Disability in Nepal

Nepal has a sizable portion of its population that is marginalized, excluded and discriminated on the basis of caste, creed,  class, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location.  Individuals with disabilities are among such population, whose empowerment has been socially, politically and economically absent from the mainstream development. Population census of 2011 mentions that 1.94% of individuals in Nepal are disabled (NDWA, 2013). The number of people with disabilities varies along with sources but as per the estimation, about 7-10% of the total Nepalese population suffers from disabilities of some form. Nepal has been implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities  (CRPD) since December 2009 (NDWA, 2013). There have been some efforts to address the rights of persons with disabilities, but they are not enough.

Women With Disability (WWDs) often face multiple discrimination based on their gender, disability and poverty in Nepal. This has diminished the ability of most WWDs to support their own livelihood. They have to thus depend upon the support of their family members as there are virtually no significant livelihood support to WWDs by the state.

With the vision that some form of employment would help these women lead a dignified, independent and satisfactory life, Seven Women provides different kinds of skills development training  such as handicraft making, tailoring etc to WWDs. Besides training, we also support to develop the business plan by introducing and selling the hand-made products in Australia. This activity provides our women with monthly income and helps them sustain their livelihood on a daily basis.