The Dalits, as historically disadvantaged groups in Nepal, lag behind in their income, education, health and other human development indicators and in representation in decision making bodies. Dalits overall have the lowest household incomes in Nepal – roughly half the incomes of Brahman-Chhetri households and less than a third that of Newar households; the Madhesi Dalits have the lowest per capita incomes. In such a context Dalit women face the double oppression multiple exclusions in Nepalese society. Along-with experiencing gender-based discrimination, they are subjected to caste-based discrimination. The impact has been disastrous for their development in all sectors including education and health.

It is in this context that the FEDO has been implementing the "Equal Access of Dalit Women to Health Services (EADWHS) Project" in four districts, namely: Dailekh, Surkhet, Barbiya and Kapilbastu since January 2009 with the financial support of the European Commission. This is a five year project ending in December 2013.The overall objective of the project is to ensure a better future for vulnerable Dalit women by improving the access to basic health services in the target districts.

The specific objectives of the project are:

  1. To train and empower the Dalit women, socially excluded people and staff of local government’s health institutions to work as an accountable community health worker and health personnel at community level.
  2. To improve obstetric and pediatric health services, bring the visible and positive impact on the lives of vulnerable Dalit women, men and children at community level.
  3. To establish a functional networking at community level for right based advocacy and linkage for making the access of Dalit women and their families in health services at community level.

To contribute to the overall objectives, the project will increase access to quality health services of Dalit women without any discrimination by caste and socio-economic status. For this the project interventions will be in capacity building, health service support and establishing a rights-based functional networking. A comprehensive program of Dalit health personnel development, health service support, primary health care, water and sanitation and right based advocacy, linkage and networking are the major areas of interventions to ensure the better future for vulnerable Dalit women to improve the access to health services in Nepal.