It’s a 24/7 job — working for women’s rights in Nepal
To many outsiders, Nepal means trekking holidays and spiritual enlightenment. But, as Susana Klien reports, WOMANKIND will be supporting local women to tackle the realities of the country’s endemic discrimination and violence.
When I was 14 I read Road to Kathmandu, which provided an insight into the trail that many hippies took in the 60s — looking for paradise on earth.
Growing up I remember being amazed by tales of all the failed expeditions to climb Mount Everest: the mystery around the disappearance of George Mallory when he was trying to reach the top, and how Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary finally reached the top of the world’s highest peak in 1953.
Nepal was always a mythical country where the Himalayas divided two great civilizations (Hindu and China). What else might you have heard about Nepal? The process of electing the Kumari Devi, the young girl who becomes a living goddess until she has her first period; or about the monarchy that lasted more than 200 years; or as the birthplace of Buddha. You may have heard less about the 10-year civil war that ended officially in 2006, or about the terrible poverty, the caste system and discrimination against women.
For many years Nepal has been neglected, not in the news, on the world agenda, forgotten.
I am in Kathmandu with my WOMANKIND colleague Laura, to visit some of the women’s rights we’re are starting to work with in Nepal. People are very friendly, the city is busy, the roads are a labyrinth and there are no addresses, but somehow you always find the place you need to get to!
Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia and the twelfth poorest country in the world. In 2006 the ‘People’s Movement' brought an end to a period of autocratic royal rule; and the ‘Comprehensive Peace Agreement’ signed in November 2006 officially ended a decade of war that saw 13,000 dead and thousands more displaced.
The agreements marked a new era in Nepal, including the abolition of the monarchy, setting up a Constituent Assembly to develop a new Constitution for the country, State decentralisation, developing transformative socio-economic programmes, registering the ‘disappeared’, and setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The government has started a process of fundamental change in the country — but there has been no major impact yet on the poorest. Nepal remains heavily dependent on foreign aid — which accounts for more than 50% of the total development budget — aid that has not generated the development expected.
The caste system, although officially eliminated, continues to permeate society, particularly outside Kathmandu. Violence against women is prevalent and exclusion and discrimination are still embedded in cultural practices and some legislation. There are no reliable statistics on the impact of the conflict on women and children, but organisations are working to remedy this, and victims have come together in many regions.
Breaking the silence
‘The voices of many women who suffered the brunt of the conflict are silent… they talk about what happened to their family but never about what happened to them’
But Nepal’s legal system still does not allow these individuals to bring cases against perpetrators — and the future of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is uncertain. And still the voices of many women who suffered the brunt of the conflict are silent… they talk about what happened to their family but never about what happened to them.
The legacy is there, but the solution is not immediately clear. What justice mean for them, how they want to be compensated, what reconciliation will actually involve are still questions that don’t seem to have an answer. I remember what psychologist Marta Cabrera wrote: if there isn’t a healing process (at individual and at community level) many of the development projects won’t work. The legacy will be a barrier to development.
Our visit has been intense. We have met many inspiring women activists. Women’s rights in Nepal are firmly ‘political’ — the organisations working to secure them are clear about the links to power and structural change. Today we met the Feminist Dalit Women, FEDO. This is the only Nepali organisation working with ‘untouchable’ women, who call themselves ‘Dalit’ — which means ‘oppressed’ or ‘broken’. Dalit women count for around 20% of the women in Nepal.
Durga, the Director, explains many of the practices and laws that still discriminate against Dalit women: they are not allowed access to ‘common’ water, but have to walk long distances to alternative sources. They are not allowed to enter temples. Dalit children have to go to school in certain areas, but they are not allowed to go in to the classroom and sit with the other children — they have to stay by the door. Nepal’s Dalits can’t ‘intermarry’, they are forbidden from community spaces, and are discriminated against in public services (from schools to health centres).
FEDO is working with Dalit women in 40 districts and has over 15,000 members in village groups, with elected representatives right up to national level. Nepal’s current Constituent Assembly has 33% women’s representation — in practice 197 women. Of these, 25 are Dalits and five belong to FEDO.
WOMANKIND will be working with FEDO to challenge the discrimination Dalit women face — and trying to prioritise these issues on the local and national agenda to ensure sustainable change. Our FEDO partners don’t work 9 to 5! Renu tells me that most of the ‘staff’ work on a voluntary basis or, and when there is specific project funding project, they might get some pay. For them this is a cause; a 24/7 commitment, with or without funding. We talk with FEDO about the legacy of the civil war. They want to properly research the effects on women so that they can highlight their needs in the current political debate. During the conflict, women took on overwhelming burdens of care for family and community; they were displaced or forcibly migrated, lost relatives, and experienced violence and the legacy remains.
But the conflict and following transition did provide opportunities to challenge traditional attitudes towards women, increased their role as community leaders — and built their self-confidence and involvement in household decision-making and politics.
So, what could the future hold for Nepal and her Dalit women? WOMANKIND and FEDO will be working together to challenge patriarchal traditions and discriminatory attitudes towards women — and bring their voices and proposals onto the local and national agenda.
I return to my hotel thinking about the complexity and also the richness of this country; how the concepts of ethnicity, caste and gender interlink; about the conflict and its legacy; and why it is so importance for the Nepali people to ‘own’ their country’s development and institutional processes. Nepal is changing and people can’t even remember how things were five years ago; everyone, absolutely everyone we talk to is confident that the country is on the right path to eliminate poverty and exclusion.
This experience again highlights that it is impossible to think about development in a linear way. At the end, it is like the streets in Kathmandu — a labyrinth where there are no addresses but the local people are in charge of the process and will find their own way.
