The ambitious plan launched by the Karnali Province government, ‘A Bank Account for Every Daughter, Security for Life’, has fallen into uncertainty. After the provincial government failed to include the program in the policy, program, and budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84, the program, which had involved around 11,000 daughters, has been left in limbo. For the past four years, the provincial government had already stopped depositing funds into the accounts of daughters under this program.

The provincial government had continuously sent funds to local levels for the first three years, from 2076/77 to 2078/79, to open accounts and deposit money in the names of newborn daughters. Although the province sent funds to local levels for the first three years after implementing the program, it has not provided any budget for the past four years. Although the policy and program for the current fiscal year mentioned that the scheme would be revised to include empowerment programs such as education, skills, awareness, and capacity development targeted at daughters lagging behind in social development, nothing has materialized so far.

Under this program, operated through the Ministry of Social Development, the procedure was to send the budget to local levels, which would then deposit the funds into the daughters’ accounts. The provision was that daughters born after Shrawan 1, 2076, would be eligible to join the program. Then Chief Minister of Karnali, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, inaugurated the ‘A Bank Account for Every Daughter, Security for Life’ program on Poush 2, 2076, in his home district of Kalikot. The program, launched with the aim of ending gender discrimination against daughters, reducing child marriage, and supporting girls’ higher education, was popular and ambitious.

Under the program, the account of a newborn daughter was to receive 1,000 rupees in the first month and then 500 rupees monthly thereafter. By this calculation, a daughter would have 120,500 rupees in her account by the time she turned 20 years old.

The policy and program for 2082/83 stated that the ‘A Bank Account for Every Daughter, Security for Life’ program would be revised and an appropriate implementation framework developed to adapt empowerment programs such as education, skills, awareness, and capacity development targeted at daughters lagging behind in economic and social development. However, the revised program has also not been implemented. “After the revision, we have collected data on how many daughters opened accounts from all 79 municipalities of Karnali and how many are left. We have also prepared the required budget,” said Sunita Paudel, Women Development Officer at the Social Development Division of the ministry. “But since there has been no concrete decision from the government, the program has not been included for the coming year. No decision has been made on how to implement the revised program.”

Provincial Assembly member Kalyani Khadka said it was not natural for the government to suddenly discontinue a program aimed at boosting the confidence of daughters in Karnali, facilitating their access to higher education, and ensuring that every daughter marries only after the age of 20. She, who is also the chair of the Provincial Affairs Committee, said that this situation arose because only the leaders of major parties met and made secret decisions.

She said it was inappropriate to discontinue programs implemented to uplift the lives of local women without involving women lawmakers in discussions. She said they had drawn the attention of the Chief Minister and concerned authorities to immediately formulate procedures and implement the program. “We have demanded that the program be implemented more effectively through discussions involving women lawmakers,” she said. “We have also raised this issue in the assembly. There has been agreement to fulfill our demands. Our demand is to implement it effectively by making laws and regulations.”

Rastriya Prajatantra Party lawmaker Santoshi Shahi said it was wrong to remove the program from the budget instead of revising and continuing a program with the noble aim of ending all forms of violence against daughters in Karnali and ensuring access to at least secondary education. She said the government should provide the real basis and reasons for not continuing the program. “With the sudden discontinuation of the program, what will happen to the hundreds of millions of rupees of the state deposited in banks?” she asked.

For the implementation of the Daughter Savings Account program, the government allocated a budget of 70 million rupees in 2076/77 and sent 34.8 million rupees to local levels. In the fiscal year 2077/78, out of the allocated 126 million rupees for the program, 60 million was sent to local levels. In 2078/79, the provincial government allocated 160 million rupees and sent 130 million to local levels for daughter savings accounts. Since then, although the budget has been allocated for daughter savings accounts, the funds have not been sent to local levels.

In the fiscal year 2079/80, 200 million rupees was allocated, and in 2080/81, 250 million rupees was allocated for daughter savings accounts, but there is no record of the funds being sent to municipalities. In the fiscal year 2081/82, although the program was included in the policy and program, no budget was allocated. Similarly, in the current fiscal year 2082/83, although 50 million rupees was allocated for daughter savings accounts, the funds were not sent to local levels and are at risk of being frozen.

After the program was not included in the policy and program for the coming year, 11 women lawmakers in the Karnali Provincial Assembly met with Social Development Minister Ghanshyam Bhandari and the leaders of both ruling and opposition parties and submitted a memorandum. They asked why the prestigious program, which has already accumulated hundreds of millions of rupees in the bank accounts of more than 11,000 daughters in the province and is linked to their future, was not being continued. “If the program is suddenly abandoned, who will take responsibility for the hundreds of millions of rupees in the bank and the rights and entitlements of the beneficiary daughters?” they wrote in the letter submitted to the Social Development Minister.

Bimala BK of Bangad Kupinde Municipality-4 in Salyan, who gave birth to a daughter on Shrawan 4, 2079, said that although she opened a bank account for her daughter through this program, no money has been deposited so far. She complained that although she opened the account for her daughter’s future, it remains empty. Parents say that when they inquire about the program at the municipality and ward offices, they do not receive clear answers.

Saraswati Dhamala of Chaukune Rural Municipality–7 in Surkhet said that on Baisakh 29, she went to the Laxmi Sunrise Bank branch at Gutu Bazaar and opened an account in the name of her one-month-old daughter. She said that although she hurriedly gathered documents from the ward and opened the account, she heard that the government has not decided to deposit money into her daughter’s account. Khadka Chand of Simta Rural Municipality–5 said he is worried about what will happen to the money deposited in his daughter’s account. He said he does not even know what will happen to the amount deposited so far in his daughter’s account.

Ward Secretary Hastabahadur Khadka of Pachaaljharana Rural Municipality–1 in Kalikot said that most people have stopped opening accounts. “Most people are in confusion and ask questions. Some, thinking the program has ended, have stopped inquiring,” he said. Nirmala Kumari Shahi, Assistant Women Development Inspector at the Women Development Section of Tanjakot Rural Municipality in Humla, said that locals who used to come to the ward and municipality to open accounts have stopped coming for the past one and a half years.

Social Development Minister Ghanshyam Bhandari said that the program could not be advanced because a conclusion could not be reached on the implementation model. “The program has been halted due to indecision. If we keep depositing money into the accounts, even the entire provincial government budget would not be enough for 20 years,” he said. “About 420 million rupees is being dumped into the accounts. Although there is agreement in the provincial assembly to implement a new model, discussions will now begin on which model to adopt.”