The custom of worshipping a pre-pubescent girl, girls in the age-group of 4-7 year, who belong to the Shakya community, and not a born goddess, as the source of supreme power is an old Hindu-Buddhist tradition that still continues to this day in Nepal. It is believed that Kumari (Living goddess) is an actual living goddess. Her titles are the Kumari Devi, the Royal Kumari, or the Virgin Goddess. She is worshiped as the incarnation of the Goddess Taleju Bhawani or the young incarnation of the Goddess Durga. Her worshipers consist of Hindu devotees and the Nepalese Royal Family. The priest of the Taleju temple worships her daily. There are other Kumaris besides the royal one.
There are eleven living goddesses in Nepal known as Kumari, "virgin". These young girls are regarded as temporary embodiments of Taleju Bhawani, who in turn is a manifestation of the fierce female god Durga. The Kumari’s divinity comes to an end with her first menstruation, because it is believed that on reaching puberty the Kumari turns human. However, if she turns out to be unlucky, even a minor cut or bleeding can render her invalid for worship, and the search for the new goddess has to begin.
At this point she is thought to have lost her divinity, and the search for a new Kumari must begin. While being a Kumari, she is supported by temple income. When she retires from being the Kumari, she is paid a grant but which could not make up she has lost those. Among eleven only the Kumari of Kathmandu Valley get the facilities of the Royal Kumari.

The three most important Kumaris are each associated with one of the three main towns of Kathmandu Valley: Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu. The most influential of the Kumaris is known as the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu. All eleven Kumaris are not treated equally, Kumari of lalitpur and kathmandu have to stay in kumari house following strict ritual conducts whereas Kumari of Bhaktapur and Bungmati are not bound by those regulations.

History of Kumari Practice

Worship of the Kumari/Virgin Goddess was established in the 16th century. Malla king who said to be playing dice with the patron protective goddess of Kathmandu Valley, Taleju Bhawani. It appears that the king had have an unwarranted pass at the Goddess and she takes away her protection of the Valley. After some time, she relents and promises to return in the form of a young girl.

The Goddess Kumari is regarded as a temporary embodiment of Taleju Bhawani, a goddess who in turn is a manifestation of the fierce female deity Durga, the Universal Mother. There are several verses in the Vedas which eloquently glorify the position of Kumaris and their role in various spheres of life. The predominance of the Kumari cult is more distinctly evident among the Newar community inside the Kathmandu Valley. However, it was the Vajrayana sect of the Mahayana Buddhism that was responsible for establishing the tradition of worshipping a girl from the Shakya community as the royal Living Goddess.

Selection of Kumari

There are eleven living goddesses in Nepal known as Kumari. They are chosen from various towns because Kumaris are believed to protect the towns from evil powers. Five senior priests choose girls from the Newar Shakya caste of silver and goldsmiths. The girls must meet 32 strict physical criteria.

These requirements range from eye color and shape of teeth to the sound of their voices, clear skin with small pores, even teeth, black hair and eyes, soft hands, a moist tongue, no bad body odors and "small and well-recessed sexual organs." Most importantly she must show no signs of ever having bled, as from a cut or nosebleed, for it will be blood that will signify the end of her reign as a living Goddess. They have to be between the age of four and puberty. Horoscopes must match that of the King's to ensure compatibility, because the Kumari has the power to confirm the King's rule.

The girls who meet the physical requirements are subjected to many rigorous tests. The most intense test is when the girls are surrounded by terrifying noises in a dark room. Men dance around them in horrific masks and they are subjected to bloody buffalo heads that are remains of sacrifices to Kali during the Dasain festival. The frightening occurrences in the dark should not scare or upset a real goddess, much less one that is an incarnation of Durga. The young girl who remains calm during this last test is obviously the Kumari.

