WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu (Women's Feature Service) - When Nepal's parliament was
assembling to elect a new prime minister in July, very few people noticed that
Sharada Nepali, a 39-year-old lawmaker from a minor party, was missing. Away
from the television cameras and the excitement in the house, Nepali, a mother
of six, was grappling with death in a city hospital; she had tried to kill
herself by drinking carbolic acid.
And yet, her life is at first sight a modest rags-to-riches story.
Nepali belongs to the Dalit community that is still regarded as untouchable in
What went wrong for the woman who managed to get herself elected, reach
the capital from an obscure village, and became a part of the nation's voice?
"I could not handle it anymore," said the tearful politician, lying
on her spartan hospital bed. "There was too much pressure from my family
and the party. I was mentally tortured by my husband (Ravi Lal) for not handing
over my entire salary as a Member of Parliament (MP) to him. I couldn't do that
since my party was paying me just a fraction of the money we are allotted by
the government. When I raised the issue, the party threatened to sack me."
Nepali's bid to kill herself is no isolated incident. According to the
police, every month, 15 to 20 women commit suicide either by hanging, drinking
poison or drowning in rivers.
The first alarm was sounded by the Department of Health Services in
January this year, when it published a study on the deaths of women of
reproductive age. The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity (MMM) study, conducted
from April 2008 to 2009 by the Family Health Division, came up with a shocking
finding. "There has been a dramatic increase in the contribution of
suicide to deaths of women in the reproductive age - 16 per cent as compared
with 10 per cent in 1998," it noted. "This makes it the leading
single cause of death... in 1998 it was the third."
Of the 1,496 women of reproductive age who died in the study districts
during the survey period, 25 per cent succumbed to "external causes",
while in 1998 the number was 13 per cent. "This change was largely due to
the increase in suicides," the study revealed. "Suicide was far in
the lead, with the second leading cause, accidents, accounting for nine per
cent. The shocking finding... highlights the urgent need to address this issue,
which has received little attention. Research is needed to improve
understanding of the circumstances and contributory factors of these tragic
events, to guide interventions." Since the study covers just eight of
The study lists mental health problems, relationships, marriage and
family issues as the key factors leading to suicides among women. Of the cases
studied, 21 were aged 18 years and under.
A fifth factor, not mentioned by the report, is poverty. This year
alone, there have been cases of group suicides. In July, a woman whose husband
had abandoned her with their three young children to work in
Sometimes the line between suicide and actual murder is blurred.
Nainkala Thapa, chair of the National Women's Commission, says there are also
growing cases of family members killing a woman and then trying to make it look
like suicide.
Thapa cites the case of Laxmi Bohara, 28. A human rights worker in
Kanchanpur, Bohara, was a victim of domestic violence. A mother of three, she
was repeatedly abused and beaten up by her husband, Tek Raj Bohara, and
mother-in-law Dhana Devi, for taking part in campaigns for women's rights.
Kanchanpur in farwest
On June 6, Bohara was severely assaulted by her husband, who then rushed
her to hospital, claiming she had taken poison. "Human rights activists
believe she was beaten to death and the poison was poured down her throat to
make it look like suicide," says Thapa. "A complaint has been lodged
with the police, saying it was murder and not suicide."
"Suicides are rising in
However, things are likely to change with
Unknown to the lawyers, the law and justice ministry was then already
working on the draft for such a law and so, although the Supreme Court
dismissed the suit, the team drafting the new legal code made a note of the
activists' plea for a five-year jail term for a suicide abettor. "Now, our
draft is ready," says Raju Mansingh Malla, spokesman at the ministry.
"A panel headed by Supreme Court judge Kalyan Shrestha has drafted a new
penal code for
The draft for the suicide act was tabled before the council of ministers
in May. Five days later, the cabinet approved of the draft and asked the
ministry to circulate it among different ministries, courts as well as other
stakeholders and ask for their opinions and suggestions within three months.
"We will then incorporate suggestions and send the amended draft back to
the ministry," says Malla. "The quantum of fine will be decided after
receiving stake holders' views. We hope to submit the amended draft before the
cabinet by October."
However, activists want more. FWLD chief and MP, Sapana Pradhan Malla,
says the government also needs to heed media reports of Nepali women working
abroad committing suicide at an alarming rate. Her comment comes after it was
reported that 15 women working as domestic help in
"How long do we have to go on reading about women killing themselves due to lack of options, clear laws and policies by the government and their implementation?" Pradhan Malla wrote in an impassioned article in the Kantipur daily. "How long do we have to go on waiting to receive women's bodies?"
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