Danuwar Indigenous Women’ Right to Clean Environment is violating by Cement Factory

Total 230 households of the Danuwar indigenous community reside on their ancestral land at Jugedi, Dhunibesi Rural Municipality Ward No. 9 of Dhading district. This settlement is around 18 km far from Kathmandu valley and close to the east-west highway of Nepal. The place is one of the major green vegetable pocket areas of Dhading district. The major source of income of the Danuwar community has been the production and sale of green vegetables in the nearby market center. Some of them also used to sell their agricultural production at Kalimati vegetable market of Kathmandu. In 2007/2008 a cement factory was established by a leading business house of Nepal on a huge size of land purchased from other non-indigenous people who had already migrated to city areas. According to information received from the Danuwar community they had not been consulted prior to the establishment of the factory. Due to the pollution caused by the operations of the factory, the agricultural production has declined by around 45-60% annually. Therefore, the local Danuwar community had to abandon their agricultural occupation. Young/active people of this community had to migrate abroad for labor work. Based on information by the Danuwar community, dust pollution is not only degrading agricultural production, but has also impacted on the community members’ and their livestock’s health, the availability of fodder and, as a consequence, caused a decline in numbers of livestock. The dust and pollution by the cement factory has caused environmental destruction resulting in violations of the right to adequate food and nutrition, e.g. changing food habits, increasing health problems (asthma and cough and skin disease), as well as severe social problems related to family destruction due to the migration. Women and children, as well as senior persons of the community are especially impacted by this situation, as they usually stay at home, while males go out for labor work in other city areas or even abroad. According to observations by FIAN Nepal, it is mainly women and children who are facing increasing health problems due to dust pollution as well as a food crisis due to the reduced production of crops, vegetables and livestock. Before the establishment of the factory, they used to produce milk at home from their cows and buffaloes, but due to lack of fodder for their cattle they are now forced to buy milk from the market. As their income has declined considerably due to the lower yield of vegetables, many people cannot afford to buy milk from the market. The pollution produced by the cement factory is thus impacting Danuwar women in multiple ways – by creating health problems through contaminated food for humans and fodder for cattle and malnutrition due to the inability to buy healthy food. The affected women complain, that, when raising their voices to demand their rights, responsible agencies do not take them serious because they are women.