Hello, Moderator, Reader-Participants,
I lived for 5 years in Nepal as Head of a residential school located in total rural surroundings, where the community worked all year around in raising food crops from the terraced fields around. It was only women who were seen working in
the fields through the changes of the season. Only at Harvest time would the men appear, perhaps because the load of work was heavier and they did bring some mechanized tools to implement the work, as rice or wheat that had ripened on the stalk had to be cut within a short span of a few days.
Back breaking work, and the payment to these women for the year long work in these patriarchal and feudal societies was just a bag of the cereal they grew and harvested. They knew no better, Tradition carried on in these regions, and with the political uphreaval that has taken place in the past 15 years when Monarchy has been overthrown and a democratic Republic has been set up as the New Nation of Nepal, whether these Rural women farmers can expect a Better Deal in the new government set up?
Mrs Gomathy Venkateswar
Gomathy Venkateswar