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Biratnagar : The first meeting of the Province 1 assembly on Feb 5, 2018 had a fresh vibe to it. It hosted lawmakers, some of whom had donned their traditional ethnic attires, from all the 14 districts of the province.

  That was a year ago. Provincial lawmakers say that while they haven’t been able to meet all public expectations, the provincial government has taken shape and its work has gathered momentum in the last year. “In the initial days, because of lack of laws and frequent staff transfers, we couldn’t do much work, but now it has picked up pace,” says Sarwadhoj Sawa, a provincial lawmaker elected from Sunsari. “The government is working steadily to fulfill public expectations.”  

He says local bodies expect support from the provincial government in developing and implementing large-scale projects. It’s the provincial government that allocates budget for these projects. The projects are selected and the budget for them allocated based on the requests from local governments and the lobbying from provincial lawmakers. Because the provincial government is bigger than the local government, people stress that the former should get to allocate a bigger budget for various projects.

 Bir Bahadur Limbu, the chairperson of Taltalaiya Development Committee in Itahari, says that Itahari sub-metropolis has allocated a development budget of Rs 5 million for Taltalaiya. The provincial government, on the other hand, has allocated Rs 2.5 million for it. Limbu thinks the budget allocated by the provincial government is a bit small. “But I’ve heard that it’s the provincial government that makes the masterplan. It can support us in other ways. I expect a lot of support from it in the days ahead,” says Limbu. Now that the country has adopted a federal model and formed provincial governments for the first time, Limbu expects the Province 1 government to expand its areas of support and treat all projects fairly and impartially. 

 Province 1 Chief Minister Sherdhan Rai says that as provincial governments came into being for the first time in the country, he faces the challenge of starting many things from scratch.

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Province 2: Learning the ropes of federalism

Province 3: Learning the ropes of federalism

Gandaki: Learning the ropes of federalism

Province 5: Learning the ropes of federalism

Karnali: Learning the ropes of federalism

Farwestern: Learning the ropes of federalism

Radha BK, a resident of Surnaya rural municipal­ity in the far-western dis­trict of Baitadi, gave birth to a baby at home. Although there is a community health cen­ter in the vicinity, Radha had to face the risk of delivering at home because there were no officials at the health cen­ter when she went into labor. There were health workers in the health posts in the market area, but it was impossible to get there with labor pains in the middle of the night.

The ward office had invested Rs 500,000 to build a com­munity health center target­ing the residents of nearby areas. “Although the health center building has been constructed, we are unable to provide services because we don’t have staff,” says Bir Bahadur Bohora, who is in charge of the center.

Even the hospital in the dis­trict headquarters has been operating without nurses for the past two and half months. The staff nurses employed by the hospital are either on study leave or have been transferred elsewhere.

Dr Jagdish Chandra Bista, Medical Superintendent at the District Hospital Baitadi, says staff nurses are a must for providing good maternity services. The hospital doesn’t have a single nurse at present even though it has positions for six.

Similarly, in the sub-re­gional hospital of Dadeld­hura, there are no doctors or medical supervisors. The posts of 19 doctors and a medical supervisor at this hospital are vacant. And of the hospital’s 20 positions—for one lab technician, one physio assistant and 18 staff nurses—12 remain vacant, says Dr Guna Raj Awas­thi, head of the far western regional health directorate.

The condition of the Mahakali Zonal Hospital is even worse. All positions of 15 medical specialists and 6 medical officers are unfilled. The Seti Zonal Hospital has also been unable to fill the positions of 13 doctors, a lab technologist and two nurses. Tikapur Hospital has a similar story as it is not able to fill the positions of 13 doctors, a pharmacy inspector and an office assistant.

The far-west health director­ate informs that government hospitals in several other districts of the region have vacant positions.

 The letter sent by the federal government authorizing hiring of doctors has gone missing

Ministry letter lost

In a crisis like this where there are no doctors and nurses at the zonal and dis­trict hospitals, the letter sent by the federal government to the provincial government authorizing it to hire contract doctors has gone missing. This letter was sent on Dec 18, 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Population to the chief min­isters and the offices of the council of provincial ministers of all seven provinces.

However, the chief minister and the office of the coun­cil of provincial ministers of the Far-western province claim that they received no such letter. “We have seen neither a hard copy nor a soft copy of such a letter,” says Narayan Bidari, Chief Secre­tary of the province.

 The number of sex-selec­tive abortions is steadily increasing in Kavre, a dis­trict adjacent to Kathmandu. Most of these abortions are requested by unmarried women between the ages of 18 and 30. According to the Kavre Dis­trict Health Office (DHO), in the fiscal year 2015-2016, there were 1,256 women who had legal abortions. By the follow­ing fiscal, the number rose to 1,528. There are 15 health offices in Kavre that are autho­rized to provide abortion ser­vices. Abortion rates in the district are rising because of a number of reasons, such as the lack of sex education, the misuse of social media and the desire for a son.

