That’s So Random (#2): High Illiteracy Rate in Nepal

Today’s Wikipedia adventure led me to a page for the Nepal Village Foundation. There is nothing much inside the Wiki page, so I had to go to their webpage for more information.

Nepal Village Foundation (NVF) was established in Nov 2007 to improve the wellbeing of poor and Dalit people in rural Nepal by Krit and Carole Sharma. Since then, NVF has supported many projects and currently, 101 girls from the poorest and Dalit families are in regular schooling. NVF also funds a fulltime project assistant and trained 14 volunteers to work on the project activities. Over 690 families have benefited from the project activities and now, working closely with 14 schools in Bhagawatpur, Mahadeva and Bathanaha panchayats of Saptari district to improve the schooling environment.

From what I have gathered, Nepal is an underdeveloped country with a high illiteracy rate, especially for the female population in the remote areas of the country. There are various factors that contribute to this issue, such as gender inequality, child labour, and political instability.

Gender Inequality

The society in the remote areas of the country might not place the same level of importance of education between genders. Girls are bought up, as tradition, to help the family in the household and domestic activities. Girls are then married off young, and to be sent off to live with the husband. Hence, education for girls in these traditional societies are mostly not appreciated.

Child Labour

According to the Internation Labour Organization, Nepal accounts for 1.6 million children in child labour, of which 621,000 are estimated to be engaged in hazardous work, with 60% of them are girls. Therefore, these children are not expected to be able to get an education when they are forced to work.

Political Instability

Nepal has a problem with political instability, including a 10-year insurgency which affected the country’s economy as well as development. Moreover, the national policies, including education policies, cannot be maintained properly with frequent changes in the government. So the corruption of the government damages other sectors of the country, including education.

Nepal Village Foundation

The UK-based charity organisation hopes to give aid in this issue in Nepal by raising funds through various activities and improving the living conditions of the villages to help children be able to study with greater ease, such as installations of solar lanterns to help children study in the evenings and mosquito nets to help the villages fight against malaria.