We are not a baby-making machine and we are not contracted to produce a leader-ruled jamaat. If we want, how many, when and how to give birth is a matter of our decision. If we don't want to, we don't give birth to children.
What you should know
Feminist writer Simone de Buvois in her work 'The Second Sex' has deeply criticized how patriarchal society controls women's bodies, sexuality and fertility.
Her analysis provides a strong foundation for understanding how social institutions such as the state, religion, and law regulate women's sexuality. This analysis made in 1949 is equally relevant today.
Even now, hundreds of women are beaten and killed every day. Because of giving birth to a daughter, women are forced to suffer various types of violence. 100% of women are involved in domestic care work, which is socially, culturally and legally unrecognized. Again, they are differentiated on the basis of work. The patriarchy has to be challenged step by step in the field of work inside and outside the house . It has to be confirmed that I am also a citizen of equal status. The most complicated thing is that hundreds of women have been killed under the guise of the unequal power relations within the marital relationship and the Domestic Violence Crimes and Punishment Act that legitimizes it.
According to the data of Nepal Police, 15 thousand 754 incidents of violence based on gender were documented in the fiscal year 2080/81. In which 78.3 percent are cases of domestic violence . The number of women in the reproductive age group is also high among them. There is political manipulation in the case of rape. 'Cases' are forced to be 'hostile' and the affected are blamed. Will women be mentally and physically ready to give birth to children in such situations?
Only a few years ago, westerners brought in millions of family planning tools to less developed countries including Nepal, but no one was interested in the effect this had on women's bodies. Although it saved women from unwanted pregnancies, the comment that using such tools is a question of women's right to make decisions about their own bodies could not be constructed . Today, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the head of the government, is expressing that he will have three children.
The current economic situation where there is a burden of 26.67 trillion public debt, in such a situation, the current generation has to give birth to the next generation to bear this burden. Should we give birth to a child to ruin our mental health by looking at our future in the midst of this chaos and corruption? To be a silent spectator of the ongoing genocide, environmental crisis and anti-humanity activities in the world and have more children? Iron hands that never tire to make the capitalists richer by depleting the supply of labor in the market?
The Prime Minister's statement is against the international treaties to which Nepal is a party and the provision of women's sexual and reproductive health rights mentioned in Article 38 of the Constitution. On the one hand, under the pressure of family and society for centuries, women have to sacrifice their life's desire and happiness, and on the other hand, our bodies must be ready to fulfill the interests of the state.
Women are not objects that can be controlled by the family and the state. We are not a baby-making machine and we are not contracted to produce a leader-ruled jamaat . If we want, how many, when and how to give birth is a matter of our decision . If we don't want to, we don't give birth to children. For those who want to have children, the state should facilitate the production of children by giving them an alternative to the current competitive, very expensive market-oriented economic system and discriminatory social system . Child production should be recognized as productive labor.
