Nepali Women Invisible Force to Reckon With

Context - Overall

Women in Nepal - far more advanced than 10 years ago

– Women’s Literacy rate: 34.9% in 2001 to 57.4% in 2011

– Women’s Employment to population ratio : 52.2% in 1990 to 62% in 2009

– Women Labor participation: 52.4% in 1990 to 80.4% in 2011

Context continued……..

– Women (grassroots) in Leadership positions - more than 26% in Community Forestry User Groups

– More Organized – strong user groups, networks, cooperatives etc. (forestry, agriculture, saving and credit; irrigation etc) .

Context continued……..

– Increased Representation: political, formal and informal institutions (favorable policies).

– Progressive Policies – 50% in CFUGs; reservations; subsidies

Context continued…….

Increased opportunities and engagement in income generation

Provision for loans (saving groups – though small)

Context continued…….

More opportunities – to develop, gain new skills, awareness;

Access to technologies – e.g. biogas, mobile phones

But - what does a deeper analysis show?

Progress has been uneven across – Gender, Socially excluded groups, geographically remote areas;

These groups still lag behind in terms of

Access - Resources; Timely information

Opportunities

Representation; Voice and Influence Decisions;

Interpretation and implementation of policies………

Gaps:

In Nepal:

• More than 75% women engaged

in Agriculture

• Women’s share of earned

income is only 1/3rd of that of

men

• E.g. among Terai Janajati 43%

women work without pay

(Value & Visibility)

• Only 10 percent cultivable land

registered with women;

Women and Men Engaged in Agriculture by

Caste/Ethnicity and Regional Identity

Source: DHS 2006 Survey Data

Literacy rates (6 years and over)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Poorest Second Third Fourth Richest

economic catagory

perc

enta

ge

men

women

Literacy: Nepal (male 75%; female 53%); Dalit women 35%: Dalit men

50%;

Secondary education: Only 1.1 % Dalit women compared to 13% BC

women

Gaps in Decision Making

• Household levels - 10% cultivatable land registered with women

• Community levels e.g. Community Forestry - Women in executive committee positions -26 percent ;

Institutionally:

• Agriculture : gazetted level = 6.21% are women (with none in the Special Class) and in non-gazetted level = 16.95%

• Forestry: gazetted level = 3.6 % are women (with none in the Special Class) and in non-gazetted level = 7%

• Addressing Gender (Sector-wise) – largely limited to gender focal points

Implications: decisions, prioritization, developing agendas etc.

Reduced - quality and quantity of drinking and irrigation water

• Increased women’s workload: Most critical and overarching issue - drudgery

• Access to drinking water: poor and dalits (untouchability in Terai) most hit.

Recent Scoping Study Findings on Gender and Climate Change show:

• Hardening of agricultural soil: additional work after ploughing; more water & manure; long hrs. physical labour; Frustrates – hard labor wasted.

• Low harvest and low family nutrition: selling cereals at higher price & purchasing low quality cheaper rice from terai or India; sharp change – diet pattern and food diversity

• Increase in weed and outbreak of pests: additional back-breaking work; loss of fodder - not edible/preferred by livestock; off the shelf chemical herbicides; hire extra labor;

• Early ripening of crops and vegetables and storage issues

• Decrease in larger and smaller livestock: From 4 -5 to 1 -3 cows/buffalos - less fertilizers and manure for the biogas. Increased dependency on chemicals

Agriculture and Food Security

• Decrease and disappearance of women ‘pewa’ crops and vegetables: e.g. Beans and lentils are high value crops particularly for women –personal income with full control.

• Backsliding - agro-based enterprise and income: time, alienation from information, resources, networks

• Increase in loans: repayment suffers, more debt, Change in use of saving and credit loans.

• Migration: Food security issues have further triggered migration both seasonal and for foreign employment – e.g. brick kilns

• Increased Drudgery: With the absence of economically active men, critical mass of rural work-force is borne by the rural women

• Financial crunch – dealing with the gap period when the male members are either late or cannot send money - although easy access to loans for women whose male have migrated to foreign countries

• Violence against women: It has manifested itself in several forms of example:

mental violence having to deal with new responsibilities and decision making;

hindrance in mobility and character assassination (esp. in Terai)

Broken families – infidelity , divorce

Access to timely information and new knowledge: Women’s new (disadvantaged) situation not understood – further alienated

Reinforcing exclusion:

• Political influence on decision-making and benefit distribution;

• Decreased quantity and quality of participation in mixed forest user groups;

• More active and powerful women are being increasingly sidelined;

Interesting developments

• Vertical empowerment and growth

Men supporting women’s leadership –

mostly among young generation/young husbands

Slip Sliding away of Women’s Social Economic and Political Empowerment

Dibyagurung@wocan.org

dibyadevigurung@gmail.com

Mob: 977-9841261339

www.wocan.org