After a six-year-long struggle Nepali Women were able to push the “Women Empowerment Bill” through the parliament last year. The passage of the controversial Civil Code (11th Amendment) Bill guaranteeing equal property and conditional abortion rights to women in the House of Representatives was seen as a landmark decision in the country’s social history.

But even four months after the Bill was passed, only 22 percent of the total population knows about the rights that the new law has ensured. More alarmingly, 57 percent of men and 27 percent women do not know anything about the new law. This was recently revealed by a study carried out by the Centre for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities (CREHPA). This comes true when you meet people living below the poverty line in any nook and corner of rural Nepal. Be it the villages in Nepalgunj, Kapilbastu, Doti or Palpa thousands of people still think women are not entitled to “property right.”

One can easily meet people like Shyam Kewat in a village of Kapilbastu who knows nothing about rights. In his early twenties he remains busy in his farm for the whole day and knows nothing about what women have achieved. “Are you telling the truth; I don’t know if women are entitled to equal property. Here, we don’t practice such a bizarre tradition,” he said astonishingly. Women are married off granting certain property as “dowry” and that’s all they get from their parents here.

“Certainly it takes time to make these simple people aware and of course it is going to take a long time to implement the law at the local level,” said Parashu Ram Yadav.

However, even people who are aware of the rights the new law has guaranteed are quite skeptic. They say in a country where more than 40 percent of the people live below the poverty line and own no or very little property, implementing the law is a great challenge. They have questions like Samjhana Kunwar,16, in Palpa has: “What’s the use of knowing about property rights when poor parents have nothing to offer their children?

Samjhana lives with her parents who own no land. Her parents work as laborers and her two sisters and herself work in Dhaka (specially patterned textile) weaving factories. “We are unfortunate that we were born to poor parents; it is not the question of son or daughter but of poverty,” she said. “The new law can only benefit those who are rich.”

Meanwhile, women activists say that despite certain loopholes and controversy, the new law comes as a remarkable decision, which will have long-term impact on women’s development in the country. It should be recalled here that the National Assembly - Upper House - had rejected the same Bill a year before it was passed.

It has yet to be seen how far the new law seeking women’s empowerment will succeed in solving problems of more than half the country’s population. Experts agree that the new law will at least address the issue of women’s ‘welfare,’ if not their ‘rights’.
The new law seeks to empower women by providing unmarried, divorced and widowed women equal rights to parental property. Furthermore, it bans the age-old practice of child marriage and polygamy. Most importantly it legalizes abortion of up to 12-week fetus provided it is done with the help of government authorized paramedics or surgeons. It also allows victims of rape or incest to abort the fetus within 18 weeks.

It may also be noted that Nepal is the only country in the South Asia region where life expectancy of women is less than that of men’s. Nepal Human Development Report 2001 states that Nepali women are far less empowered than men and the country’s Gender Development Index (GDI) does not reflect its gender empowerment measures.

Given this situation it is yet to be seen how far the new law will be able to raise the status of Nepali women. Women’s rights activists admit that there are still many “lacunae” in the law For instance; Article 16 of the new law requires a woman to return her parental property after she gets married.

Such shortcomings give rise to legal complications when it comes to implementation. Women activists plan to knock the door of the Supreme Court for necessary correction. “This was, indeed, a major “achievement” in favor of women as it at least ensures the basic rights of women but only introducing a new law does not ensure solution to all existing discriminations. Enforcement is more important,” argues Sapana Malla, a women rights activist.
Women’s literacy rate is also very low in the country and they are yet to be fully empowered through income generating activities. The moot question is: “Will the new law that is still controversial help those women, living below the poverty line? Remember, Samjhana Kunwar at Palpa.”
 

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