Safe space for girls?

Many parents in Nepal refuse to send their daughters to school, fearing girls are at risk from being abused which will affect theirs and their families' reputations. How can children, especially girls, change their environment and make it a safer place to be and study? How would this impact on their educational lives?

Save the Children supports projects in Nepal that facilitate research by children exploring ways to claim back unsafe spaces for themselves. By sharing findings and interacting with local government, school teachers, and parents, the children can begin to mobilise support and change. An advocacy tool, the process can help girls and boys to influence schoolteachers, students, parents, government, and NGOs: children clearly have enormous potential to improve their environment and take control of their own lives.

Girls in the Surkhet district of Nepal, for example, expressed strong feelings of vulnerability in their community. Save the Children-UK developed a project in which the girls carried out the research themselves, exploring and analysing the types of space they occupied. Using Participatory Rural Appraisal tools, the girls were able to determine the characteristics of a safe environment and developed an action plan to take back their ‘space’. The girls used PRA tools to map unsafe spaces within their village, venn diagrams to illustrate their mobility, and team building tools; boys were involved in the process only when the girls felt it was necessary.

In order to reclaim their 'space', the girls identified the need:

• for parents to recognise the importance of girls' education
• to avoid conservative traditions such as gender discrimination within castes, between sons and daughters, and early marriage
• for girls to be able to demonstrate their ability within the community
• for people to speak out against the injustices and oppression of girls
• to raise awareness of girls’ rights and enable their access to equal opportunities

As a result of the process changes have been identified within the community:

• The girls' group was consulted by community members on various cases of abuse or mis-treatment of girls. In one case, a local policeman kidnapped a local 11-year old girl. In collaboration with other children's groups, the girls wrote a letter to the local police commissioner, copying it to the village chairperson, local NGOs, the Chief District Police Officer and the Chairperson of the District Child Welfare Board, asking them to take immediate action. The 11-year old girl was freed and the Chief District Police Officer is conducting an investigation.
• Teachers and boys within schools and the community are paying greater respect to girls than was hitherto the case. Boys who were initially teasers now support girls' efforts to manage change. Boys are beginning to advocate respect for girls through drama. Support groups for girls who have faced abuse have been established by local communities.
• Local government bodies believe the community groups provide a strong support system for girls often citing the groups as success stories, inviting them to events related to girls' rights and safety, and in one case providing financial support for future work.

Funded by: Save the Children (UK)

id21 Research Highlight: 28 January 2002

Further Information:
Jasmine Rajbhandary
Save the Children (UK)
Jawalakhel
Lalitpur
GPO Box 992
Kathmandu
Nepal

Tel: + 977 1 535 159
Fax: + 977 1 527 256
Contact the contributor: j.rajbhandary@sc-uk.org.np

Save the Children, UK

Other related links:
'The sugar daddy trap. Peer pressure pushes girls into sex'

Insights Speical: 'Conspiracy of silence? Stamping out abuse in African schools'

'Educating Girls - transforming the future' from UNICEF

'Closing the Gender Gap in Education: Curbing Dropout' from FAWE

'Saving Women's Lives: Educating Girls' from Planetwire