http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/what-chance-for-dalit-girls
What chance for Dalit girls?
guardian.co.uk
Durga Sob knows she is taking a serious risk. She is strictly
forbidden to drink at her school because of widespread fears over
pollution.
Her throat is so parched that she cannot resist, but someone sees her.
Within seconds every pupil has gathered to stare while their teacher shouts:
"How dare you do this! You are untouchable!"
Lack of clean water is one of many factors behind the deaths of
thousands of children in Nepal who do not survive to celebrate their
fifth birthdays.
Most are due to easily preventable diseases and conditions, like
diarrhoea and malnutrition.
But the water here is safe, it is Durga who is treated as a contamination risk.
As a Dalit, the least ritually pure caste or social group, she is
'untouchable', banned from drinking at public water sources.
Contact with Dalits and anything they 'infect' through touch is
believed to 'pollute' people from so-called higher castes.
In Nepal, children have among the worst chances of survival in the
world thanks to geography, poverty, corruption and civil war.
The caste system makes Dalits even more likely to die, with girls
doubly discriminated against.
Yet against all the odds Durga not only survived but grew up to become
an internationally recognised human rights activist.
She says: "What happened to me at school is still happening
today.....Dalit women's voices are growing but Dalits still have the
worst health comparatively.
"They have the worst malnutrition problems because of absolute poverty
and discrimination.
"Government health provision is expensive. Dalit children are dying
because Dalits don't have awareness or access to services."
With laws banning caste-based discrimination rarely enforced despite
ongoing violence, Durga's crusade highlights both what she has
achieved and how much still needs to be done.
Efforts to stop Nepalese children dying have also brought significant
success amidst dire circumstances.
When Maoist rebels launched the 'People's War' against the Nepalese
army in 1996 to 'liberate' Dalits, Dalits arguably suffered most yet
again as both sides committed atrocities in the decade-long conflict.
But another battle to save the next generation was quietly waged in
the background.
The Nepalese Government, working with charities and communities,
increased Vitamin A handouts and more than doubled immunisation and
treatment programmes for diarrhoea and pneumonia.
The number of children under five dying almost halved from 117 per
1000 live births in 1991 to 61 per 1000 live births in 2006, putting
Nepal on course to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on
reducing deaths of under-fives by two thirds by 2015.
The goal, one of eight set by world leaders in 2000, is the furthest
from being achieved globally.
Around nine million children still die each year worldwide from the
same preventable diseases and conditions.
While vaccinations and vitamins are simple, affordable solutions,
there are many barriers to overcome.
Remote landscapes make access to city hospitals impossible, and caste
discrimination can be as insurmountable as the terrain.
Nepal's success is largely credited to Female Community Health
Volunteers (FCHV) , a group of women villagers trained to deliver
basic lifesaving treatment from their homes.
Manisha Kami, 14, is among thousands of children born as war started
who received crucial healthcare from the FCHV.
But as a Dalit girl, Manisha recalls sitting alone and being seen last.
Now more Dalit women are educated and some are health volunteers whose
growing role is improving lives.
Dr Neena Khadka, programme director with Save the Children in Nepal,
says: "These women are bringing their issues forward and there is
general awareness that discrimination is wrong.
"The bigger problem is demand for services, which is low because
communities still don't know what is available, or they know but don't
trust them."
The issue of trust is not just about discrimination.
More than 90% of births are at home and traditional beliefs
unintentionally jeopardise children's survival.
Mothers and babies are considered impure during the period around the
birth so women are often sent to a cowshed to deliver their babies
alone on a cold, dirty floor.
Newborns are bathed, regardless of the weather, because they are
deemed unclean. They are not breastfed immediately because mother's
milk is also thought to be impure.
In 2002 a Save the Children study found that 60% of all infant deaths
were newborns, giving Nepal the third worst neonatal mortality rate in
the world.
Renewed efforts to drive down deaths were clearly needed. Save the
Children helped the Nepalese government create a national newborn
strategy and began spreading health messages.
Some of the most successful mediums are reading and writing groups
where women indirectly learn the benefits of timely breastfeeding and
contraception.
Malnutrition remains a serious killer. The latest national demographic
health survey in 2006 found that nearly 50% of children were stunted.
Lack of food is a major problem and Dalits still suffer
disproportionately with many denied land for growing crops.
Recent figures provided by the Feminist Dalit Organisation, of which
Durga is president, highlight the impact of discrimination. Infant
mortality rates are 116.5 per 1000 births for Dalits, compared to 75.2
per 1000 births for non Dalits.
There is every reason to believe that Nepal can meet its target on
reducing child deaths in five years' time.
It is far less certain that enough of those saved will be Dalits.
A new constitution currently being drawn up could finally make Dalit
rights a reality.
Meanwhile campaigners like Durga and now Manisha, who belongs to a
Save the Children youth club and child rights committee, are making a
difference.
Professor Smita Narula, of New York-based Centre for Human Rights and
Global Justice, says: "There is something inspiring and hopeful about
the way in which Dalit voices are rising up to rightfully demand a
seat at the table."
Manisha herself says: "I think the practice of untouchability will
disappear and Dalit children will enjoy the right of education and
survival."
This feature was written between 6 March and 30 April 2010 as part of
the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition
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