My Voice, Our Equal Future: A female journalist in Nepal speaking up for change

Karishma Das is a journalist at Radio Janapriya, a local Nepali radio station in Achham District’s Sanfebagar Municipality. She works as a news presenter and is the radio jockey for local programmes such as Lok Mantari, Lokbhet and Gau Basi ka Bhaka.  While these are conventional music programmes, Karishma frequently uses these platforms to spread awareness on sexuality education.

A few years ago, she recalls that “Sexuality Education was a taboo and a sensitive topic to discuss in rural areas.” However, with the training she received from the UNESCO-UN Women-UNFPA Joint Programme on “Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Women through the Provision of Comprehensive Sexuality Education and a Safe Learning Environment in Nepal”, she has a greater understanding of its importance and feels much more confident to be vocal about these issues in public.

Looking back, she says, “The Comprehensive Sexuality Education training helped ignite my willingness to engage the public on challenging conversations on sexuality and inform them on these issues through the media”.

Many adolescent girls and boys and young adults in Nepal do not have adequate knowledge about their reproductive health. According to the UNFPA Nepal, “Only 36% of young women aged 15-24 can correctly identify ways of preventing HIV and reject major misconceptions about HIV transmissions”. Not only do young women lack proper education on healthy decision-making related to sexual health, but there is also a dire need to eradicate misconceptions around sexuality and reproductive health.

Since 2016 the Joint Programme has been training both female and male journalists in the rural areas of Nepal on topics of Comprehensive Sexuality Education and how to incorporate a gender lens in their daily reporting. As a participant, Karishma shares that the training allowed her and other participants to better understand topics such as sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and prevention of and response to gender-based violence. The training also encouraged them to initiate programmes in their own communities that can further advocate for women’s sexual and reproductive health rights as well as wider access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education.  Karishma is spreading awareness on sexuality education and the importance of gender equality through her radio programs.

We have to talk openly about Comprehensive Sexuality Education, that’s something from the training we have already shared with community members. We urge others to move forward together.

Karishma Das, Journalist, UNESCO-UNFPA-UN Women Joint Programme Participant