Kathmandu, July 16 -- Last year, the Salute Gorkha Training Center sent five young men in training to join the British Army. Seventeen-year-old Kanchan Thapa Magar recently also joined the Centre as the only girl out of 70 students. But unlike her male peers, she doesn't have the option of training to join the British Army.

"I think boys and girls are the same," she said. "I want to go to other places, but I can't go."

Around 12,000 young men in Nepal try to become Gurkha soldiers every year, but only 200 to 400 are selected, according to the Center's CEO Rahul Pandey. Their training is rigorous. Unlike training for the Nepal Army or the Nepal Police Force, for which potential soldiers have to meet minimum physical standards-such as bei...