Banning women from working in the Gulf: protection or discrimination?

Posted on 22 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

Protecting women or discriminating against women?

Who in their right mind would want their friends, daughters, sisters or mothers to work in the Gulf, knowing the high rates of sexual harassment and low labour standards?

But isn’t this just another example of the state discriminating rather than providing real protection in the form of more lobbying, better consulate support, strategic litigation, and so forth?

 

NEPAL BANS WOMEN UNDER 30 FROM WORKING IN THE GULF

Nepal has banned women under the age of 30 from working as housemaids in the Gulf amid growing concerns about human right abuses. However, rights groups in Nepal have argued that the age-specific bar violates women’s rights to equality.

Domestic workers in most Gulf countries fall under the kafala system, which means that their right to remain in the country is linked to their employer’s sponsorship. Changing jobs is difficult if not impossible, and most workers must hand their passports over to employers.

An estimated 200,000 Nepalis women work in the Gulf without official documentation. Kathmandu has recently been at the centre of a racket involving the sale of fake passport to migrant workers, many of them young women travelling to the Gulf to work as housemaids. None of the Gulf states have signed ILO conventions on migrant labour.

“We decided to put age bar because mature women can better protect themselves. Other South Asian countries also have similar provision. The Gulf countries themselves suggested to have such provision,”  Kumar Belbase, Minister of Labour and Employment. Bal Bahadur Tamang, President, Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, told The Himalayan Times. 

However, the ban has met with opposition from some groups. Saru Joshi, Programme Specialist, UN Women, said:

“The more prudent step will be to strengthen security network, to offer choices, make the workers aware of the risks, strengthen NRN associations and adopt integrated approach.”

Most Nepali women working in the Gulf are thought to be under the age of 25.

The Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi claimed this week that it had not heard anything about the legislation, according to reports in The Khaleej Times.

From Migrant Rights >

Nepal should protect, not ban young women migrating to Gulf

The Nepali government should revoke its new ban on women under the age of 30 from working in Arab Gulf countries and instead should improve protections so domestic workers can migrate safely – such as by ensuring full monitoring and accountability of recruitment agencies in Nepal. At the same time governments in the Gulf should adopt long overdue labor protections and immigration reforms, including ending the discriminatory treatment of domestic workers, to combat abuse of Nepali and other migrant workers.

On August 9, Nepal’s cabinet approved a ban on women under the age of 30 from traveling to the Gulf for work. The ban is a response to several publicized cases of abuse of Nepali domestic workers, including long work hours, unpaid wages, and in some cases physical or sexual abuse. This recent move comes two years after Nepal lifted a 12-year ban on any women working in Middle Eastern countries.

“Nepal is right to be concerned about its migrant domestic workers, but imposing a ban on women under 30 from traveling to the Gulf does not solve the problem and discriminates against young women”, said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “A better strategy would be to crack down on abusive recruitment practices, ensure that women migrate with an enforceable contract in hand, and equip embassies to respond quickly to complaints of abuse.”

Official Nepali emigration figures state that as many as 1,000 migrants pass daily through Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu; many others leave by land through the porous Indian border. Many domestic workers have positive experiences and together send home billions of dollars in remittances each year to Asia. Others face abuse.

Human Rights Watch has documented discrimination and abuse against Asian domestic workers in the Middle East for several years. Labor laws in the Gulf exclude domestic workers from basic protections guaranteed other workers such as a weekly rest day, limits to hours of work, and compensation in case of work-related injury. Restrictive immigration rules make it difficult for domestic workers to escape from abusive employers.

A ban on work in the Gulf may drive women desperate for work to migrate through irregular channels, putting them at greater risk of exploitation and trafficking, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch interviewed Nepali domestic workers in Saudi Arabia during the previous ban and found that they were especially likely to encounter abuse. They had no information about their rights, no employment contracts, and were more likely to migrate with illegal recruiters who left them heavily indebted. If they faced abuse from their employers, their precarious legal status made it more difficult for them to approach or receive assistance from authorities.

