Protecting Nepali Girls and Women
Ms. Bharati POKHAREL (Nepal)
Although the interim constitution of Nepal (2007) guarantees all people, regardlessof their gender, basic human rights and fundamental freedoms besides highlighting
women’s rights as essential to the overall development of the country, discriminatory
practices against women and girls are still rampant in the Nepali society.

In variousoccasions, Nepal has been found not only as having well-written documents, policies,
plans and strategies, but also acceding to international treaties and agreements. But,
when it comes to the implementation of the facts stated in these documents, Nepal lagssignificantly behind. For instance, Nepal ratified the Convention on the Elimination of
all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as far back as 1991. More than acouple of decades down the line, eliminating discrimination against girls and women still
remains a far cry even at household and community levels. The stark reality is that
Nepal has been ranked 126th in the Global Gender Gap Index for 2011.
A number of studies and reports have cited deep-rooted beliefs and cultural practices
prevailing in the Nepali patriarchal society as the main triggers of gender-based
discrimination. For example, if a woman officially lodges a report about sexual violence
committed against her, her move is not generally appreciated by her own family. She israther very likely to face further marginalization in the family and beyond for dealing
with such a shameful issue openly and thereby exposing the family and others. In otherwords, a victim is emotionally discouraged to report the case, which will in turn help toencourage the offenders to carry out similar crimes in future. In such a situation, one
can imagine how many of the crimes committed against women finally make it to theofficial tallies. This is why the data on discrimination against women in Nepal is still
elusive, although experts agree on the fact that it is rampant.
Another sad part is that even if a case is reported despite all the odds, the victim
will have to face the mammoth challenge of waiting for the court hearing. The saying
goes “Justice delayed is justice denied”, but in the case of Nepal an overwhelming bunchof registered cases in court are given delayed verdicts—some taking even decades. And,
it is also commonly known how difficult it is to prove the case of domestic violence against
women in a patriarchal society. All these have contributed to pushing Nepali women
further into vulnerability and deprivation.
Although there have been a number of international and national non-governmentorganizations focusing on women’s issues lately in Nepal, the size and scale of theirinterventions are still insufficient. Most of these organizations have launched theirprograms in western and far-western regions of the country, as these are the mostdisadvantaged and remotest regions. While it make sense for these organizations tomake the most of their scarce resources by investing in the most deprived regions, theother regions such as the Terai, which has equally marginalized women and girls, fail toavail themselves of such support. Even if some of the non-profit organizations arerunning their programs in the Terai, they are usually focused on other priority problems
such as disaster mitigation, combating deforestation, etc.
One of the impressive non-government sector programs is the ‘We can end all
Violence against Women (We Can)’ campaign. The strength of this model is theidentification of individual Change Makers at household levels and channeling thesupport to the communities through these Change Makers. This program was launchedby Oxfam as a regional campaign in response to the growing violence against women andgirls in the South Asia region.
In order to have a desired impact, the non-profit organizations need to work in close
coordination with the government offices. These organizations can benefit from thelarger presence of the government units all over the country, while the government canavail the much-needed resources from the help of these organizations. Working closelywith the non-government actors will help the government understand what thecomplexities are with regards to the implementation of the policies, plans and strategies
they have devised, while complying with the international treaties they have endorsed.
The non-profit sector will also have the opportunity of feeding the lessons learnt into thedocumentation process of the government, which will help ensure that the future policies
are practical, implementable and based on the ground reality.