ROOT CAUSES
“Many of the prisoners were just looking for opportunities but because of poverty, lack of education and circumstances we are called prisoners.” [1]
In order to understand the underlying causes of women’s imprisonment, it is necessary to first dive into the deep complexities of Nepal’s society, laws and regulations. Poverty and lack of education are often emphasized as being the primary reasons that leave women in vulnerable positions, which only increases their possibility to be thrown into the incarceration system. Oftentimes, these issues of poverty and lack of education come hand in hand with the two interactive status hierarchies of gender and caste; which therefore have to be closely analyzed. These contributing factors however, exist in an even more complex web of discrimination in other areas of women’s lives including marriage, divorce, reproductive rights and mobility. [2]
POVERTY
“…the poor are not only more likely to suffer; they are also more likely to have their suffering silenced.” [3]
Reshma recalls one of her fellow inmate’s story,
“…Her father left her mother after she was diagnosed with cancer. She was sentenced to prison for carrying fraud money. She agreed to traffic the money because she had to find a way to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment.” [4]
By definition, poverty is “a state of lacking material possession of housing or [having] no means to support oneself.” [5] The World Development Report defines poverty as being “not only [an] economic concept but also vulnerability, lack of access to various opportunities, insecurity, alienation, low participation on social and political power.” [6] The characteristics of poor people can be summarized to powerlessness, isolation, poverty, physical weakness and vulnerability.
To talk about poverty in Nepal, one must also consider its entanglement with caste and ethnicity. First, it was unclear why the inmates themselves stated that “caste does not exist in prisons.” [7] It is important to note, however, that differences based on caste and ethnicity do not play a major role inside the prison because most of the women in prison come from the same sector of the social hierarchy - the lower caste. Prior research articulates interaction of poverty with caste and access to education in the following way,
“poverty, which is more prevalent among lower caste groups, is a ramification of inextricably linked structured caste and class inequalities and parallels those groups’ lesser participation in the schooling process.” [8]
There is notably limited data available on the interconnection of female prisoners and caste. However, one study that explored the socio-economic status of women in prison was able to interview 35 married prisoners; of those participants, 52% were from the janajati caste (Rai, Magar, Limbu, Gurung) and 40% were from dalit caste (B.K, mushahar, khurmi). These percentages don’t tell the full reality but a snapshot of what the actuality potentially looks like. [9]
Caste is also not as clear-cut that it may initially seem. Nepal’s unique geographical position and altitudinal variation divides the country into three topographical regions: the Himalaya, the middle hills and the Terai. In a study conducted in 2012, the poverty rate of the Dalits was 38.16 percent in the Terai region while it was 43.63 percent in the middle hills. [10] This indicates that caste on its own does not determine poverty rates, but are rather influenced by a combination of factors, such as locality.
EDUCATION
The issue of knowledge scarcity is twofold; there are barriers for women to receive education and there are also barriers to access knowledge on laws and regulations.
An interaction with a 40-year-old mother of five children vividly illustrates this as she says with a smile on her face,
“I know how to do my signature. I’m in grade 4 now and I’ve learned how to read and write in prison.”
Nepal’s recent shift towards a more formal education system has introduced a new credential-oriented status attainment hierarchy. [11] In 1951, educational expansion took place in Nepal after the establishment of the Ministry of Education and the adoption of a constitution that made education a right for every Nepalese citizen. [12] Expansion of education was rapid, the number of primary schools rose from 321 to 3,964 in 1990, and the number of secondary schools rose from 11 to 3,964 at the lower secondary level and 1,953 at the upper secondary level. Regardless of compulsory education laws and educational subsidies, substantial barriers to educational expansion persist, poverty being at the root of the problem. [13][14]
GENDER
The gender gap in education is especially apparent in Nepal’s literacy rates. In the Annual Household Survey 2015/16 by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the literacy rate for more than 15 years stood at just 64%. The male literacy rate was 75.3% while the female literacy rate was 54.2%. [15] This indicates an over 20% gender gap in Nepal’s literacy rate. Proportionally speaking, twenty percent more of Nepal’s male population is literate. Women’s comparatively low school enrolment rates and low literacy rates do not exist in a vacuum - ethnic and regional differences, caste differences, paternal occupation, paternal education and attitudinal modernity are identified to play a role in education.