Instead of a blanket ban on young women that denies them important employment opportunities, Nepal’s government should work with other labor-sending governments to demand stronger protections for migrant workers in the Gulf, Human Rights Watch said. It urged the Nepali government to improve training of migrant workers, to monitor recruitment agencies rigorously, and to ensure migrant women know where to get help if they need it.

“Governments in the Gulf should heed the concern about abuse against domestic workers in their countries,” said Varia. “They should move quickly to include domestic workers in labor laws, prosecute abusive employers, and improve cooperation with labor-sending countries.”

Nepal has obligations under its interim constitution and international law to protect women from discrimination, including in employment. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Nepal ratified in 1991, requires states to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment. Human Rights Watch called on the Nepali government to ratify the International Labor Organization Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

From Bikya Masr >

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Women farmers do 6x the work of men

Posted on 22 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

‘[T]he UN Environment Programme noted that women performed six times the agriculture work that men do.’

NEPAL: Tailoring technology for female farmers

Most of Nepal’s agriculture is undertaken by women, but research tailored to their needs is lacking. “We need new technologies that can reduce the drudgery for them,” said Devendra Gauchan, agricultural economist and chief of the Socioeconomics and Agri-research Policy Division at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC).

Agriculture supports the livelihood of more than 60 percent of the rural population, but most farmers, regardless of gender, stick to the manual practices that have been common for centuries and seldom use mechanical equipment.

Women have traditionally been involved in agriculture, but the scale and range of their responsibilities has increased. “Feminization has been rapidly enhanced in recent years due to the massive migration… from rural areas, mostly men,” said Gauchan.

Around nine of every 10 people who have left the country, whether permanently or temporarily, are men, according to the most recent census in 2011.

A survey by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2010 revealed that some 3 percent of households headed by women used mechanical equipment, compared to 8 percent of those headed by men.

“The demands of women and men are different, we need to consider that in agriculture research,” said Shreeram Neopane, executive director of local initiatives at Biodiversity, Research and Development, an NGO based in Pokhara, some 200km west of the capital, Kathmandu.

The Institute for Integrated Development Studies, a think-tank in Kathmandu, recently noted that agricultural research and training could cut poverty “if it generates and disseminates technologies, which are specifically targeted at the problems of poor farmers, including women farmers, who, because of the gender division of labour, have different technology needs from men.”

Such research should focus on inventing small equipment and machines that would mechanize farming – from sowing to harvesting and post-harvest processing – suggested Dhruva Joshy, former executive director of the NARC.

For example, the traditional way of husking of finger millet, a small staple grain, by pestle and mortar is labour-intensive and time-consuming. A dehusking machine could significantly ease the energy and time this takes, said Bhag Mal, a consultant to the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in Bangkok, Thailand.

Women are often concerned about different aspects of agricultural production, which researchers need to keep in mind, said Neopane. In choosing rice varieties, men care more about increasing yield and production, while women also consider taste, smell and ease of threshing and cooking. Recognizing the needs of women could result in a “higher rate of uptake of a technology, and more benefit from the technology for the family.”

Although women would benefit most from a boost in agriculture research, Gauchan pointed out that few of the country’s researchers are women – only 10 percent of public agriculture researchers in 2009 were women. This is a mere 1 percent increase from 2003, according to the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute and NARC in 2011.

FAO found that 98 percent of Nepal’s total female labour force were engaged in agriculture in 2010,  while the UN Environment Programme noted that women performed six times the agriculture work that men do.

Despite contributing 35 percent to the national gross domestic product, investment in agriculture accounted for just 2 percent of the government’s 2009 budget, with less than 0.2 percent going to research.

Rural women in Nepal are less educated than men, with only about one year of formal schooling each on average, according to a 2010 FAO analysis. The success of any new invention therefore depends on the empowerment of women, and their training and access to information, said Gauchan.

“Even if new technologies arrive, they do not reach many places. Only the smarter women have access, but women living in rural corners do not,” said Radha Nepal, a farmer and chairwoman of the community maize seed production committee in a hilly village in Palpa District, in the southern Terai region bordering India.

