(Niraj Gautam)
Nepalgunj, 22nd January, 2015 :Â Women from the Madhesi and Muslim communities here are gradually becoming aware and started fighting gender-based discriminations.
The women from the communities have started speaking out against the violence against the women committed in various places including within their families. They have started to bring out the ill-practices and suppression committed against them organizing themselves in various groups in towns and villages in the Terai.
“I got married when I was 12. I have to pass through bitter experience hardly after two years into marriage as my husband began to thrash me making unnecessary allegations against me. Then I started and have been working associating myself in a social organization in my village which has run various campaigns against such bad practices,” said Amna Bagwan, 28, of Indrapur VDC-6.
The dozens of women in the village have committed themselves to struggle against the violence against women (VAW). They jointly face any discriminatory acts if a member in the society becomes the victim of VAW from within the family members or anyone in their neighbourhood.
“We have not got such change by ourselves, but it has been possible after the Fatima Foundation, a social organization in the village, encouraged the women in our community to raise voice against the gender-based discrimination,” said Ramawati Kurmi, one of the victim women from a Medhesi community in the village.
Ramawati has been taking shelter at her father’s house after her husband and other members of the family refused entry to her in the house. She is advocating for women’s rights associating her with the foundation and has encouraged others to bring out their problems and fight against such wrong practices.
The Foundation has been working to create awareness among the women from the Muslim and other Madhesi communities. It also runs various programmes to support women to make them economically secure.
Over 50 women have taken the membership of the foundation and are running a fund collecting levy and floating loans to the needy members.
The foundation has been also working to end the trend of early marriage concluding that it was one of the major factors responsible for the gender-based violence in society, said Shahika Shah, a member of the Foundation. She claimed if only the people were discouraged from early marriage, majority of the VAW incidents in the society would be minimised.
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