Measuring Mortality and Gender Statistics in Nepal

1. Measuring the mortality and gender statistics through household surveys and population census inNepal Prepared By Nava Raj Lamsal Statistics Officer Central Bureau of Statistics Branch Statistics Office, Nuwakot Nepal ESA/STAT/AC.219/13

2. Introduction • Situated in the northern hemisphere, known as land of Mt. Everest and the birth place of Lord Buddha, Nepal is a tiny country. Though Nepal occupies only 0.03% and 0.3% of total land area of the world and Asia respectively, the country has an extreme topography and climate. The altitude ranges from 70 meters to 8848 meters and the climate varies from tundra to polar. The country stretches from east to west with mean length of 885 Km. and widens from north to south with mean breadth of 193 Km.

3. Contd. • Geographically, the country is divided into three east-west ecological zones: the Northern Range –Mountain, the Mid Range-Hill and the Southern Range-Terai In the northern range, Himalayas from and unbroken mountain range which contains eight peaks higher than 8,000 meters, including Mt. Everest on the border with China. The middle range is captured by gorgeous mountains, high peaks, hills valleys and lakes. The southern range with almost 16Km. to 32 Km. north south consist of dense forest areas, national parks, wildlife reserves and conservation areas.

4. Contd. • According to the population Census 2001,the annual growth rate of population is 2.25 percent and the total population of the country in 2008 has reached about 26.9 million of which the proportion of male and female are almost equal. About one third of the populations (30.8%) live below poverty line and Ginni Coefficient 41.4.

5. Contd. • The population Census in Nepal is the primary source of information on the size and composition of the population, household, and housing was first conducted in 1911.Nepal has taken a Population Census every 10 years since 1911.The latest census of Nepal was 2001 Population and Household Census. Even though the population Census of Nepal had provided data on the size and composition of population since 1911, a gender perspective on the statistics has not been appeared as an important until 2000.After declaration MDGs from UN, Government of Nepal has incorporated gender issues in the 2001 census.

6. Contd. • As regards the national statistical system of Nepal, the present system is de facto decentralized. Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is the pivotal statistical agency within the national statistical system and it has 33 branch statistics office throughout the country. CBS was created in 1959 by virtue of Statistics Act, 1958 as the sole agency for the collection, consolidation, publication and analysis of statistics.

7. Features of the census 2001 • Population census being a regular decennial event with standard international practice for comparability, there can not be major departure from one census to another. However, compared to the earlier censuses conducted in the country, there were noticeable differences in the questionnaire as well as the methodology of data collection in the 2001 census. In the 2001 census, special attention was given to the issues related to gender, women, children and the disabled. Similarly, on economic aspects, the household work and the extended economic activity were redefined and emphasized to overcome the under reporting and under coverage of especially female participation in the national economy. In addition to this, mass media campaign had been extensively used for census publicity.

8. The main features of the census 2001 are • Mainstreaming and sensitization of gender issues • Complete and sample enumeration • Census publicity with multi-media approach • For providing the users with wide range of demographic, socio-economic and other statistics, information on household facilities, on female ownership of house and, on disability, and on status of living arrangement of children were included. • Wider Dissemination of Census Results

9. Levels and Patterns of Mortality • Mortality is one of the factors, which affect the structure, size and growth of a population. It is base on death statistics, which usually come from vital registration data. Vital registration system normally follows the definition of death as "the permanent disappearance of evidence of life at any time after birth has take place

10. Contd. • Information on mortality rates contributes to a better understanding of a country's socioeconomic situation and sheds light on the quality of life of population. Preparation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of population, health, and other socioeconomic programs and policies depend to a large extend on target population identification.

11. Contd. • In Nepal, though vital registration system has been universally implemented since 1990, the recordings of events are so poor that we can't use them to estimate vital rates. Under such situation, mortality indices have to be continually derived either from frequently conducted surveys or decennial censuses.

12. Mortality indicators • Crude Death Rate (CDR): Different estimates of CDR for Nepal available since 1954.Direct estimation of CDR is not possible because of data dearth. Despite of poor reporting in the vital registration system, the census also showed under reporting of deaths. For example the rate was found to be 4.7 per thousand in 2001. Health services available, prevailing living standard of population and high poverty level should led high death rate. The rate doesn't reflect crude death rate of Nepalese Population in 2001.Therefore, this asks for indirect estimates of death rate in the country.

13. Contd. • Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): There are several factors affect the IMR of a country which are Nutrition of mothers, Births intervals ,Parity, Age of mother at child's birth, basic health services such as Immunization, ARI etc. Therefore, IMR has been considered as an indicator of socio-economic development and general health condition of a society. In Nepal, since 1991 survey direct techniques of estimation have been applied because the quality of pregnancy history data has improved.

14. Contd. • Child and under 5 Mortality Rate (CMR): In Nepal, Demographic Health Survey has been done in every five years in interval since 1996. Improved technique for the estimation of CMR has been introduced since 2001.The same factors, which were important in the differentials of infant mortality, are also important for the child and under age-5 mortality.

