1 Creating New Social Norms for Changing the Harmful Practice Advancement of Adolescent Girls in Nepal Misaki Akasaka Ueda UNICEF Nepal 12 July 2013

Context – Equity and Social Norms  Sharpening and refocusing on the equity for more equitable outcomes  MoRES - Bottleneck Analysis of social services revealed social norms are persistent drivers and determinants of inequalities and cut across many programme areas (maternal health, child nutrition, protection)  Social norm as most challenging bottleneck in the determinant framework 2

3 Challenges of Adolescent Girls  2/3 of 3.2 million adolescent girls live in poverty  Subject to multiple forms of violence, abuse and exploitation (child labour, child marriage, harmful practice)  Equity perspective - adolescent girls from poor households are disproportionately put at higher risk by harmful practices  Live at the interface between inequity, inequality, vulnerability, disparity and discrimination – at all levels, from family to community to the state level

Harmful Practice – ‘Chhaupadi’  Widely followed practice across all Hindu castes groups in Nepal  Girls and women stay in a shed ‘Chhaupadi’ during menstruation; do not interact with family and community; are not allowed to go school, temple etc.  Vulnerable to snakebites, severe cold, lack of nutritious foods and sexual violence  Drop out of adolescent girls ( years) in secondary education (44.2%)  50% of girls feel discriminated, 80% of girls live in the Chhaupadi shed or animal shed (MICS in Mid-Far Western regions, 2010) 4

Women age who experience different types of discrimination during their menstruation periods (MICS 2010) 5 Source: Nepal MICS, Mid & Far Western Region, Preliminary Report 2011

Historical, Cultural and Religious Aspects  Collective behaviour associated with the strong shared belief: impurity linked to breeding (menstruation, child birth)  Religious taboo – death, birth, breeding  Women become impure and ‘untouchable’  Connection with auspicious places for the gods (home, temple, school and water sources)  Blamed and sanctioned for causing any negative events in the community and family 6

Interdependence and Dynamics Normative Elements 7 Patriarchal Values:  Strict expectation by male to girls and women on practice and behaviour  Girls are inferior to boys in terms of financial and economic contribution to family. Personal Normative Beliefs: I should not go to school and stay at ‘Chhaupadi’. I should not cook for family. I should not pollute home, school and public places. Factual Beliefs (some are false): Women need the rest during the menstruation; Girls are impure during menstruation. Respecting this practice indicates building tie with the family and respect to them and the gods. physical isolation protect girls from blame and sanction and doesn’t make them vulnerable and put them at risk Empirical Expectation: I believe all women and friends do the same over the generations across all castes in the community. Normative Expectation: I believe people believe that during menstruation girls and women should stay at Chhaupadi and away from school Why girls stay in Chhaupadi and do not go to school? Pluralistic ignorance

Web of Mutual Expectation – Reflection  A web of mutual expectations and complex relationships between factual beliefs, individual beliefs on taboo and social norms  Needs for a broader knowledge on the dynamics between the social norm elements  Go around the core belief rooted in religious beliefs – no emphasis on negative impacts of the harmful practice, rather emphasis on creation of positive image and values (schema change) 8

 Aim that girls continue to go to school rather than elimination of harmful practice or changing social norm  The Core beliefs of the community and people are integral part of the schema  Schema and Scripts of Adolescent Girls  Shifting schema by focusing on positive image, development of adolescent girls for future generation, detaching from impurity, uncleanness, harmful 9 Desired Outcome by Social Norms Approach

Factors for Good Practice: Initiative by the District Women Development Office with the local Political leader Two villages became Chhaupadi Free Village in Acharm District in Far West region – Public Declaration – Public Commitment Sustainability – Institutionalization to some extent by management and involvement of the district government officials Lessons Learned: Effective Diffusion strategy Keeping momentum after the change of political landscape in the community Role of Media and Amplifying effect Understanding on the dynamics of social norm elements 10 Learning and Reflection from Good Practice

11 New Strategy and Interventions Change false factual beliefs Creation of alternative schema Coordinated collective action by women and girls Amplifying and praising of changes occurring Reference network for girls, women and men Selection of entry points for efficient diffusion strategy Emphasis on continuation of schooling make girls developed and protected Embracing life, womanhood and potential Public deliberation and media campaign Child club, women’s group, SMC, PTA, political leader, teacher, VDC secretary Campaign, social marketing, collective initiation to change practice and use napkins - schools and women’s group VDC near the district headquarter, Schools

CONCLUSION  The change of schema - positive image of adolescent girls and individual beliefs of girls can diffuse effectively at learning environment and among peers  In a long run through effective communication such as amplifying public commitment and deliberation through media and social mobilization by peer groups and opinion leaders.  understand the dynamics between the social norm elements and complex web of expectations  Mix of the Strategy – Extra-social and Social Norm Approach (capacity dev for quality and access and upstream work with policy and law)  Social norm perspective helps UNICEF to design effective strategy to address cross-cutting bottlenecks and barriers 12

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