“If the knowledge of women were enhanced – if manure, seed and pesticide were made available, with the necessary tools – then women could do all the agriculture work themselves.”

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Traffic accidents up, fastest growing ‘epidemic’

Posted on 22 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

No surprises here:

NEPAL: Road traffic accidents on the rise

Some 130 major accidents and thousands of minor ones are reported every day in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, says the country’s Traffic Directorate. At this rate, the roads are as deadly as the decade-long civil war that ended in 2006 after killing almost 18,000 people.

Rajju Shakya, 19, was driving her scooter to university in the capital last year. “There was a turning point at the junction. I switched on my sidelight and waited. Something hit from behind and I can’t remember anything else,” she said. Shakya lost both her legs below the knee as a result.

“The road traffic accident rate is frightening… The number of vehicles is increasing… The roads are narrow, and we don’t have enough space to expand these roads,” said Ashim Bajracharya, a senior lecturer in the architecture and urban planning department at Tribhuvan University’s Institute of Engineering, located in the capital.

The Word Health Organization’s (WHO) most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study reported road traffic accidents as one of the fastest growing “epidemics” in the Southeast Asian region.

Most of the world’s road fatalities occur in low and middle-income countries, which have less registered vehicles, according to WHO.

The growing number of vehicles in Kathmandu has far outstripped road capacity, resulting in congestion that was fatal at times, Bajracharya said.

“The accident rate is particularly high among teenagers, so we have decided to submit a proposal to change the legal age to drive two-wheeled vehicles from 16 to 18,” Ganesh Raj Rai, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Traffic Directorate, told IRIN. The directorate is working with the Higher Secondary Schools’ Association Nepal to reach teenage drivers.

A UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) report in 2011 estimated that road traffic accidents in Nepal had increased fourfold in the last decade, leading to 1,734 fatalities nationwide in 2009-10.

Almost half of the people who die in road accidents are pedestrians, cyclists, or people on motor scooters and motorbikes, and many studies indicate that this proportion can be higher in poorer countries.

Nepal has built about 7,000 kilometres of roads nationwide in the past decade, according to the World Bank, but this still leaves more than half the population without access to all-weather roads.

Although the Traffic Directorate is implementing an accelerated road-building campaign, there is little awareness or information about traffic rules and road safety, which is part of problem.

“A new six-lane [13km] highway has been built in between Kathmandu and Bhaktapur [where] a large number of accidents were reported in less than a year. The government does not make the public aware about its new plans and this is where the problem resides,” said Kichah Chitrakar, chief executive of a local private engineering company, Development E-fort Nepal.

The Traffic Directorate is planning to introduce road safety education in schools, and said it is making awareness campaigns a priority.

From IRIN >

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Chepang literacy at 23 per cent

Posted on 20 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

Still shocking in 2012:

NEPAL: Chepang struggle to educate their children

The Chepang, one of Nepal’s most disadvantaged and marginalized indigenous groups, are struggling to educate their children. While many parents are managing to keep them in school, they worry that poverty will put an end to education.

“We will do whatever it takes to educate our children, even if it means selling our livestock and farms,” said Indra Bahadur Chepang, 43, a farmer with four children in Supar village, in the Shaktikhor Village Development Committee (VDC) area of Chitwan District, nearly 300km southwest of the capital, Kathmandu.

In 2001, when the last census took place, just over 52,000 Chepangs were recorded, but activists say their numbers have nearly doubled since then. The Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities lists 59 indigenous groups in Nepal, comprising just over 37 percent of the country’s 30 million inhabitants.

The Chitwan branch of the Nepal Chepang Association (NCA), an NGO formed by Chepang rights activists, says the literacy rate is barely 23 percent among the close to 90,000 Chepangs in 54 VDCs – in Chitwan, Dhading, Gorkha, Makwanpur, Lamjung and Tanahu districts – against a national average of 40 percent, according to Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Food insecurity is a chronic problem. Most Chepangs are subsistence farmers, living from hand to mouth, and depend on the region’s two annual harvests, each lasting three months. Over 80 percent are under the poverty line, which means they survive on less than US$1 per day, the NCA reported.

