July 17, 2020
Bini Bidari
Non-marital Pregnancy, the trend of giving birth to child out of wed-lock. It simply can be understood as child bearing before marriage. In the western countries this trend seems to be growing and easily acceptable but in the country like ours this trend is taken as a sin. So, is it really a sin?
Talking about the scenario of Nepalese society, we can find that it is taken as a taboo. Marriage is a license for the legitimacy of child otherwise the child is given some different name. Hence, it is necessary for the presence of both mother and father in the growth of child. What if there’s no recognized father of a baby? Yes, the consequences are hazardous even to imagine. Those females are socially boycotted just because she enjoys freedom of her own body. In the rural parts, the girls are forced to get married to the older man just to hide her non-marital pregnancy. If the case is of rape, the females are blamed for getting pregnant and she has to suffer all alone. They are even categorized as characterless, the one exploiting the society.
While talking about this topic, we shall discuss What if females want to have a child without being wed-locked in Nepal? As per the Civil Code Act, 2074 says that “if a woman is proved to have delivered a child by conceiving pregnancy form physical intercourse with a man, marriage between such a man and a woman shall, ipso facto, be deemed to have been concluded.” Except for the rape or incest.
As per women’s right activists, this provision was drafted to protect the rights of children born out of wedlock, as the rights including citizenship, descend from the father. May be the law has been well-intentioned, it forces marriage and as well reinforces the patriarchy by causing the woman to depend on man. Even if the woman exercises her sexual and reproductive rights to independently have a baby, this provision forces her to rely on the father for the child’s legal documents. This clearly shows the discrimination against women.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill garnered the criticism of activist for being discriminatory towards women, the Parliament’s State Affairs and Good Governance Committee agreed to pass a controversial provision which states that the child of a female citizen can obtain citizenship by descent in cases where father’s identity is unknown. The amendment bill and provision of having to identify father to secure legal rights for a child born out of marriage this way shows the patriarchal attitude of lawmakers. And the reality is it is still very hard to get the citizenship in the name of a mother.
The issue in Nepal is very challenging. Why does the women have no right to her own body? Isn’t she capable of rearing her child? Even if the law makes the provision in favor of a woman, will the society accept it? The answer is unknown.
Conclusively, She should be provided freedom to give birth to her child even if she is married or not. It’s all in hand if she want to abort it as well. It wouldn’t be so much an issue if the state insured the right of women to pass citizenship to the children independently.
Regardless, whether women is married or not she can bear babies in her own if she wishes. And also the decision if she wants the support of the child’s father or she want to do all by her own should be given in her own hands. We don’t know how many decades will take for us to understand all these and accept it. As social change is a long process we can hope for a change. But till then what? Are we all ready to live with this tendency for long?
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