United Nations Radio

In Nepal, the new Maoist Government has officially abolished a complex caste system.

Dalit women

But centuries-old practices still affect the so-called lower castes or Dalits. Dalit women are the most vulnerable. Our correspondent in Nepal Sophie Boudre reports on a UN programme that's helping empower women:

MANJU: I am not allowed to touch offerings during prayer. If we touch the food, it becomes impure. We are untouchables among the untouchables. It makes me so angry.

SOPHIE: This is Manju Nepal, a 36-year-old woman of the Badi caste. The lowest among the Dalit, the Badi were traditionally street musicians, with their women systematically pushed into sex trade. Although the practice is gradually changing, Manju's anger is deeply felt among Dalit women.

MANJU: The UN says discrimination and social exclusion lead to poverty, low access to health and education. According to a national survey conducted in 2004, only 12% of the high caste are poor, while up to 48% of the Dalit are. Also, only 11% of Dalit women are literate, while on average, 43% of Nepal's women can read and write. So to empower those Dalit women, the United Nations Development Programme has teamed up with the Government to initiate a Micro-Entreprise Development Programme or MEDEP. It helps the most vulnerable - especially rural women - get together and lift themselves out of extreme poverty. Asa Sarki is one of them:

ASA: Those who are so called high caste don't take water or food from me. If I am invited in a higher caste's home, they eat inside and I have to eat outside. I am not allowed inside. I was interested in the MEDEP project because Dalit women can learn and be empowered.

SFX: SHOP ASA

SOPHIE: Before she joined MEDEP, 25-year old Asa was a Dalit housewife struggling to feed her four children in a mud hut. Now she runs a small shop in front of her brick house, and heads a local group of 92 micro-entrepreneurs, most of them Dalit women. In this group, women get access to credit and training through the MEDEP scheme... Dhan Sari Pariyar, a seamstress, is one of them. Being a poor Dalit widow, she says she faced many challenges:

WIDOW: Sometimes we would eat only one meal a day. The villagers destroyed my hut so we ended up living on the street. When she saw me, Asa told me to join MEDEP.

SFX: SEWING MACHINE up then under till insert

SOPHIE: When joining MEDEP, Dhan Sari received training and a sewing machine. She now earns a modest but steady income of 80 dollars per month, and was able to get a loan from the bank to buy a new roof for her house. She says her family's life changed for the better:

WIDOW: Before, I was sawing second hand rags. With the training, I am now able to make new items like shirts, blouses and saris. (9:45) We are having two meals a day... we are so happy.

SOPHIE: For UN Radio in Nepal, this is Sophie Boudre.

(duration: 3'53"