“Extreme poverty and the remoteness of their habitat are the reasons for low literacy rates among the Chepang families,” said Gopal Prasad Bhandari, a senior official of the District Education Office in the Bharatpur municipality of Chitwan District.

He said the government is working to provide education to Chepang children, but Chepang parents and activists say little is being done, and this is evidenced by the lack of education infrastructure on the ground. Most villages in the area have only a primary school, forcing children to walk three to four hours each day to reach secondary schools.

“Most of the time when children reach schools, they are already too exhausted and hungry because they are unable to eat in the morning, and unable to study after they reach home,” said Purna Puri, principal of Chattramukhi Secondary School in Milan Bazar.
More government efforts needed

“We constantly worry that the children will drop out because they are always tired when they reach home and don’t have energy to concentrate on their studies,” said Ram Chandra Chepang, a farmer whose two sons walk four hours each day to school and back.

In response, the government has established a hostel exclusively for Chepang children, with free food and lodging so that they don’t have to walk from their homes each day. But the school has space for only 40 children, while there are over 1,000 Chepang children in Shaktikhor alone.

This small initiative by the local district education office has helped nearly 75 Chepang children, including 22 girls, to graduate in the past 10 years in Shaktikhor. “But that is not enough for the rest of the children who will be deprived of their education. The government has to do more,” said activist Manju Chepang.

According to government officials, the situation in Chepang communities is dire and more programmes are needed to ensure schooling opportunities for children. “We are working towards building more secondary schools in the remote villages. Our plans are underway,” Bhandari said.

But when that will actually happen remains unclear. “The situation of the Chepang families is very bleak and I constantly worry about its impact on the children’s education. They desperately need help,” said Evelyn Varke, principal of Navodaya School in the Ramnagar area, 20km from Shaktikhor VDC.

The school was started by missionaries from India specifically for Chepang children, but it cannot enrol more than 200 students. Over 350 applications are received from parents each year, but only 35 can be accepted.

“We want to help more children but we don’t have enough space,” Varke said, adding that more NGOs and the government are needed in this effort.

From IRIN >

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Ex-minister gets jailed for corruption

Posted on 15 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

One of many:

Nepal jails former minister in corruption case

Nepal’s highest court on Tuesday jailed a former home minister for corruption in the latest in a series of high profile graft convictions of prominent public figures.

The Supreme Court handed Khum Bahadur Khadka an 18-month sentence and 9.5-million-rupee ($110,000) fine after he failed to account for a vast portfolio of property accrued while in office.

“We have reached the conclusion that the defendant’s source of income and the property he earned during the given period doesn’t match,” Kalyan Kumar Shrestha, one of two presiding judges, told reporters.

“He failed to verify the source of income for 9.47 million rupees. This shows if one commits crime, no matter how powerful, he (or) she will be convicted,” Shrestha said, adding that the authorities would confiscate property equivalent in value to the fine.

Khadka, 61, held a number of high-ranking posts, including home minister and local development minister, in the 1990s when the Nepali Congress, now in opposition, was in power.

Chiranjibi Wagle became the first former minister jailed for corruption last year, and in February information and communications minister Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta was the first serving cabinet secretary to go to jail for graft.

Khadka, who started his political career in the 1970s with a student organisation connected to the Congress, has faced numerous accusations of misusing his office to suppress opposition.

After hearing about the verdict, a group of his supporters vandalised two privately-owned cars and two police vehicles and 16 were arrested for disorder, Kathmandu police spokesman Dhiraj Pratap Singh told AFP.

During the 2008 parliamentary elections Khadka ran for office in his home district of Dang in southern Nepal but withdrew after the Maoist party accused him of involvement in the killings of seven members in the run up to the polls.

He was never charged with any crime in connection with the deaths.

