By The development of a nation cannot be measured through the quality of life people live with. The growth of a nation lies in its capacity to elevate the weakest sectors of its society. The status of women in Nepal has many ups and downs since ancient times to the present day. A country’s socio-economic growth cannot take place if half of it’s population is down and trodden.The women feel dependent, lack of decision making, powerlessness and looking up to a male for her own identity, status and her own decisions.The identity and status of a woman come from her own family and decision-making. Autonomy also should start from the household so that women feel their status first in their own families.The status of women in the household is a one of the most important indicator of women empowerment.
In Nepal, discrimination against women exists across the country.
I am from Janakpurdham,The capital city of Province no.2 and Graduate of “Global Peace Women-Nepal,2019(INGO)”. So,being a daughter of Madhesh, I see that the situation of Madhesh is worst. The women of Madheshi community have been treated as symbols of prestige, but rarely does this translate into autonomous decision-making and personal agency. In general, they are suffering in the preference for a son is higher, female infanticide is growing alarmingly and girls usually drop out after primary school. Dowry is widespread with education only reinforcing the practice and hiking up the rates for grooms. Widows are treated as sinners and deprived of the most basic human dignity, and a premium is placed on women being confined to homes. Early marriages, poor socio-economic status, dependency, low level of literacy rates are the common characteristics have seen in the Madhesh.
According to the Human Development Report(2009) “The Madheshis are people who originated on Nepal’s Plains, who live in the Terai region, and who feel marginalized by modern Nepali nationalism, which has rested on the ideas of monarchy, a single Nepali language, and a Hill centeric identity. This restrictive concept has excluded Madheshis—who speak varied languages—among these, Maithali, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Urdu and Hindi—and who have 4 extensive cultural, social and kinship links with Indian citizens living across the border in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These differences have led Hill Nepalese to view Madhesh is with suspicious and to question their fitness for citizenship”.
The women of Madheshi community are discriminated mainly from three levels. These are within gender discrimination and within community discrimination and there has been also discriminatory policy formation towards women. Gender discrimination is perhaps the most universal forms of social exclusion of women in the community and society.So, protecting human rights and promoting gender equality between men and women must be seen as central to the humanitarian community’s responsibilities to protect and provide assistance to those affected by emergencies. There are many causes and consequences of such discriminatory practices against women in the name of social taboos.
In Nepal, there are many programs but there is still lacking gender sensitive programs which can address the excluded groups so that they can participate in development processes. There should be elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Madheshi women are backward than other Pahadi communities women because of restricted equality and discriminatory recognition. The policy is still weak. It has not address properly to all women of Nepal.
Similarly, lack of local governance, especially representative of municipalities or District Development Committee(DDC), many programs are not running properly. The mentality of even well educated people is also very conservative. They still do not want to send their daughters or any female members of their families for work or for the higher education outside of the village or city.Such deprivation/exclusion has created unequal access to food, education and health care, limited opportunities to earn incomes, limited access to resources etc. Such situation and circumstances directly has created many forms of gender, caste-based discrimination against Madheshi women and indirectly has made them to survive in their traditional, cultural, and religious and superstition value added thought and beliefs deep rooted in rural areas of Madhesh.
Besides, the empowerment and autonomy of women improvement of their political, social,economic, and health status is highly important in itself. Men control women’s productivity both the household and outside. Within the household, women provide all kinds of free service to their family members throughout their lives. Outside the house, men control women’s labor in several ways. Sometimes, women are forced to work with minimum wages, and/or, they may prevent or not allowed to work outside. Most productive work done by women is neither recognized nor paid. Which could be called shadow work, is completely discounted? There is no mandatory recognition of domestic work. Women usually do not have a right to choose their work inside the house or outside, men is considered the head or guardian and overall in charge of the household activities.
Though All human beings are born free and are equally entitled to the basic rights and freedom set forth in the UN Declaration of Human Rights without distinction of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political other opinion,national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Similarly, everyone has the right to life,liberty and security of person, UN(1995). But in all parts of the world especially in developing countries like Nepal women are facing threats to their lives, health and well-being as a result of being over burdened with work (inside and outside of the house) and lack of power in decision making that would improve the quality of their lives and help them to shape and adopt to social and economic change.
In Nepal, when the Nepalese women’s status in this light, the picture is generally black. The proportion of women involved autonomously in social and public activities is extremely less.Women are under privileged, under represented and exploited in all spheres of society. Socio-cultural, political, economic and educational factors have forced them to live subjugation by 3men,NWC(2010).
So, I think Madheshi women should be empowered first from their own home by the support of men in every sectors.This will bring a drastic change in the present situation of Terai-Madhesh.
