To the modern, gen-next women, the expression “mana pathi bharne” (‘maintenance allowance’) may be anathema! They may

never even have heard of it! But to generations of women in by-gone days,

it meant grabbling the live-saving

straw when their marriages

foundered on the rocks of conflict, separation and divorce.

“Mana pathi bharne” is the official, legal term to denote the meager allowance, which a husband had to provide to his wife upon divorce. Obviously, as the very meaning suggests, it was an amount just enough for subsistence. A woman accepted this humiliating treatment probably because there was no other option.

By law, she has been given the right to equal inheritance in either her husband’s or father’s property. However, the women rarely got their fair share.

Now, women have increasingly become aware of their rights as equal citizens. A large number of Nepali women today are educated, contemporary and empowered enough to insist on an equitable deal from the establishment and society. Because of this groundswell opinion-building, laws have changed slowly, but steadily.

A woman’s right to property has been recognized through actual

revisions of law through governmental efforts as well as through a large pool of judicial opinion.

However, the fact remains that though the succession act names a daughter as an equal inheritor to her paternal property or a wife to her husband’s. In reality, she still does not inherit any of it unless she goes to court and fights a long, arduous battle for her rights. There is no law yet which clearly shows the husband and wife as co-owners of matrimonial property.

Anyway, these days people are becoming well aware of the rights of women, and are making efforts to solidify them by judicial opinion, case law and court rulings.

Perhaps, this is a beacon of hope

for women who still are forced to

survive on paltry ‘maintenance allowances’ after suffering the trauma

of divorce or separation.

The best path for women, however, is undoubtedly that of developing

self-reliance. Married or single, a womanhas to inevitably become financially independent, and lead a life of respect and dignity. There is no alternative to this strategy!