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The Kingdom of Nepal borders on China (Tibet) to the north and is surrounded by India on its other borders. The majority of the population are Hindu and other denominations include Budhists and Mosleums. Hindu is the state religion. Nepal is one of the group of countries classified by UN as least developed and one of the world’s poorest countries. The absolute poverty in Nepal varies, depending on calculation methodology, from 40 to 71 per cent of the population. Life expectancy is 57.6 years of age for men and 57.1 years of age for women. Human rights conditions improved considerably with the events of spring 1990. Democratic changes led to the ratification of a number of international human rights conventions, and the revision of existing national legislation is expected to have a gradual impact on the conduct and behaviour of the authorities. The economy is highly dependent on agriculture and production industry, where carpet production is a part of. Over 50 per cent of the population live in poverty. Developing the private sector is considered a prerequisite for achieving greater economic growth. Carpets are a substantial part of the export. Thus, it would take very little to change the picture. The debate 1996 on the use of child labour resulted in a 24.5 per cent fall in the carpet export then. Women’s situation in Nepal does not differ greatly from women’s situation in many other developing countries. Nepal has in 1991 and 1995 endorsed international conventions of gender-specific aspects in achieving equality. In
1994 the largest bilateral donors in order of precedence were: Japan,
Denmark, Germany, UK, USA and Switzerland. The main target group
of Danish donation to Nepal is the 50 per cent of the population
living in poverty. |
