Most of the rural women of this area are still confined to merely handle household and kitchen chores. The rural women also are equally suffering from various forms and manifestations of violence.
Majority of women are yet to be aware of their constitutionally-guaranteed rights. The marginalized and disadvantaged section of rural women is deprived of enjoying these rights. The situation is more alarming among the rural women in Karnali. The family burden has pushed them to a situation that they could not come out from kitchen and household chores. One of the reasons behind the situation is rural women's nominal access to property.
The District Land Revenue Office Surkhet has revealed a fact that rural women have nominal access to land and property. In the last six months of the current fiscal 2075/76 BS, as many as 8,000 documents related to registration and transfer of land went through the office. Out of which 33 percent of the land/house registration pass was recorded to be in the names of women.
Sita Chapaign, administration chief of District Land Office Surkhet, shared that 2,655 documents related to land registration pass were in the names of women.
"There were 2,639 women in Birendranagar Municipality who had land registration in their names taking an advantage of state-sponsored tax exemption of 20 percent" Chapain said.
"But this is only 16 (0.6 percent) in case of rural women, which paints a picture of women's access to property in rural settings", she added.
Main reason behind the situation is rural women's nominal access to property and their confinement to kitchen chores, said Laxmi Khatry, District Land Revenue Officer. "If the data is something to go by it shows very pitiable condition of rural women".