15. Contd. • Maternal Mortality Ratio: Maternal mortality rate (MMR) is one of the most important factors to measure wellbeing and empowerment of women. MMR rate in Nepal is one of the highest in the world; however, recently it has dropped to 229 deaths per 100,000 live births as compared to 281 in few years ago indicting that still a large number of mothers are dying due to causes related to childbirths. In the 1990's the maternal mortality was measure from the hospital records. The appropriate method was not adopted. If it is necessary then small survey was done in few districts or other desired area. Nepal Family Health Survey (NFHS), 1991 and 1996 had collected data on maternal mortality through sisterhood and direct method respectively. Estimation of maternal mortality ratio utilizing the methods above yielded a ratio of 519 and 539 deaths per 100,000 live births respectively

16. Contd. • Life expectancy: Life expectancy like TFR is also synthetic cohort pattern. This measure of mortality like MMR is free from distortion of age composition thus international comparisons are made. To calculate life expectancy we need the age specific mortality rates, which are difficult to obtain as it requires a survey of large sample size. Because the birth registration data is not available, life expectancy in Nepal is usually estimated based on the census data, employing indirect techniques. Due to low coverage of vital registration system, we have to relay on the censuses or surveys conducted in the country. Sample surveys so far conducted in the country, focus only on childhood mortality rather than adolescent and adult mortality. Therefore the censuses were the only sources that would provide mortality pattern by age. The census included question on mortality pattern on the basis of census data prior to the census.

17. Mortality rates in Nepal

18. Change in Gender status • Decennial censuses are the most comprehensive information on a country's population characteristics. They provide a comprehensive data base for evaluating the end-impact of various government /non-government policies, programs and activities. With a shift in development objectives and strategies to focus on people's lives and options, poverty alleviation and equitable development, collection and supply of a meaningful census data, amenable to disaggregated analysis for various groups of population, has acquired specific importance.

19. Contd. • Specifically, the Ninth Plan (1997-2002) had switched from women in development or women and development (WID/WAD) perspective to gender perspective to women's promotion and adopted mainstreaming, elimination gender inequality and empowerment as its major policies on women. With transformation from WID/WAD to gender approach in development, the data requirements have also expended. It is not adequate to have a sex disaggregated data but they must be meaningful for gender analysis, that they must reflect not only the male but also capture the female realities.

20. Contd. Particularly gender approach to development and its statistical implications are: • While women as physical beings are universally the same with the exclusive responsibility of physical reproduction of human beings" female" are context –specific, changing with time and context. • Patriarchy is an overwhelming ideology which pervades all aspects of social existence. The Nepal censuses 2001, was specially importance in this aspect, because specific efforts were made to improve the definition of economic /non –economic activities as per ILO standards.

21. Overall indictors of gender status

22. The data of Marriage and fertility • Variables on marital status, proportion of widowed, divorced and separated women is declining. But still there were women widowed already by 19 years of age. Young widows, particularly, in the Indo-Aryan community, are subject to covert and overt violence and face both psychological and physical violence, often share the property

23. Figure 1: Marital Status of 10 years and above female population Figure 1:

24. Women's property • From the gender perspective in 2001 census certain items such as land, house, and livestock had included to measure the status of women. It is found that about 11 percent households reported some land in female legal ownership and 5.5 percentage households had some house in women's name

25. The women headed household • In Nepal, female headed household were perceived to be under reported by the women activities. Therefore, specific efforts were made in 2001 census to explain more fully the concept of the household headship as that person who usually managed the household affairs. About 15 percent households have been reported to be women headed in the country in 2001 census. In Nepal cross classification of household by household headship and selected characteristics shows difference in education, living arrangement, operational land holdings and dependency ratio of the male headed and female headed households.

26. Employment status • According to the results of employment status of workers by gender, 62 percentage of men and 84 percent of women are in self-employment • and family labor. This shows low proportion of commercialization of the labor market and low employment opportunities in the organized sector.

27. Figure 2: Employment status of Nepal 1991-2001

28. Contd. • A substantial proportion of women are confined to household work due to social and reproductive reasons. Even if home-making activities, such as household maintenance and child-care, don't fall within the production boundary defined by the system of national account (SNA) .Currently, such activities nevertheless are necessary for human reproduction and no economy can survive without them. Therefore, a comparison of working and not-working population is also useful for an analysis of livelihood pattern which was included to collect disaggregated data in the 2001 census

29. Use and Impact of mortality and gender statistics • After 2001 census and household surveys, gender disaggregated data was produced and it has helped to analyze the gap between men and women. Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) has been introduced in Nepal from fiscal year 2007/2008 to ensure the needs and interest of women and men. The government of Nepal has sought to integrate a gender perspective in the development policy framework through important initiatives including gender audit of the line ministries, gender assessments, awareness raising, gender training programmes as all levels of government and the establishment of gender focal point system.GRB has therefore became one of the most effective tools to mainstream gender in policies and plans, to redress inequalities and to promote women, economic, social and political rights.

30. Review of Gender Responsive Budget Allocations from 2007 to 2010

31. Contd. • Mortalities are often used as broad indicators of social development or as specific indicators of health status. The analyses of mortalities are thus useful for identifying promising direction for health programmes and for advancing child survivor efforts and useful for population projections.

32. Conclusion • Measuring the mortality and gender statistics through household survey and population census is a challenging task. Since 2001 census, gender issues were incorporated and gender statistics were produced. It has made easier to evaluate the status of women in education, health, and employment.

33. Contd. • According to the census 2001, the country had 4.25 million households with 23.14 million populations. The number of males was 11.56 and that of females was 11.59 millions. Predominantly the households were headed by men. To achieve gender equity and women empowerment, measurement of mortality as well as gender statistics are important and system approaches such as laws, plans which guarantee and encourage the production of gender statistics, are needed.

34. Contd. • Various efforts has made to measure mortality and gender statistics through household survey and population census. The latest census 2001 and NDHS, 2006 were one of the exemplary surveys to collect gender statistics in South Asia for the empowerment of women. It has helped to measure and analysis international instruments such as CEDAW, BPFA, MDGs etc which has already committed by the Government of Nepal. Therefore, the government of Nepal, Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has given more emphasis on a gender perspective way to complete the upcoming population census, 2011 . THANK YOU.