The New Idea

Renu Sharma has developed an intervention system for abused women that provides them with support mechanisms within rural villages as well as a crisis center that provides crucial services to women who have migrated to Kathmandu from rural villages and subsequently suffered abuse. Renu is now using her extensive village network and her Kathmandu women's shelter to tackle the problem in Nepal of abuse directed particularly at widows. Widow abuse in Nepal takes several forms, the most severe being that of the common practice of labeling a widow a bokshi (witch). Widows very often are outcast from society and are the victims of physical abuse by the authorities in their communities. Because of deeply ingrained cultural beliefs, little work has been done to eliminate the abuse of these women. Renu is using her village support groups, which she has developed throughout Nepal, to provide critical supports for widows, including income generating projects that will allow the women to become self sufficient. She will also create a public education campaign in the media in order to combat the attitudes that Nepali citizens have formed about widowhood. Renu will also be working within the political system to change laws that allow the abuse of widows to continue and within the legal system to bring to justice the authorities that are often guilty of permitting the abuse of widows.

The Problem

Nepali women are frequently treated as second class citizens and are regular victims of abuse and neglect. While motherhood is respected and establishes a woman's value as a producer of the offspring, a sterile woman is discarded and despised. At birth and menstruation and at other manifestations of women's sexuality, women are referred to as "pollutants" and require ritual cleansing. Patrimonial ideology excludes women from all spiritual functions and wives and daughters-in-law are considered dangerous outsiders. They are often accused of intending to destroy the family network for their selfish purposes. Widowhood is a curse. Women are often blamed for anything bad that happens to a family and/or household. Family misfortune is often attributed to the witchcraft of a malicious wife, daughter-in-law, or a widow.

Although some gender discriminating practices are receiving national and worldwide attention, the phenomenon of widow abuse is not well studied or addressed in public education campaigns. People who live in Nepal have different ideologies on the treatment of widows. However, one of the prevalent practices is to label a widow a witch who is believed to have used her powers to cause the death of her husband. Women labeled as witches suffer greatly after receiving this label. In most cases, such women are despised by society, tortured, stoned, beaten to death, or forced to endure other inhumane treatment. Often the whole community is involved with the local authorities simply acting as "onlookers" to such events.

Although in Nepal there have been various services provided to help abused women, none of them deal specifically with the widow abuse problem in a systematic manner. Widows in particular suffer from a lack of income generating activities which is further exacerbated by the lack of respect granted to them in Nepali society. The abuse of widows and the labeling of widows as witches has been practiced for generations in Nepal, thus making it difficult to eliminate.

The Strategy

Renu has developed an extensive network of over 150 women's groups throughout Nepal that serve as village-level sites which identify victims of abuse and work to educate village members about abusive practices towards women. Much of the abuse of women happens when women leave their villages to seek better economic conditions in Kathmandu. Renu developed The Women's Foundation, an organization that provides support to women in both the rural and Kathmandu settings. In Kathmandu, the foundation runs a home for destitute and downtrodden women and children who come from a variety of backgrounds. Some of them are left by abusive husbands and in-laws, while others are forced into prostitution in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Still others, often young girls, are forced out in the streets due to the abject poverty of their families, while many are forced into child labor. After focusing on the broad issues of physical abuse of women, Renu has chosen to concentrate her efforts and her extensive network on the issue of widow abuse.

Since very little research has been completed in Nepal about the bokshi phenomenon, Renu plans to work initially on gathering a clear understanding of the root causes of the abuse of these women. This begins with reviewing literature on outcast women in Nepal and documenting case studies of suffering that has resulted from women being branded as witches. An extensive review will be carried out including Hindu and tribal ideology on practices of outcast women in the country. A Participatory Rural Appraisal will be carried out in two areas to assess people's attitudes and behavior towards outcast women. The areas selected will be those where recent events of widow abuse and witch-hunting have occurred.

Renu then plans to use the knowledge that she has gained to create an effective public awareness campaign addressing widow abuse issues. This campaign will involve specialized training of community women and the promotion of educational street dramas, videos, and other programs. She will work to introduce legislation to criminalize acts of abuse on widows and will suggest policy and legal measures to law-making bodies in Nepal.

Widows accused of bokshi are generally considered of little use to society, because they generally do not hold jobs. To attack this problem, Renu is integrating these women into various income-generating projects that are run out of her Kathmandu women's center and also from the village-level groups spread throughout Nepal. These income generating programs will train these women in such areas as handicraft and clothing production, and the preparation of food which can be sold through vendors. Renu believes that once widows are trained in these skills, village residents will begin to see economic value in respecting them.

Renu's village groups will also serve as the "early warning system" that will identify widows who are likely to be victims of abuse. These village groups will work to socialize the widows into the village society while persuading the local residents to change their traditional views of widowhood.

The Person

Renu was born in a rural eastern hill district of Nepal. During her childhood she had a close friend named Shanti, whose father had died when she was five years old. After her father's death, Shanti and her widowed mother were not allowed to remain with her husband's family and were forced to live without land in a small shack. The neighbors and family blamed the widow for her husband's death. Frequently the villagers tormented this woman by putting the blood of animals at her door. These acts were based on the belief that she was a witch. Children in school also tormented Shanti by labeling her as the daughter of a witch. Shanti was hardly able to go school. One day the chairman of the village panchayat (local self government body) and other villagers confronted Shanti's mother and the chairman of the panchayat ridiculed her with the support of the villagers, accusing her of killing a calf she had been looking after. The chairman of the panchayat commanded her to never leave her house. There was no support for her against these unfounded accusations. As a child, Renu saw how the villagers tortured and abused her. Though Renu knew of her innocence, she was helpless to defend Shanti's mother. This experience, however, instilled in her the desire to work to eliminate the discrimination and violence directed towards women in Nepali society.

Renu continued her schooling in a Kathmandu high school. It was during this time that another influential event led Renu to her current work. As is often the norm in Nepal, villagers send their daughters to Kathmandu to seek out employment. Parents are quite often unaware of the slave-like conditions that their daughters suffer after they arrive in Kathmandu to work as domestic servants or factory workers. In one case, the village parents of a young girl ventured to Kathmandu to retrieve their daughter after realizing that she was living under harsh conditions. Since the parents of the girl did not know how to find her, they began inquiring at local schools. One of the schools where they talked to people was Renu's high school. When Renu heard of the situation, she volunteered to help the parents find their daughter. After an extensive search, they discovered that the daughter was working as a domestic servant for a Kathmandu doctor. The parents visited the doctor, but he claimed to have lost track of the girl, saying that she no longer worked for him. The parents, however, refused to believe the doctor's claims and asked the police to get involved. The police refused. Renu, sensing that the girl was still in the custody of the doctor, began organizing girls from various local schools to start a public awareness campaign of this case. As a result, the media picked up the story, and after six months of public pressure, the police acquiesced and confronted the doctor. It turned out that he had been keeping the daughter at his house the whole time in inhumane conditions. Due to the campaign initiated by Renu, the girl was reunited with her parents. After this instance, Renu realized that she had found her calling and used her network that she had created to eventually start The Women's Foundation, devoted to eliminating the abuse of women in Nepal.

From a very young age, Renu has been quite creative in finding funding sources for the organization. The Women's Foundation is supported almost entirely by local support. The foundation organized the first ever Nepali women's soccer match, drawing a crowd of over 5,000 people to watch and using the ticket proceeds to support The Women's Foundation, and raise awareness of the organization's mission. She organized all of this when she was still in college and she continues to apply such creative energy to her work today.