The Women’s Foundation of Kathmandu recently organized a two day event to address the issues of women and children in Nepal. Members of Parliament who are working to draft a new constitution for the country were invited to hear from leaders of women’s organizations, children’s organizations and leading experts on the state of women and children and what should be included in the new constitution to ensure basic human rights.

Nepal is not a great place to be a woman or a child. A recent "Foreign Policy" News Report, dated May 2008, has published a list of "The Worst Places to be a Woman" and Nepal was listed as the worst in South Asia. The female to male income ratio is 50:100, and the average literacy rate for females is 35%. The article goes on to say, "Marriage comes early in Nepal: Women born in the late 1970s married at a median age of 16. And motherhood is particularly dangerous.” Nepal is the “deadliest place in the world to give birth outside Afghanistan and a clutch of countries in sub-Saharan Africa,” according to a 2006 report by the International Federation of the Red Cross. That’s because only about 1 in 5 births is attended by trained health personnel.

Amnesty International has found that, in spite of the election promises made by the government, women human rights activists continue to be at high risk of attack because they dare to challenge Nepal's patriarchal system. Many have become social outcasts for raising the issues of domestic and sexual violence and can face intimidation, beatings and even death. The Nepalese police often refuse to file a complaint or to fully investigate attacks and offer no protection, leaving women to face further persecution in their families and communities.

According to Children-Nepal, child labor is a serious problem and 2.6 million children in Nepal are exploited through this practice as they are sent out to work to provide an income for their families. Additionally, 63% of all children are malnourished at some stage in their development.

Against this backdrop of human rights abuse this conference made its case to lawmakers for stronger laws and real constitutional protection. While the current constitution affords some enumerated rights, it adds language that subrogates those rights in favor of local customs, practices and religious beliefs. The addition of such language has rendered the current constitution all but worthless in affording basic human rights to women and children.

Women comprise more than half of Nepal’s 23 million people. They are less educated and work longer hours than men. A preferene for producing sons is very high in the predominantly patriarchal, Hindu culture. In Nepal, a society where social security does not exist and property is passed on to male descendants, sons are looked upon as old-age insurance. It is also widely believed that sons "open the gates of heaven" by carrying out the last rites of parents. Daughters are "given away" in marriage. These explain, to an extent, the prevalence of sayings like "let it be later, but let it be a son."

Women & Children Quick Facts

• Literacy rate for women is 35% with many areas of the country posting rates significantly lower. The Rasuwa District where Mountain Fund has most of it’s projects has a female literacy rate of only 15%.

• As many as 60% of Nepalese children are malnourished at some stage in their development.

• Only 1 in 5 births is attended by trained health personnel.

• Only 60% of girls enroll in school. Only 27% of children complete their primary school education.

• Arranged marriages are still common. Often the brides are quite young.

• It is estimated that there are 127,143 children working in the worst forms of child labour — as bonded laborers, ragpickers, porters, domestic workers, in mines, in the carpet sector, and being trafficked.

• Nepal has about two dozen laws that discriminate against women. One debars them from inheriting parental property, unless they remain unmarried till age 35. That is more than half the average life-span of Nepali women.