Kathmandu, (Women's Feature Service) - In January 2004, 33-year-old Asha Tamang's husband Ajit Man was picked up from his workplace by people who "looked like army men". Man used to work with the Nepal Electricity Authority as a metre reader, and wrote for the Indigenous People's Journal, a publication focussing on the ethnic tribes of Nepal.

After hearing that her husband had been picked up, Tamang immediately left their two-room rented house, along with her seven-year-old daughter and 14-month baby, and went to her parents' place. Past midnight, the security forces broke into Tamang's rented home and took away the computer.

Since Man's disappearance, Tamang has knocked on many doors for information about her husband. Home Ministry officials say their hands are tied because "it's the wrong time" to ask the Royal Nepal Army (RNA). The International Convention for Red Cross (ICRC), whose humanitarian mandate is to visit those in custody, has also failed to give any clues. Says Tamang: "The army has become smart, it only brings out two or three persons (in custody) and hides the rest." So far, the only thing she knows is that he is not with the Nepal police. "The police department has sent a written response," says Tamang.

"I just want to see him once or speak to him on the phone. My seven-year-old daughter is anxious for her father. She has developed a severe allergy due to the stress."

There are hundreds of such "abductions" being carried out by both sides - the Maoist insurgents as well as the security forces in Nepal. The Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), an NGO working for human rights and social justice, says that about three months after the ceasefire ended in August 2003, the number of disappearances escalated to 308. Media reports claim that although the Maoists have abducted fewer people, they are more likely to kill the men they pick up. Many cases have gone unreported for fear of repercussions.

And women have had to bear the physical, emotional and economic burden of these missing men. In most cases, the men picked up were the sole bread earners in the family.

In 2003, before the Dussehra festival (in October/November), Surya Man Maharjan, 35, was whisked away at night from his house in Lalitpur, Kathmandu Valley, by a battery of security men. The next morning, four men brought him home to collect some warm clothes, and promised to send him back in a few days.

But four months later, his mother, a comely woman of 65, still waits for him. During the first month of his disappearance, she lost her appetite and did not venture out of her home. Even now, she bursts into tears each time her son's name is mentioned. Maharjan's wife delivered his baby after he disappeared. His father, a retired lower rank officer from the RNA, has no idea where his son is.

The family has informed various organisations - the National Human Rights Commission, ICRC, RNA's Human Rights Cell, the Nepal Bar Association and several NGOs - about his disappearance. The only response they've got from the army is that he is all right and will be sent back soon. "But he never comes," says Maharjan's mother. She wonders what they want of a gentle person like her son, who taught music in a secondary school.

For middle-aged Ambica Chaulagain, life has become an endless search for her husband, Eknath, who disappeared in September 2003. Chaulagain has two teenage sons and a 12-year-old daughter; her husband earned a living by supplying goods to government offices. "Two months after they took him, they came with his signature on a diary and took away his mobile phone. Sometimes they say my husband is fine. But when I took warm clothes for him to the army camp, they said they didn't have anyone by that name in their custody."

Women like Chaulagain, who have not worked outside their home earlier, are suddenly saddled with the economic responsibility of their families. Chaulagain has resorted to borrowing from people to provide food and education for her children.

All these women and their families believe that the security forces and government officials are flouting their fundamental rights as citizens. Article 14 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal says, "No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds of such arrest, nor shall be denied the right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice".

Further, Article 14 (6) clarifies: "Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before a judicial authority within a period of 24 hours after such arrest, excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to such authority, and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period except on the order of such (judicial) authority".

In most cases, the army picks up men because they suspect that they may have leaked some information (innocently or otherwise) to the Maoists. Several cases of disappearance are a case of mistaken identity. According to INSEC, not more than two per cent of the men return home after they are abducted.