 "I didn’t want to abort but was forced to after a video x-ray revealed that I was carrying a female fetus" Radhika Basnet, A 29-year resident of Bhumlu

“Some health workers may perform abortions secretly,” says Dr. Nand Raj Awasthi, Chief of Kavre DHO. “But our monitoring hasn’t found such cases. They don’t get revealed because unauthorized abor­tions are carried out privately by some doctors, medical workers or even by quacks.”

The law allows abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. But sex-selec­tive abortions are illegal. “We take action against those who ask for or perform sex-selective abortions,” claims Dr. Awasthi.

Some medical centers and doctors charge exor­bitant rates to carry out sex-selective abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Some claim that absence of regu­lar monitoring has led to an increase in the number of such cases. A medical center oper­ator corroborated this claim, saying, “There are many couples who come to my center asking for such abor­tions. But we don’t perform them. If the government inves­tigates this matter, many hos­pitals and medical centers will be implicated.”

Radhika Basnet, a 29-year resident of Bhumlu rural municipality, laments that she has had to abort her pregnancy twice under pres­sure from her husband and family. “I didn’t want it but was forced to after a video x-ray revealed that I was car­rying a female fetus. I paid Rs 9,000 to a medical center for the service.”

Unsafe, dangerous

A number of doctors claim that the use of contraceptives among adolescents is also on the rise. “Youngsters are tak­ing contraceptive pills to avoid pregnancy,” says Dr Awasthi. “But they are not risk-free. Excessive use of these pills can cause uterine cancer and heavy bleeding. Women who rely only on contraceptive pills are also at a high risk of contracting sexually-transmit­ted diseases as well.”

Medical store operators report that among the vari­ous methods of family plan­ning, the contraceptive pill sells the most. A medical store operator in Banepa says that many young people also buy the emergency contraceptive pill (also known as the morn­ing-after pill) at an interval of a week. High school and college students are the ones who buy these pills the most.

Because contraceptive pills are easier to use than other methods of family planning, they are preferred by women. They are also easily available, even in paan shops and hotels, for as little as Rs 80. The use of contraceptives such as Econ, I-pill, Unwanted, MTP Pregnot and MT pills is common.

A 25-year-old woman from Janakpur committed suicide by taking poison after she was repeatedly tortured by her in-laws for more dowry, according to the police. A resident of
Janakpur sub-metropolitan-4 Sarhanchiya Shanti Nagar, Seema Sharma also poisoned her two year-old-daughter Gauri before consuming the poison herself.
According to Govinda Thapalia, Superintendent at District Police Office Dhanusha, Sharma was often harassed by her husband and in-laws. “Preliminary investigation shows that she faced mental and physical torture,” says SP Thapaliya. “Sharma’s 65-year-old father-in-law Shyam Sundar Mishra and 60-year-old mother-in-law Kiran Mishra have been arrested on the charge of forcing someone to commit suicide. Her husband Sameer Mishra is at large.”
Meanwhile, there have been protests in Janakpur demanding stern action against the accused. A torch rally has also been staged to mourn the death of Sharma and her daughter.

"The dowry system is a social scourge that has deep roots in Madhes. Until when will women in this country be beaten and burnt for it?" Gunja Raya, A women’s rights activist from Mahottari

Managing dowry by selling property

Seema’s family, who hail from Loharpatti-7 Bhrampur in Mahottari, gave Rs 1.1 million to the Mishra family in dowry when she got married. Her father Jaya Narayan, who has been working overseas for the past 15 years, managed the dowry his daughter’s in-laws demanded—Rs 800,000 in cash, a Pulsar motorcycle worth Rs 236,000 and two tolas of gold—by selling his land. Seema and Sameer had gotten married on May 12, 2013 in the Maithili tradition.
Seema’s brother Sujit Kumar says her in-laws used to demand more money and jewelry and threatened to kick her out in case their demands were not met. “We managed to give them whatever they asked for, even by taking out loans, in the hope that my
sister could live with them safely and peacefully. Still they continued to demand cash, gold and other valuables just as a condition for her to visit her family.”
On the night of Jan 14, Sharma took a farm pesticide called Salfas to poison her daughter Gauri and herself. Gauri passed away the following day. Seema breathed her last a day later.
When Seema fell sick after consuming the poison, her husband immediately took her to Janaki Health Care and Research Center on his motorcycle. Because the Center did not have an Intensive Care Unit, she was rushed to the Ram Janaki Hospital. She died on the way.
Gunja Raya, a women’s rights activist from Mahottari, says the dowry system is a social scourge that has deep roots in Madhes. “Women are forced to commit suicide when they are unable to fulfill the dowry demands,” she says. “Until when will women in this country continue to be beaten and burnt in the name of dowry?”