nepali women invisible force to reckon with, learning route nepal, dec. 2014
DESCRIPTION
Learning Route on women’s empowerment, business development and sustainable natural resource management. Scaling-up programmes for the rural poor in Nepal. 6 to 13 December, 2014. IFAD & PROCASUR.TRANSCRIPT
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
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