Girl Child

 

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 the International Day of the Girl Child, in order to recognize the rights of girls and the unique challenges they face around the world. 

 

This year, Nepal joined hands with the world in celebrating International Day of the Girl Child. But Nepal still has a long way to go to address the challenges of girls. The day brings to attention the state of the girl child not only in the capital but also in the Far-west. 

 

The well-being of girls in such communities is not only overlooked by the state but also by parents. Their well-being is often determined by ailing grandparents or relatives, sometimes even by neighbors. 

 

They are usually abandoned by their foremost caretakers, their mothers and their fathers. In most cases, fathers migrate to India to work as daily-wage laborers, and mothers relinquish their duties in search of greener pastures. Discrimination against girls is still unbridled in Nepal, with a high preference for boys. This often results in increased vulnerability of the girl child. 

 

Many factors contribute to the well-being of girls in communities, but parents play an imperative role during their formative years. Access to parental care is a far cry for girls of Far-west Nepal. Testimonies gathered from my visits to remote Far-west villages are evidence of this.

 

Asmita, a five-year-old hailing from a far-flung village in Kailali, is being raised by her only family, her hearing-impaired grandmother. This was after her mother abandoned them when her father didn’t return home from India. He had travelled across the border to look for a job. Asmita’s neighbor and friend Kanchan, also a five-year-old, shares a similar fate. 

 

The faces of these young girls mirror the unspoken fear of being rejected. These stories are not unheard of in their community, where there is a high rate of migration to neighboring India for employment. Asmita’s disillusioned grandmother is unaware of her only son and daughter-in-law’s whereabouts. In most cases, girls have never known their fathers as they were abandoned soon after birth. 

 

The girls who have not been abandoned share a story that is not very different. They live each day only to die. Four-year-old Basanti’s father is a migrant daily-wage laborer in India and returns home once every couple of years.

 

Basanti lives with her mother and siblings in an inaccessible village in Doti. Basanti is different from other children her age, as she is severely malnourished. Her mother is aware of her daughter’s condition, yet fails to act. She waits for the father to decide whether Basanti should receive treatment in the district hospital. Basanti’s father doesn’t feel the need to treat his daughter. “She is my daughter, let her die” is his response. 

 

For Basanti’s father, his daughter’s well-being is unfamiliar territory, one he is neither aware of nor will get accustomed to. Girls in the Far-west are not only physically abandoned, but also forsaken in hearts and minds. They suffer quietly from indifference. It is not uncommon to hear of such girls falling prey to abuse, forced marriage, or labor in the streets of the capital or neighboring countries.

 

Around 20 percent of the total trafficked women for the sex trade from Nepal are girls below 16 years from remote areas of the Far-west (CWIN 2006). They are among the many young girls who have disappeared from their homes and are unaccounted for, as they do not have parents to seek their whereabouts. Girls are also trafficked for other purposes like domestic labor, forced beggary, marriage, and industrial labor.

 

Asmita, Kanchan and Basanti may not be fortunate enough to experience the fullness of life. They may never be educated, enjoy good health, be cared for, protected, and participate in decisions that affect their lives. 

 

We must put an end to the ill practice of perceiving girls as worthless within the confines of their own homes. We must stop relegating them to secondary status in society. We need to call on the state to intervene to ensure that caretakers are provided with the resources to reduce incidences of abandonment. Government and civil society organizations need to work in tandem to address this issue. This is especially important in remote areas like Far-west, where girls suffer the most from discrimination. 

 

The Government of Nepal has set up the Central Children Welfare Board and District Child Welfare Boards in all districts, but it is yet to bring to the forefront girls who are abandoned yearly.

 

The goal should be to work at the grassroots to create a conducive environment for raising girls while sustaining their well-being within families and communities. While focusing on innovation in girl-child education is the UN theme of the year, their overall well-being in families should not go unnoticed. 

 

The author is Communications Specialist at World Vision International Nepal