Suicide In Nepal Essay

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According to a Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) study of 2008/09 done by the ministry of health and population in Nepal, suicide was found to be the leading cause of death among the Nepalese women. Nepal is a landlocked country with the population of 26.5 million among whom 51.5% are female while 48.5% are male (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2011) . Nepal offers a variety of diversity in regards to its religion, values, ethnicities, and geography, which have a huge impact on the socio-economic status of the people. In addition, Nepal is hugely a patriarchal society with a transparent social and economic disparity throughout the country due to its hindu caste- based hierarchy. As a result we can see that there is a huge unequal gap between the marginalized and disadvantaged groups who are usually the people at the bottom of the caste hierarchy (untouchables or Dalit and Janajati).
An important area for the development of a country is definitely the health sector, but in countries like Nepal where the Human Development Index(WHO, 2012) is only 0.463, a lot of people do not even receive any health provisions. The ethnic groups such as Dalit and Janajati in Nepal, are much affected by the unequal access and use of state- provided public health resources, facilities and services. In many cases, even among all these, it is the women and children (especially girls) who suffer the most as they are discriminated based on gender, caste and ethnicity. That being said, through this research I will be focusing on the health issues among the women in Nepal and how various factors such as the gender inequality, caste system, and traditional beliefs contribute to affect their health.
According to the health and population ministry of Nepal, 31%...

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... vitamin A deficiency among other things.
Another reason for a lack of good access to public health care for the Nepalese women is caused by religion. The major religions in Nepal are hinduism (82.62%), buddhism (10.74%), islam (4.20%), kirant (3.60%), and christianity (0.45%). Previously the economic and political power was centralized interlinking it with the Hindu caste system since the majority of the Nepalese population are Hindus. The hindu caste system consisted of the Brahmins(priests) at the top of the pyramid, Kshatriya (warriors and Kings) just beneath, followed by Vaishya (Merchants) and the Sudra (peasants and labourers), and at the bottom of the pyramid were the “untouchables” (butchers, carcass and waste cleaners). Although Nepal was declared a secular country in 2006 and the caste system abolished, the hierarchy in the caste system still lingers on.

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