Nepal is a land of different gods and goddesses. Many are Hindu and others are Buddhist. The Nepalese have many facets to their religious pantheon; and many are incarnations, manifestations, and aspects of the different major gods and goddesses. However, we have one unique aspect of our Hindu religion, the Kumari Devi. She is an actual living goddess in the flesh. Her titles are the Kumari Devi, the Royal Kumari, or the Virgin Goddess. She is worshiped as the incarnation of the Goddess Teleju Bhawani or the young incarnation of the Goddess Durga.

Kumari literally means a virgin. A young girl from the Buddhist community is chosen to represent a Hindu goddess after she passes 32 tests of “perfection,” which include a body like a banyan tree and golden, tender skin that has never been scratched or shed a drop of blood. After Kumari has been chosen, she has to live in Kumari ghar (house) in Kathmandu Durbar Square.

The selection process of Kumari is:

 A panel of judges’ conducts series of ancient ceremonies to select the goddess from several 2- to 4-year-old girls who are all members of the impoverished Shakya goldsmith caste.

 The judges read the candidates’ horoscopes and check each one for physical imperfections. The living goddess must have perfect hair, eyes, teeth and skin with no scars, and should not be afraid of the dark.

 As a final test, the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear.

Since the time of selection, no importance is given to the child rights of the young girl called Kumari. She is made to shun everything at such an early age for the sake of the culture and religion. At a time when the children of her age go to school, she is made to sit at Kumari Ghar. She is deprived of her child rights. So many people have raised the voice to safeguard the rights of Kumari. Three years ago, child rights activists challenged the practice of choosing Kumari, saying it infringed on the rights of a child to go to school or play with other children while they assumed the role of living goddesses. Government has also turned deaf ear regarding the rights of Kumari. In August 2008, the Nepalese Supreme Court has asked the government to guarantee basic child rights to the living goddesses as guaranteed in the (United Nations) Convention on the Rights of the Child. The court’s response came after a three-year debate on whether the practice of keeping a child secluded as a living goddess infringed on her rights. There should be no bar on Kumaris from going to school and enjoying health-related rights,” the Supreme Court said. “The Kumaris should not be treated as bonded laborers, and restrictions on free movement should not be imposed.” Now with the order from Supreme Court, a bit has changed with the living of Kumari but it is still not enough to safeguard the rights of a child.

Becoming Kumari is the beginning of her abnormal life.  She will be deprived of a normal childhood.  She won’t have the same freedom, schooling, social activities as everyone else of her age have.  She can’t make friends with whomever she wants or dress as how she wishes. In short, she can’t do many things, even basic things like running on grassland and enjoying the sun. Even though the court has spoken for the rights of Kumari, it doesn’t seem that it is going to safeguard her rights. Keeping Kumari has been our tradition and we are not able to stop this system. People want to keep this system alive for the sake of religion or culture. No one is thing of a poor girl who hasn’t seen enough of this world. As soon as after her birth she is made in to a confinement for the sake of the culture. She has to sacrifice her childhood without knowing anything.

On 20 November 1959 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a much expanded version as its own Declaration of the Rights of the Child. This date has been adopted as the Universal Children’s Day.

 The initial document consisted of the following stipulations:

        1. The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both    materially and spiritually.

       2. The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succored.

       3. The child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress.

       4. The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood, and must be protected against every form of exploitation.

       5. The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men.

So have we been able to comply with all these things. The answer is big NO. Being a Kumari doesn’t give a child to develop freely. She has to go through many tensions in her early age. A huge number of people come to her and bow their head. She must be in a great dilemma about what people are doing. She is just an innocent child. She doesn’t know anything but people are worshipping her as a goddess. She is merely a little girl who got nominated by her family for the selection of Kumari at the age of four. And since her installment she is locked up in the house (except for several occasions every year) and worshipped – has her feet touched and kissed – by thousands of people for good fortune through the years. People find god in her. That’s just what people believe.

If people were to find god for real, they didn’t have to select an innocent girl and keep her in a place depriving the innocent girl of all her childhood rights. God is what we believe in and it’s in our heart. What we think is god. We don’t have to find anyone to take the position of a god. It’s within us. Humanity is the greatest god. So if we really respect humanity and believe in god then we have to bring huge changes in the way we choose Kumari and give her the freedom that every child gets. I don’t mean that the system of Kumari is to be abandoned. But there are many things that we can change to protect the right of Kumari and keep our rich culture alive.