Publications

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Appendix 4: Cases of Violations of Women and Children's Rights

Case 4.2: Kunchok, a 27-year-old nomad from Chulong Village in Tsongon (Ch:Qinghai) Province, reported in August 2000 that eight to nine women are forcibly sterilised annually in his village, resulting in several cases of severe physical injuries and deaths. A 28-year-old woman from Kyanche Village, Yangzo, died one month after enforced sterilization, having never recovered from the operation. The total lack of any local health facilities in his area is further exacerbating the problem.

Case 4.3: Dhondup is a 28-year-old farmer from Dechen Village in Chentsa County, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) "TAP", Qinghai Province, who reported in September 2000 an identical case, of a 28-year woman from Chatsang Village in Chentsa County who died one month after an enforced sterilization procedure in 1997. He also states that physical impairment from substandard surgical procedures is common. The town doctors and officials are also insisting to the locals that having many children is the cause of their poverty.

Case 4.4: In November 2000, Jampa Tsering, a 28-year-old nomad from Lhari County, Nagchu Prefecture, reported that in his village, women are prohibited from bearing children. Pregnancy results in fine, although there are some women who chose to face the financial hardship rather than submit to sterilisation. Types of contraception available are pills or a slow-release implant in the forearm, whereby the latter involves a minor operation at the county hospital which is not always successful, resulting in severe pain for the recipient.

Case 4.5: Kunchok is a 27-year-old nomad from Tsongon (Ch: Qinghai) Province who arrived in India in August 2000. He related that there is only one primary school in his township with three teachers. Due to inadequate facilities and under-qualified staff, the nomads find it an exercise in futility to send their children to school. There are around 80 families in the village with approximately 100 school-age children, of which only about 20 attend school. The school has a reputation for high drop-out rate. He reported that there are better schools in the county and province but these are only accessible to children of the village leaders and wealthy families. Even Kunchok and his four siblings have no opportunity to attend school.

Case 4.6: Samdup, a 30-year-old nomad from Saga County, Shigatse Prefecture, related how the county and township authorities would regularly call meetings in the villages to order the nomads and farmers not to flee Tibet, or send their children to schools in India. Officials would threaten them with confiscation of their land, animals and ration cards. According to Samdup there are 75 children between the ages of seven to 15 in his village, but only four of them study at a primary school in the township.

Case 4.7: Dorjee Tsering, a 54-year-old farmer from Dingri County, Shigatse Prefecture, claimed that in the past 20 years only 15 Tibetans from his county have completed higher education. He also declared that every one of those students was a child of a county or village official.

Case 4.8: Penpa Kyi, a 33-year-old farmer from Gyatsa County, Lhokha Prefecture, Lhasa Municipality, could only afford to send her child to school for one or two months. Initially the fee was 5 yuan, which then increased every semester. Penpa Kyi believes that the fee is currently 100 yuan, with the teacher's salary, books, and stationery supplies all being extra costs. The other factor influencing her decision to withdraw her child was the corruption and discrimination that offered graduates little prospect of employment. "We don't have 'hooks'. If the child does well in the exams, then people with hooks manage to have the results changed and then these children get good jobs."

Case 4.9: Tsetan Lhamo, 17, is a nun from Nyemo County, Lhasa's Municipality, who arrived in India in May 2000. Nyemo Township was formed in 1999 by integrating four other townships, and there are both public and government-administered schools in all the sub-townships. School attendance is compulsory and parents face heavy fines if they fail to send their children to school up to middle school level. However, for further studies and scholarships, students have to depend on familial connections (Chinese: guanxi) within the administration, which Tibetans rarely have. Even official jobs in county or township offices are reserved for children of officials. Consequently, the majority of Tibetan children who manage to complete their schooling end up working with their parents as farmers or nomads.

Case 4.10: Khandro Gyal, a 23-year-old teacher from Marpon Village in Amdo, went through teacher training school and suffered racial discrimination at the institute. Tibetans accounted for only 13% of the enrolments, and they struggled due to poor Chinese language skills. The teachers, all Chinese, regarded the Tibetans as inferior. Upon graduation, all the Tibetan students were posted to undesirable, remote villages whereas the Chinese students obtained desirable city placements.

Khandro Gyal was posted to Setsa Primary School where the 135 students are taught Chinese and Tibetan. All Tibetan textbooks translated from Chinese dealt with the Chinese revolutionaries and history and achievements of Mao and Zhu An Ling. Teachers caught attempting to include subjects other than the prescribed syllabus such as Tibetan history, tradition, culture, religion, or about the lives of the Dalai Lamas, would face severe repercussions such as salary deprivation or job loss. Khandro Gyal fled Tibet because, "during my four-year teaching career, I could not cope with the fact that the Tibetan students are indoctrinated in front of my own eyes. This invariably eats at me. This lack of freedom to give Tibetans the right education, just brainwashing them, is something I could not bear anymore. The only viable solution was to get away from it."

Case 4.11: A 22 year-old-student from Sangchu County, Gannan "TAP", Gansu Province, reported in February 2000 that access for Tibetan students to higher study or employment is reliant on personal connections or bribes, and has no relevance to the examination grades they achieve. He also states that the Tibetan language is only taught perfunctorily, with cases of students completing nine years of schooling and still being unable to write the Tibetan alphabet. There is only one Tibetan middle school in his area and access to it is limited and expensive. This is aggravated by the distance schools are located from the nomadic settlements which requires students to pay the extra fees for accommodation.

All of his teachers were Chinese and he described political lessons as being devoted to nationalist propaganda: " ... for example that the Tibetans and all of the minorities should be united and should be appreciative of the protection of the motherland. They say that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is trying to split the relationship between two brothers.

"I have come to India because although I have been to school for many years, my Tibetan language is very poor. My aim is to learn Tibetan language. As a Tibetan I have the responsibility to know my own language. The other things that I want to know more about are the history of Tibet and what really happened between Tibet and China. Then I hope to go back to Tibet and do something for our country. I hope to develop the Tibetan language in my villages."