From AFP >

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Janakpur Women’s Development Centre

Posted on 8 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

Not sure this is all it could have been…

Letter from Nepal: old love story

I was in Janakpur to collect a painting by Gangawati Das, a 45-year-old Maithili woman who works in the Janakpur Women’s Development Centre, an organisation set up in 1989 to promote the work of female artists. Maithili women are among the poorest and most marginalised people in the Terai plains of east Nepal.

India‘s oldest love story began in Janakpur. It is where Rama, Prince of Ayodhya, came to marry the beautiful daughter of the King of Mithila, the lovely Sita. Their story is told in the most popular of the Indian epics, The Ramayana, written around 500BC.

It is also why Janakpur boasts 120 temples, including the fantastic Mogul-inspired Janaki Mandir, one of Nepal’s most picturesque. Next door to its elegant stucco facade is a hideous modern brick-and-glass building that commemorates the spot where Rama and Sita married. Thousands of pilgrims visit every day.

Fortunately, the JWDC where Gangawati works is surrounded by green paddy fields and shady mango groves. The artists work sitting cross-legged on the floor painting on Nepali lokta paper, made from the bark of Himalayan shrubs.

In Maithili culture it is only the women who paint; on the freshly plastered mud walls of their houses, they celebrate marriages, births or Hindu festivals such as Deepawali.

The paintings usually depict some of the pantheon of Hindu gods. Nowadays, the artists have a more modern repertoire: recent commissions include posters that highlight the danger of HIV or the need to register for elections.

When I visit Gangawati, the outside of her simple, mud-plastered house is adorned with a large painting of Hanuman, the Monkey King who helped Rama rescue Sita after she had been abducted by the evil King Ravana.

Gangawati ushers me in for a cup of tea served by her daughter-in-law, who hides shyly behind her. Gangawati was married to her husband at the age of 16.

I look at my painting. In the folk style of Maithili artists, Gangawati has painted all the birds around her home: tiny screech owls, a crested hoopoe, a colourful openbill stork and a dazzling blue peacock.

The celestial lovers are here as well, eating a cob of corn while Hanuman watches discreetly over them.

From the Guardian >

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Minority Voices video on climate change

Posted on 7 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

I intend to watch this when I get a chance..

A Journey to Imja Lake: Climate Change in the land of the Sherpa

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Gov still can’t enact Supreme Court’s LGBT citizenship ruling

Posted on 7 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

This is dragging on now. Is it one of the world’s most progressive countries, or is it not. Please someone make their mind up!

Hundreds march in Nepal in support of gay rights

Gays, lesbians, transgender people and their supporters marched in a Nepalese town Friday to demand recognition as a third gender in citizen certificates, to allow same-sex marriage and to criminalize discrimination based on sexual preference.

Dressed in colorful clothes, laden with beads and other jewelry, they danced to Bollywood music played over loudspeakers as they marched for about 3 kilometers (2 miles) though the center of Pokhara, a resort town 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the capital, Katmandu.

Sunil Babu Pant of the Blue Diamond Society, a group that supports sexual minorities in Nepal, said the rally was an opportunity for people to come out.

“The rally gives us an opportunity to seek the support of the public and be more visible in the society,” Pant said. “There are more and more people coming out in the open, and this rally gives them a chance.”

Pant, a former parliament member, has been campaigning for rights of sexual minorities to be included in the new constitution, which was being written by the Constitution Assembly before it expired earlier this year. A new assembly is scheduled to be elected in November.

Nepal’s Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the government should issue citizenship certificates with a third gender. The government said it would, but the process is taking time.

Pant said that those seeking the third gender certificates were not able to get jobs or passports, enroll in colleges or own property because of the delay, and that the government was not doing enough to help their community.

Basu Guragai, 26, who recently announced he is gay and joined the rally, said thousands of gays in Nepal are afraid to come out in the open fearing their friends and family.

“The gay community in Nepal wants same-sex marriage laws,” Guragai said. “We want to live as a couple with other men, and that should be allowed legally.”

As the estimated 2,500 participants marched along the streets of Pokhara, many residents watched and cheered. There was no trouble reported at the rally.