Once the selection procedure is over, the Kumari must undergo a series of secret rituals. She is brought to the temple of Goddess Taleju in Kathmandu City. This ritual is closed, but probably consists of tantric ceremonies to remove all past experiences from her body. She then becomes a perfectly pure vessel for the spirit of the Goddess Taleju to enter. Wearing her Kumari topknot, a tika, and a red mark on her forehead to represent the third eye, red vestments, red painted toes, and elaborate jewelry, the ceremony reaches its climax when the girl takes her seat on the lion throne of the goddess. At dawn she leaves the temple and walks through a huge crowd, treading on a white cloth as she goes across the public square to her official residence.

Dehumanized practice

This beautiful girl, who must always wear red, her hair in a topknot and a painted third eye, lives a strange and paradoxical life. From her investiture as a small child until puberty, she has no name and lives in isolation. She commands more power among her people than almost any living person, and yet at the loss of a tooth, or of menstrual blood, she immediately reverts to mere mortality.
The practice of Kumari worship is a child dehumanizing cult practice rather than a cultural heritage that should be respected and preserved. Kumari Cult originated from superstition, the belief produced by irrational fear in supernatural power and sanction.
Kumari practice is one of the most celebrated cults of Kathmandu valley, the Cult of Kumari worship that depicts the pathetic story of young and innocent girls who are deprived of liberty, freedom and humanly life. The life of Kumari is, indeed, a dehumanized life that is celebrated in the pride of century old superstition that sustains on fear and irrational belief and such practices need to be deconstructed and exposed in order to free, liberate and let live the innocent female childs a dignified humanly life."
This tradition holds that men who marry ex-goddesses will die within six months of the marriage. Thus peoples are not overtly keen to wed an ex-Kumari. The girls are believed to retain some of their divine power, and the idea of marrying a woman in whom the goddess Durga once dwelt is a scary prospect. Superstition has it that this power can even be fatal to a husband.

The human rights of living goddess include the universal, indivisible, interconnected and interdependent human rights which are right to equality, right to freedom, right to live a dignified life, right to education, freedom of thought, expression and peaceful assembly, right to choose dress and food, right to health, freedom of movement, right against exploitation, right to privacy, right to marry and choose life partner and right to entertainment.

Kumaris cannot live a dignified and free life even after their retirement which results negative impact on physical and mental development, social security and rehabilitation is another major question for them. For all the sacrifices a young girl makes in order to become a Kumari, she gets very little compensation.

Against Such Act

Nepali Laws strictly prohibits the offering of child to god in the name of tradition. And the rules and regulation which she has to obey are also against the constitution, laws and international human rights conventions. The practice of kumari violates the following provision of the Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal 1990.

1. Article 11: Right to Equality
   (1) All citizens shall be equal before the law. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.
   (2) No discrimination shall be made against any citizen in the application of general laws on grounds of religion (dharma), race (varna), sex (lin_ga), caste (jât), tribe (jâti) or ideological (vaicârik) conviction or any of these.
   (3) The State shall not discriminate among citizens on grounds of religion, race, sex, caste, tribe, or ideological conviction or any of these.
2. Article 12: Right to Freedom
   (1) No person shall be deprived of his personal liberty save in accordance with law, and no law shall be made which provides for capital punishment.
   (2) All citizens shall have the following freedoms:
   (a) Freedom of opinion and expression;
   (b) Freedom to assemble peaceably and without arms;
   (c) Freedom to form unions and associations;
   (d) Freedom to move throughout the Kingdom and reside in any part thereof; and
3. Article 20: Right against Exploitation
   (1) Traffic in human beings, slavery, serfdom or forced labour in any form is prohibited. Any contravention of this provision shall be punishable by law;
   Provided that nothing herein shall be a bar to providing by law for compulsory service for public purposes.
4. Article 22: Right to Privacy
   Except as provided by law, the privacy of the person, house, property, document, correspondence or information of anyone is inviolable.
5. Article 25 (1): It shall be the chief objective of the State to promote conditions of welfare on the basis of the principles of an open society, by establishing a just system in all aspects of national life, including social, economic and political life, while at the same time protecting the lives, property and liberty of the people.
6. Article 26 (7): The State shall pursue a policy of making the female population participate, to a greater extent, in the task of national development by making special provisions for their education, health and employment.
7. Article (8) :The State shall make necessary arrangements to safeguard the rights and interests of children and shall ensure that they are not exploited, and shall make gradual arrangements for free education.

