WUNRN
NEPAL - GENDER DISCRIMINATION
IMPACTS MALNUTRITION & HEALTH
Malnutrition is chronic in remote areas - Photo: Natalie Bailey/IRIN
KHALANGA BAZAAR, 22 September
2011 (IRIN) - Gender discrimination lies behind much of the malnutrition found
in under-five children in
In Khalanga Bazaar, the headquarters of Jumla District in
According to the preliminary Nepal Demographic Health Survey
(NDHS) released in August, 29 percent of children under five are
malnourished, and the problem is chronic in remote parts of the Mid-Western
Region. The most recent regional figures (in the NDHS 2006 report) show more than half of the children are chronically
malnourished.
“Girls are neglected because they are thought not to need strength,” Indra Raj
Panta, programme officer for Decentralized Action for Children and Women in Jumla, told
IRIN.
Women live hard lives from day one, born with no fanfare,
contrasting starkly to the six-day celebration to mark the birth of a boy.
Walking along the road from one village to the next, women and girls bear the
weight of baskets of apples, rocks or bags of rice, while men and boys tag
alongside unburdened.
Despite the physical demands of a woman’s daily life, boys and husbands eat
first and are offered the most nutritious food, often leaving girls and women
with leftovers.
Pregnant women still labour
The role of a woman as labourer does not ease while pregnant either: The same
work is done, the same weight is borne. And the local belief that leafy, green
vegetables are bad for babies, results in a seriously restricted diet
contributing to the puzzling chronic malnutrition found in the remote Karnali
Zone.
"Malnutrition in
“Breaking this vicious cycle would later on not only translate into better
physical abilities, but also mental and cognitive abilities,” she said.
Research indicates that about half of stunting in children occurs before birth
and up to two years old. Girls who are not fed well, turn into women who are
more likely to give birth to low weight babies, and so the cycle perpetuates.
Tara devi Sejuwal, an auxillary health worker in Urthu, confirmed the need to
improve support for pregnant women in the community.
“Not enough is being done for maternal health. Even mother-in-laws discourage
check-ups [for their daughters-in-laws] because it is not what they had when
they were pregnant themselves,” she said.
|
Life
expectancy for women is 50; for men, 58 |
Early marriage, early childbirth and inadequate spacing of
births are additional issues contributing to the low health of people in her
village where stunting and wasting is pervasive.
Nearly a quarter of Nepalese women have their first child before they are 18
and more than half by the time they are 20, according to the 2006 NDHS report.
More than rice
The Karnali highway, built about three years ago, has meant
improved access to food in the region, and crops are performing relatively well
- there is a surplus of vegetables and potatoes - but Jumla is reporting a 12
percent food shortage this year, according to the district agriculture office.
Jumla has been food secure for the past three months, but community officials
are anticipating a food shortage in the coming six months due to heavy rains
throughout the growing season, said Bed Prasad Chaulagain Dado, Jumla's chief
district agricultural development officer.
Poor feeding habits are
also a problem: “They only want rice, rice and rice,” Dado said.
WFP has local partners on the ground spreading the word on how to eat the
nutritious food available. Awareness on how to construct a healthy diet is
improving, but the culture of gender discrimination is harder to shift, say aid
workers.
The Nepal Red Cross, WFP and other NGOs are combating discrimination by
mandating women’s participation in committees, trying to create opportunities
for economic independence, and by improving education. But these efforts
require women to change their own situation, and exclude men from the process,
said Hari Prasad Subedi, organizational development manager with the Nepal Red
Cross.
“To make a change we must have male-based programmes,” he said. “There are
women’s empowerment programmes and the women learn, but then they can’t
communicate it at home. Things need to change one household - one husband and
wife at a time.”