Sunita Gurung, a convenient store clerk, said that it was the first time she had seen such a rally and so many transgender people, but that she did not have any problems with what they were demanding.

“It is their personal choice and if they want that way of life — they should be able to have it,” Gurung said.

Nepal is considered a conservative nation. Most of its people are Hindu, and many still follow traditional beliefs. Most marriages are still arranged by parents, and extended families all live together.

It was only after the fall of the monarchy and the election of a Constituent Assembly in 2008 that the sexual minorities began to demand rights. Pant’s appointment in the assembly was considered a milestone for the community.

From AP >

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Months after constitution due, still nobody understands ‘federalism’

Posted on 7 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

The good ol’ UN and their timeliness

Analysis: Nepalis speak out on federalism

The debate on federalism in Nepal, and how to share political power and natural resources, has centred on the issue of recognizing ethnic groups. A constitution still remains to be written six years after a decade of civil war ended, but the Constituent Assembly, elected to draft a new constitution and function as a parliament, has been dissolved.

“[An] understanding of how to recognize identity, and how to balance diversity, is still unresolved. And what [does] identity mean… individual, group, or national?” asked Sapana Pradhan-Malla, a lawyer and ex-parliamentarian.

The devolution of power from Kathmandu, the capital, is another difficult issue. Nine out of 10 people live outside cities, and most are small-scale farmers. “If state restructuring is not properly planned, taking into account the distribution ofNepal’s natural resources, people will eventually be at each other’s throats,” said Ratna Sansar Shrestha, a water analyst affiliated to Kathmandu University.

In a survey published in May 2012, 73 percent of the 3,200 participants said federal units should not be ethnically based, 13 percent said they should, and another 14 percent either did not know or want to respond.

As party leaders try to forge a consensus government to continue the debate on state restructuring – three months after parliament disbanded – IRIN visited five of the country’s 75 districts to find out what people understand by federalism.

Gopal Dawadi, 35, who owns a small grocery shop in Chitwan District, 200km southwest of Kathmandu.

“Federalism is good for the country but should not be based on ethnicity because it is a dangerous issue to build states based on one’s ethnicity. We have over 100 ethnic groups, and what if every ethnic and caste group wants their own state? How will the nation deal with such a situation?

“The main problem is that this issue has not been clearly explained to ordinary people, who are the ones who will be victims of misunderstanding. The issue of ethnic-based federalism has to be [explained] to the mass[es], and that has unfortunately not happened yet. So far, the issue has been confined to political debates, and the politicians and journalists have done [a] very poor job in communicating with the people.

“They have not interacted with them at all on such a sensitive subject. I am high-caste and I am aware that our society is yet to become equal among all ethnic groups, but that does mean we have to take such [a] drastic decision of [dividing] our country… into ethnic states?”

Mira Majhi, 27, in Dang District, 400km southwest of Kathmandu

“I believe that we [should] rebuild our nation with the concept of federal states based on our ethnicities. This is very important for oppressed ethnic groups. Federalism gives us a chance to make our society equal in every way in education, economy, political participation and representation in the government.

“The high-caste community is worried because of their assumption that they will be evicted from the new federal states. The fact is that they are afraid of losing their power that they have been enjoying for hundreds of years.

“The political leaders have a responsibility to explain to all Nepali people that this will never divide the nation. Instead, it will unite our country, which has been always divided based on one group’s dominance in every sector, and that being the high castes.

“They should be more open minded, but it depends on how the political leaders will guide them, and until now are only misleading them. We hope that federalism will also create a new society that treats women equal [to] men, and not as second-class citizens.”

Ramesh Jha, 36, a farmer in Sunsari District, 500 km southeast of Kathmandu

“We have always been brainwashed by the leaders and misused by our leaders. They have acted so irresponsibly towards their citizens who are now very sceptical of them. If you look at the issue of federalism – they have done such a poor job of educating people on its concepts. In fact, they have not even met the ordinary people to ask their views on federalism.

“There are many in this country who are really scared to even talk about ethnic-based federalism because we still don’t know the details of how a federal state will be like, what will be the norms and rules.

