Bhutan

This isolated landlocked Himalayan country, sharing borders with China and India, has a population of 672,500 (2005 estimate), with a female life expectancy of 54.5, one of the few countries to have a lower life expectancy rate for females than for males. It has a birth rate of 33.6 per 1,000, and an infant mortality rate of 98.4 per 1,000 live births.

Abortion is illegal in Bhutan unless necessary to save the life of the mother, but it is widely believed that some women continue to obtain abortions from untrained providers. However, no reliable statistical data exist on this practice. Promotion of family planning by the government has helped raised the prevalence rate for contraception use from 18.4 percent in 1994 to 30.7 percent in 2000.

Infant mortality in Bhutan dropped from 162.4 per 1,000 live births in 1984 to 96.9 per 1,000 in 1994 and 84 per 1,000 in 2000. Maternal mortality declined from 770 per 100,000 live births in 1984 to 380 in 1994 and 255 in 2000. The under-5 mortality rate dropped from 164.2 per 1,000 live births in 1984 to 380 per 100,000 in 1994 and 84.0 per 100,000 in 2000. The nonprofit organization Save the Children was unable to assign Bhutan an overall rank on either the Women's Index and Children's Index due to missing data.

In recent years, the government has sought to achieve a greater role for women in its decision-making process. However, prevailing social attitudes in Bhutan have long led to discrimination against women, and as a result, they traditionally have not had the same access to education as men. This has meant that approximately 95 percent of women are illiterate, and many are still involved in agriculture. During the 1980s, less than 0.5 percent found work in the government bureaucracy. By 1989, a tenth of government employees were women, and more girls attend schools than ever before. The National Women's Association of Bhutan was established by the government in 1981, headed by Dasho Dawa Dem, one of the few women to receive the title “Dasho” from the king. There are also groups such as the Bhutan Women and Children Organisation (BWCO), which was established to help press for the rights of women and children, although much of the work of the BWCO takes place in refugee camps outside the country itself.

There is also discrimination against foreign wives, as the Marriage Act of 1980 states that foreign wives of Bhutan citizens do not gain Bhutanese citizenship. This was specifically introduced against the Lhotshampa minority, and is only really enforced against them; these wives were not permitted access to much medical care, and are also politically disenfranchised.

During the 1990s, the Bhutan government did much to change attitudes toward women, who now have the same civil rights as men, including the right to education and to vote. Furthermore, women have long been able to inherit land in Bhutan and decide on marriage. In this matriarchal society, a man goes to live with his wife's family upon marriage, and divorces are common and widely accepted. Fathers are required by law to pay a fifth of their salary for child support until their children reach the age of 18.

...