Other Nepalese Laws are as:
Preamble of the Act, 1992 to provide safeguarding the Interest of children says, for the physical, mental and intellectual development of the children it is expedient to make timely legal provisions in order to protect the right and interests of the Children.
Section 14 of Child Act 1992 states

1. No person shall, for the purpose of fulfilling the promise made to god or for serving any other religious purpose, offer or surrender his or anybody else's child to any god or goddess by buying such child, offering economic gain, under any kind of coercion or undue influence.
2. No person shall, by accepting economic benefit, sell or handover otherwise his child to anybody for the purpose stipulated in sub-section (1)
3. No panda, dhami, priest or the chief of any religious enshrinement shall incite to the commission of an act contained in sub-section (1) nor shall perform or permit to perform religious formalities in cases where a person bring his child to any temple with the purpose of offering or surrendering to god or goddess
4. If any event takes place after the commencement of this Act, in violation of sub-section (1), (2) and (3) above, the father, mother or any member of the family shall take custody of the child and make arrangements for upbringing, education and health care of such child on equal footing with other members of the family as if such event never took place.
5. Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (4), a child referred to in Sub-section (1) and (2) who is below the age of 16 years at the commencement of the Act shall be brought up by any of the living parents.
   
   Section 12 of civil rights Act, 1955 states: the life or individual liberty of any person shall not be taken away except in accordance with current Nepal law. And the section 13 of the act further states no person shall employ anybody against his consent except in accordance with current Nepal Law.
   

International Treaties:

Nepal is a party to different international treaties or conventions including most important UN Human Rights Declaration and Conventions. Nepal is also a party to the six core UN Human Rights instruments. Treaty Act 1990 is one of the very significant laws in Nepal, which respects international laws not only law of morality but also binding laws. Section 9 (1) of the Treaty Act 1990 accords international treaties and convention hold the same legal status as the domestic laws. In case of the contradiction between the provisions of the domestic laws and the treaty provisions, the treaty provisions supersede. The Kumari practice is against the provisions of the treaties which are ratified by Nepal.

Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990
Article 16-Protection of privacy
Children have the right to protection from interference with their privacy, family, home and correspondence and from libel/slander.

Article 19-Protection from abuse and neglect
The state is obliged to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence perpetrated by parents or others responsible for their care, and to undertake preventive and treatment programmes in this regard.

Article 24-Health and health services
The child has the right to the highest level of health and access to health and medical services, with special emphasis on primary and preventive health care, public health education and the reduction of infant mortality. The state is obliged to work towards the abolition of harmful traditional practices. Emphasis is laid on the need for international cooperation to ensure this right.

Article 27-Standard of living
Children have the right to benefit from an adequate standard of living. It is the primary responsibility of parents to provide this and the state's duty to ensure that parents are able to fulfill that responsibility. The state may provide material support in the case of need, and may seek to ensure recovery of child maintenance costs from absent parents or guardians.

Article 28-Education
The child has the right to education and the state has a duty to ensure that primary education, at least, is made free and compulsory. Administration of school discipline is to reflect the child's human dignity. Emphasis is laid on the need for international cooperation to ensure this right.

Article 29-Aims of education
The state must recognise that education should be directed at developing the child's personality and talents, preparing the child for active life as an adult, fostering respect for basic human rights and developing respect for the child's own cultural and national values and those of others.

Article 31-Leisure, recreation and cultural activities
Children have the right to leisure, play and participation in cultural and artistic activities.

Article 32-Child labour
The state is obliged to protect children from engaging in work that constitutes a threat to their health, education or development, to set minimum ages for employment, and to regulate conditions of employment.

Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979
Article 2 -Law policy and prejudices
CEDAW urges all countries to work towards eradicating discrimination against women by introducing new laws or policy, changing existing discriminatory laws and providing sanctions for discrimination where it occurs.

Article 5- Sex Roles and Stereotyping
CEDAW requires countries to address and change social and cultural patterns that reinforce the stereotyping of women and traditional gender roles, or that promote the relative superiority or inferiority of either of the sexes.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966
Article 6- Right to life
The right to life is only the right in the ICCPR, which is expressly stated to be inherent in every human being. This article clearly provides the right to life and obliged state to take all necessary measures to protect the right to life.

Article 12-Freedom of Movement
Everyone has right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own and no one shall be arbitrary deprived of the right to enter his own country. These rights shall not be subjected to any restrictions except those that are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order, public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present covenant.

Article 17-Arbitrary Interference
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation and everyone has right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 21-Freedom of Assembly
The right to peaceful assembly and no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 24-Protection of Children
Every child shall have rights not to be discriminated as to race, colour, sex, language, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures to protection as are required by his status as a minor on the part of his family, society.

Article 26- Equal protection before the Law
All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The CEDAW committee on its Concluding observation on combined second and third periodic report of Nepal at its 630th and 631st meeting, on 13 January 2004 has focused at the persistence of discriminatory cultural practices and stereotypes relating to the roles and responsibilities of women and men in all areas of life, and by deep rooted patriarchal attitudes and conduct based on the assumed superiority of men in the public and private spheres and the strong perception that women are weak and vulnerable, which undermine women. The committee is concerned at the continuing existence of practices including kumari tradition, which is contrary to the convention and constitute discrimination against women. The committee has urged Nepal to take steps to abolish other harmful and discriminatory traditional practices, such as deuki (dedicating girls to a god or goddess), jhuma (in some communities, second daughters remain unmarried and spend the life in monasteries), kumari.

Way forward:

From time immemorial the practice of worshipping an ordinary pre-pubescent girl as a source of supreme power has been an integral part of both Hinduism and Buddhism, a tradition which continues even to this day virtually. The tradition of Kumari-worship is still strong in Nepal, and although it has been modified slightly by education and parental reluctance, it can be expected to continue.

It is unlikely that the tradition of The Living Goddess will be discontinued because the belief is so deeply entrenched in Hindu Culture and highly regarded, in terms of pride, by poor families. The girl child has freedom to do what she wanted, within reasonable bounds, to enjoy the company of her peers and, later, to pick the man of her choice but it’s a great sadness for the young goddess who cannot enjoy her life in real. Parents too have little use for a daughter who virtually have dropped into the household from another planet with no social skills, no experience of domesticity, no education, no prospects of catching a husband.
This "horrifying" ancient tradition is an exploitation of the innocent girls in the name of culture. For the shake of her safety, the tradition should be abolished. If not abolished should be regulated ensuring the best measures like social security and rehabilitation facilities, non discrimination, protection of their inherent human rights, an environment to lead a dignified life. Human Rights of the child should be the first concern rather than preserving tradition.

Women are entrusted the responsibility of carrying forward the culture and tradition which results in the continuation of these malpractices of women oppression. Nepal government should take some comprehensive and effective measures for the elimination of these practices. For the purpose, massive awareness campaigns should be introduced among the community, judiciary, law enforcement agencies, public authorities and general peoples. And more importantly a directive order of the Supreme Court to eliminate this discriminatory and exploitative practice is imperative on the writ petition filed by advocate Pun Devi Maharjan in May 2005.

References:
-Srijana Shrestha, Living goddess Kumari: Story and Reality
-CEDAW concluding observation on the combined second and third periodic report of Nepal at its 630th and 631st meetings, in January 2004.
-Children's Act 1992
-Civil Rights Act 1955
-International core human rights instruments.