Apropos of the news feature story “When she fights for her” (THT, Oct. 11, Page 7), gender equality is a much-talked about issue in cultural politics of identity. Either men or women are identified with an essential conception of the sameness. Though there is no universal truth as such, the underlying philosophy of equality is based on providing equal opportunities and desiring the equal outcomes. However, uniqueness and differences are, in discursive formation, considered to be the universal criteria where one seeks to mold one’s identity. For instance, there is a vast difference in the status of lives, either it be socioeconomic, socio-cultural or sociopolitical, among the women of cities like that of Kathmandu, women of remote parts of the country like that of Bajura and other situations. Likewise, there is no doubt that the patriarchy they are fighting with for centuries is completely different from each other. Though the studies and the research to find out these circumstances are tiresome, there is no viable alternative to these efforts to make effective plans and policies to truly empower women of all strata. For this, reverence for differences and diversity is needed for the sustainable empowerment of women. That is only possible through gender justice as a cultural critic Chris Barker once said, “The solution to this problem is to drop the ideas of both equality of outcome and equality of opportunity, replacing with the concept of gender justice.”

Som Nath Ghimire, Kawasoti

Poaching

The unfortunate poaching of one-horned rhinoceros, an IUCN designated vulnerable species in the subcontinent

nations of India, Nepal and Bhutan is extremely shocking. The important factor behind this relentless poaching is

the failures of the local governments in successfully including the indigenous communities settled adjacent to the rhino habitats as stakeholders in the process of rhino conservation. The poor socio-economic conditions of the local rural and indigenous communities living in the rhino belts with no education and healthcare facilities and negligible employment opportunities has been pushing local people into poaching or working indirectly as facilitators of the poachers. The forest department as well as the local administration have completely failed in engaging such communities in the task of participatory conservation by hiring and employing local people in forest related jobs and training them as local conservators and/or informers to prevent poaching and illegal trade of major and minor forest resources, wildlife as well as various wildlife products such as the coveted rhino horn that has huge demand in the international illegal wildlife markets of the Middle East, China and SE Asia. Unless the anthropogenic factors is seriously incorporated into a major conservation master plan for protecting rhinos; simply strengthening security measures and monitoring of the vulnerable rhino habitats will not be able to prevent poaching.

Saikat Kumar Basu, Canada