferior to that of men. Women in Nepal are treated as a product, to produce babies. Thus gender issue is a biggest problem in Nepal.

Problems faced by women in Nepal

Gender inequality is the biggest problem in Nepal where girls are always treated as subordinate to men. The situation in rural areas is worse than urban areas. As compared to men, women are paid less for employment.

Child Marriage: Girls get married at early age. They are even married to old man. The consequence of early marriage leads to pregnancy in which most of the girls dies because of health issues. Girls who are widow are perceived as witches in the society and remarriage of women is not allowed. These widows are imposed with lot of restrictions as compared to other women.

When girls are menstruating they are forced to live in the shed outside the house. They are not allowed to participate in the social activities and this tradition is known as Chhaupadi. In India also such practices exists, girls when they are maturating are forced to stay separately, like in Maharashtra there is a village where the girls are forced to stay in  “Gaokor” a hut where girls and women stay when they are menstruating, and there are many Gaokors more than 200 in the tribal areas. In December 2016 one girl lost her life in Nepal during her stay in cowshed because of such practices.

The life expectancy of women is comparatively less than men. The other problems that are faced by women in Nepal are Domestic violence, Dowry practices and illiteracy. These are very sensitive issues faced by women because of the social norms and cultural practices.

Actions taken against these social evils

Women empowerment Program (WEP) was adopted by the volunteers in Nepal in order to improve the status of women in the society. The objectives of WEP are to work on the education of women, Right and Life Skills, Microcredit Cooperative Support, Income Generation and Marketing, and Women Trafficking Prevention. In the Past, WEP focused on acute poverty areas to resolve the issues like gender discrimination, poor health and education.

In 2017 U.N Women Nepal and the National Information Commission launched women entitlement’s booklet in the local language, Tharu, Maithali, Doteli and Tamang in order to spread awareness of the rights of women and injustice against women and other access to information at the rural areas.

Assessment

The progress in the status of women has been brought in Nepal, but the rate of improvement is very slow. The people of Nepal, themselves, do not want any changes because most of them believe that whatever the practices they follow is their culture. It is very difficult to bring changes in Nepal quickly. Inequality is the main hindrance in the strategy for the empowerment of women.

VIN must broaden their strength in order to spread education. Free education must be promoted. It is very important to educate parents also so that they send their kids to school in future for proper education but only education is not the only solution people women must also retaliate.

Improvement in the economy can also add to the increasing rate of the status of women in Nepal.