WUNRN
By Mallika Aryal
When
Bhagwati got married, she was just starting eighth grade but had to quit school
when she moved to her husband’s family. Her in-laws would not let her study.
When her husband passed away, she had to find a way to support herself, so
Adhikari looked for jobs but soon realised she had no skills.
She also
understood that with her husband's death the way society viewed her had also
changed. Hindu customs in
"Neighbours
and friends stopped talking to me, men made indecent advances, I wasn't allowed
to be around during religious ceremonies because widows are considered bad luck
- it is not easy to be a widow in
She knew she
had to fight the battles alone and she couldn't do that without education. She
ignored her parents and in-laws' objections, and went back to school in her
native Kahbre district, west of
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The
job, and her meeting with other widows who were now trying to rebuild their
lives, empowered her to move to
In the
recent Nepali budget, the government announced its plan to provide 50,000
rupees (666 dollars) to the couple when a man marries a widow.
Widows like
Adhikari are humiliated; organisations who have been working with single women
are shocked and women rights activists are outraged.
"We
have worked so hard to end discrimination against widows, and have had small
successes," says Lily Thapa, founder and president of WHR, "but when
the government makes a decision like this, it takes us many steps back and
proves how insensitive policymakers can be."
For many
years WHR has been pushing the government to provide pension to all Nepali
widows.
Rekha
Subedi, 31, was widowed when her husband was killed during the 'People’s War'
by the Maoists. Subedi is outraged, "Now I feel like there's a price attached
to me, how can the government think this step will empower widows like
us?" she asks.
Representatives
of rights groups say that this latest decision puts pressure on widows to
marry. "Marriage is a deeply personal decision, it is a choice an individual
makes. Why is the government interfering by allocating money for
remarriage?" asks Thapa. Activists lobbying for the elimination of the
dowry system fear that attaching monetary value to marriage may propagate a
different kind of dowry system.
"Policymakers
seem to think that the women can only feel secure if she is married to a man -
this is downright humiliating for us widows who have been living alone and
supporting our families," says Nisha Swar whose husband was abducted and
later killed by the Maoists in 2002.
Advocate
Kabita Pandey of the human rights group Pro Public says that the government’s
decision will create dependency of widows on men and will make them more
vulnerable to violence. According to WHR, the number of widows with children is
far more than those without. A decision like this not only makes the women but
also their children vulnerable to abuse and sexual violence.
"This
is a country where fathers, brothers and close family members sell their
sister, daughter, wife, to traffickers because of poverty - we have had cases
of women being trafficked for less than 100 dollars. Traffickers can easily
marry widows, collect their 666 dollars and sell the women off for more
money," says Pandey.
The
government has no figures on the number of widows in the country. WHR has
44,000 members in 225 villages of
WHR, which
has filed a writ against the government, prime minister, minister and ministry
of finance in October, is now in consultation with
"We are
working so that the provisions are removed from the budget altogether, that's
what the widows want," says Thapa. Women's rights activist say that if the
government tries to push through with the decision they will intensify their
pressure and protest from the streets.
"This
issue is not going to go by pushing it under the rug, we are united, and we'll
fight until this humiliating policy goes away," says Swar.
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