Nepal’s women soldiers carry corpses, break taboo to tackle COVID
KATHMANDU: Four women wearing protective gear lift the body of a coronavirus victim at the Pashupati crematorium in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and hand it over to crematory workers - a scene unimaginable in the conservative country in recent years.
Women touching a dead body is still a cultural taboo in Nepal. But rights for women have improved since the majority-Hindu country emerged from a decade-long conflict in 2006 and abolished its centuries-old feudal monarchy two years later.
The women carrying corpses in Kathmandu, all soldiers, are being deployed for the first time as the nation of 30 million people tries to manage the bodies of COVID-19 victims amid the growing pandemic.
“I feel privileged and happy for being given a chance to do the work that was done only by the males so far,” said one of the women, a 25-year-old corporal named Rachana, who asked to be identified by just one name.
On their first day on the job last month, the four moved six bodies from a hospital to a crematorium. Nepal
Army spokesman Shantosh B Poudyal said the 95,000-strong force was putting women soldiers in new roles, part of a programme to empower them. Nepal’s army is responsible for managing the bodies of coronavirus victims across the nation.
The pandemic has killed 1,508 people in the country and infected 233,452 since the virus was first detected in January, according to official data. On Monday, 29 people were reported dead from COVID-19, the highest number of daily fatalities since Nov. 4, health ministry data showed.