“Instead, there are many politicians and their leaders who often make people nervous by saying that the restructuring of the state, based on federalism, will only divide the country and cause ethnic war. It is time that they went to the villages and educate the people first, and get their vote on whether they want federalism or not. They cannot decide for the whole Nepali population by sitting in their party offices.”

Purna Pakhrin, 36, a livestock trader Kavre District, 80km southeast of Kathmandu

“I don’t even know what federalism means. The federalism activists from Kathmandu should come and explain to us in detail. I have just heard about a Tamang [ethnic group] state but I don’t even know whether to support or oppose it, because what I can say when I don’t even understand its purpose?

“Will it make our lives better? Will my children have free education? Will we have water in our villages? Will we have jobs in the villages? Will it make women’s status better? I only have too many questions which I have been asking for a long time but nobody comes to explain.

“Instead, we have these political leaders coming to our villages only when they need votes. They come and organize mass meetings, delivering very angry speeches. I only hear them insulting each other’s political parties. So I will not support federalism until I really get educated about it. My high-caste neighbours are my friends, and they always tell me that they are really worried about it.”

Dhruba Nepali, 35, a farmer in Sindhupalchok District, 100km northeast of Kathmandu

“For so long, and even until now, we Dalits have been suppressed and discriminated [against] by the high castes.

“I don’t know much about federalism, but I know this will be a big political change for the low-caste community and I really support federalism. I have a little education on federalism, which I understood when I went to the capital city and I learnt that this new federal system will finally unite the country by ending all forms of discrimination.

“We will finally be able to run our own state, even if it is run by a certain ethnic group. If I have to live under other ethnic groups who will administer the state, then the situation will be better for many marginalized groups.

“If we continue with the same old system then there is no hope, because even after being ruled under so many democratic parties, they never helped to end discrimination. People in Kathmandu think that discrimination against Dalits has ended. They should come to my village and see the reality.”

A recent UN publication notes that the debate, at times violent, over how to restructure the country has largely overlooked “the relationship between the states and the centre, the form of governance within the provinces, or even the rights of various populations within these proposed states.”

A Nepali constitutional lawyer and UN consultant on a constitution-building project, Budhi Karki, told IRIN the federalist debate delaying the constitution is only one hurdle in state-building.

“People have been heavily obsessed about things to put into the constitution, but my concern is whether promises will materialize. Implementation is the challenge.”

UN report: Federalism Discourse in three districts in the Eastern Region

From IRIN >

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Monsoon law 2: ban western names

Posted on 7 August 2012 by NepaliKuire

Another national outrage as millions call for the government to change St Xavier’s to Sri Shiva’s.

Nepal bans schools from using western names

Nepal’s government has banned its secondary schools from using western names saying the country’s education system was losing local culture. Local political groups have been holding protests outside schools that use western names.

Nepal said on Monday it was banning secondary schools from using names like “Oxbridge”, “White House” and “NASA” over fears that the education system is losing its Nepali culture.

The announcement follows a series of protests by student and youth groups — sometimes violent — outside schools across the country which have chosen foreign names.

“We have informed the schools to change their name to Nepali. This is clearly written in the laws but several schools were found violating them,” education ministry spokesman Janardan Nepal told AFP.

“They will be given enough time to change the names. But it should not take long,” Nepal said, without specifying a deadline.

Nepal depends on foreign governments and aid agencies for around 25 percent of its 65-billion-rupee ($715 million) education budget and cash-strapped schools often try to attract funding and pupils with “prestigious” western names.

An estimated 250 secondary schools in Kathmandu are named after European and US historical figures, institutions and places, such as “Einstein Academy” and “Pentagon College.”

Last month the United Nations voiced “deep concern” over escalating violence against schools in Nepal by militants it said were endangering children’s lives and jeopardising their right to education.

Local media have blamed student wings of various political factions for destroying computers in a Kathmandu college and torching school buses in the capital, the southern district of Chitwan and the eastern city of Dharan.

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