Education is a key tool for human civilization but many people are deprived of it and do not have equal chance to achieve it from gender point of view in society, though everyone has an equal right to get it. In this context, this study tries to explore the literacy status, educational attainment. The major concern of preparing this article was to study this issue extracting the data from two immediate past censuses of Nepal and analysing them by using the Microsoft Excel programme. Humanities and Arts, Business and Administration, Education, Science, and Social and Behavioural Science are supposed to be more selected subjects of study for both males and females at the national level. More gender gap in terms of literacy and level of education seems to occur though the level of education increases in all provinces.

BackgroundPregnancy intention refers to a women’s thinking at the time she became aware that she was pregnant. Pregnancy intentions can be categorized as intended and unintended. It is an important public health concern in every corner of the world, especially in developing countries. The study was carried out with an objective of determining the pregnancy intentions among married women in Resunga municipality, Gulmi, Nepal and test the association of pregnancy intentions with various socio-demographic, and reproductive health-related variables.MethodsThe community based cross-sectional study design was used to achieve the objective of the study. Married women of reproductive age of the Resunga municipality, Gulmi were selected and a multistage random sampling technique was adopted. Total 406 participants were involved in this study. Pretested semi-structured interview schedule adapted from Demographic and Health Survey of Nepal was used for data collection. All the statistical tests were performed in SPSS, version 25.0. The p -value was set at 5% level of significance. Descriptive and data exploratory analysis were performed. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis technique were conducted to explore the association between pregnancy intentions and predictor variables.ResultsThe study showed that out of total 410 pregnancies, 248 (60.5%) pregnancies were unintended, of which 78(19.05%) were unplanned and 170 (41.5%) were ambivalent. The remaining 162 (39.5%) pregnancies were considered intended. The chi-square analysis and bivariate analysis showed that women age, socioeconomic status, husband opposition, methods used before pregnancy, and intention of using contraception in the future were significantly associated with pregnancy intentions. When these variables were subjected for multivariate analysis, only socioeconomic status, and method of family planning used before pregnancy were found to be significantly associated with pregnancy intentions.ConclusionsThe study showed that unintended pregnancy is very high. The factors that were found to be associated with an unintended pregnancy were socioeconomic status and method of family planning used before pregnancy. The findings of this research work could be useful while providing different reproductive and family planning related services to women by considering predictors of unintended pregnancy that might increase planned pregnancy ultimately.

The nature of profession of sex trade is multi partnered which leads the sex partners to unprotected sex. This study aims to explore the knowledge and experiences of STIs, practice and use of condom, reasons of not using it regularly and addiction situations among the street based female sex workers (SFSWs) in Kathmandu Valley. This study is a non-experimental research based on cross-sectional design. Mixed method was used to collect information with 110 SFSWs selected by using snow ball sampling techniques and presented descriptively after arranging in different themes. Among the SFSWs, 64.5 percent experienced STIs and 69 percent of them were unable to use condoms regularly. Most of the sex workers agree to unprotected sex when they are offered extra money and forced for sex by clients without condom, and another reason was lack of skill on SFSWs in using it properly. Knowingly or unknowingly SFSWs, clients and their life-partners are being victimized from practicing of risky sexual behaviour. The study suggests that touchy and broad awareness programs and compulsory rule to use male condom from clients’ side within safer indoor work space could be effective in helping to assure satisfying and safe sex.

Age and sex structure of population of particular region is key determinants for development. The population of Nepal is in transition phase due to the decreasing trend of the birth and death rates; as a result, the situation of demographic windows of opportunity is started in the country. However, the demographic window of opportunity as human resources of Nepal is being magnetized and used by different foreign countries in the world. So to take advantage of economic growth, it needs to invest in the youth of the country with consideration of gender equality. This paper explores the working age population, dependency ratio, index of ageing and sex ratio by provinces which has not been studied yet in the country. The data for this study were drawn from National Report 2001 and 2011 censuses and calculated by using Microsoft Excel. The population was projected by using exponential growth function for 2031. The working age population is growing in Nepal in all provinces except province six. It will arrive at in 63.0 percent at national level and the highest (77.3 %) in province three by 2031. The data seem to be interesting that the working age population of female is higher than male in all the years of the censuses. Although the ageing population is in the increasing trend, the overall dependency ratio is decreasing in almost all provinces. The problem of brain drain and issue of gender equality and equity in acceleration of nation’s development are considerable population management matters in Nepal.

Economic background is taken as one of the crucial influencing factors of women's empowerment. This paper attempts to assess the key economic features of women and their degree of association on empowerment by place of residence. For this, the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2016 data were used. In total, 9,875 currently married women aged 15-49 years were used to analyze by applying descriptive and bivariate analysis techniques. The findings showed rural women have poor economic status compared with urban women. Agriculture is the main profession of women among both rural and urban areas but the non-agricultural profession is lower especially among rural (11.7%) women to compare with urban (24.6%) women. Similarly, unpaid work seems still prevalent in both urban (46.6%) and rural (59.6%) areas. The male domination is clearly observed in earning a position with their husband, being paid in the same job, and ownership of property related to land and house. The study showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between working women and their empowerment in both rural and urban areas. The better economic status of women has higher empowerment in comparison to the women who have poor status. Hence, economic power has an automatically positive influence on women's empowerment. However, it needs to be paid high attention to improve the prevailing poor women’s economic status in different circumstances.