35-yr-old mom readies for 15th child
Jingles wooing the public to take up family
planning hold no meaning for Phoolmaya of Damarang in Kakada VDC-7. Nor did any
related I/NGO campaign put a full stop to her "incredible" fertility. Having
given birth to 14 children already, this 35-year-old is now all set to give
birth yet again. "I gave birth to my first child when I was only 15," said she.
"Thereafter, that experience has recurred almost every year." Of her total of
six sons and eight daughters, only five sons and four daughters have survived.
Recalling her marriage, Phoolmaya said she was married to one Akkal Bahadur
Chepang when she was 13. According to the prevalent custom in this downtrodden
community, men persuade, often force, girls to marry them after singling them
out at local fairs. Due to recurrent childbirth, she looks rather old for her
age. "I have lived most of my postnatal days just on wild roots and bulbs," she
recalls. According to her, she couldn't ever even get to eat a belly-full of
dhido (a type of porridge made of flour and water). And there has been no change
in her condition. Phoolmaya's "large" family more than adequately depicts the
toll that conservative thinking, poverty and illiteracy, when combined together,
take on rural folks. To make matters worse, not a single of her kids, including
her eldest son who is now 17, has seen what a school looks like. According to
Phoolmaya, although a team reached her village nine years ago with a view to
spreading awareness about family planning, her husband refused to undergo a
surgical operation, fearing disease after the operation. "Locals hold the belief
that anyone who undergoes such surgery would suffer from back pain and thus
won't be able to do arduous work," she reveals. According to Govindaram Chepang,
chairman of the Chepang Organization, locals hold just the opposite belief
regarding family planning. "Not only Phoolmaya, there are many other women in
the community who are suffering a fate like hers."
Source: Kathmandu Post - 30-1-2007
keyterms: woman, child, family planning, Nepal
Denemarken schort financiering van ontwikkelingsprojecten op
Terug naar Nepal nieuws index
Meer Nepal nieuws
|
Nepal
Cultuur / Historie / Politiek / Economie
|
|
Nepal
reizigers-informatie
|
20-11-2009
Deze site wordt
gehost door Deti Internet Hosting
en domeinregistratie
|
