Feature Stories
Small Steps to Empowerment
18 July 2006
MAHOTTARI — Arriving in Mahottari district, it was just as hot and humid as I had been promised. Mahottari is a district in the central region of Nepal, bordering India in the south. Close to 150 000 women in the district, about one fourth of the district's population, are in their reproductive age. However, less than 5% of their babies are delivered at health institutions.
Mahottari is one of the six districts where UNFPA has operated since 2003 together with Nepalese authorities the so-called Population and Reproductive Health Integrated (PARHI) project to address population and reproductive issues at a decentralized level.
We had the opportunity to speak to some of the women whose lives had been affected by this project. UNFPA's partners were confident that the PARHI project had had a positive impact. The group has used their resources to focus on awareness-raising on reproductive health and gender issues. They have also managed to advocate the importance of girls' schooling. The group has felt empowered through distributing information and seeing attitudes change, as well as seeing changes in the enrollment of girls in school. The women also emphasized that the project has allowed them to meet a wide range of decision-makers and implementers. To the women this is a big step towards gender equality and the wider inclusion of gender issues in policy-making.
Sometimes achievements cannot be identified this easily. One program within the PARHI project trains teachers on reproductive health issues. The aim, however, is to reach a much wider audience. The expectation is that trained teachers will discuss reproductive health issues with their students, and that the students will in turn discuss these issues with their parents. Whether these expectations are being met is still uncertain. Issues related to reproductive health care are traditionally of sensitive nature; discussing them in public or family forums is infrequent. However, through projects like the PARHI project, attitudes and traditions are changing, making room for discussions and actions towards improved reproductive health.
Silla Ristimaki, UNFPA Programme Officer
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