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Comments on the Paper
by
Dr. Krishna
B. Bhattachan <Top>
Discussion note on Dr. Meena Acharya's Paper
on "Efforts at Promotion of Women in Nepal presented in
a workshop on Gender Experience-Idea Exchange organized by FES
on September 26, 2003 in Kathmandu.
What is in the Paper?
Dr. Meena Acharya has divided her paper into three main themes:
(1) Understanding the gender concepts: the framework for analysis,
(2) Development plans and policies (1980/81-2002/3) in Nepal,
and (3) Changing gender status-achievements and challenges.
In the first section Dr. Acharya briefly mentions
about WID, WAD and Beijing Platform for Action and lists a dozen
of multi-dimensional nature of women's subordination recognized
by gender approach. She ahs noted that media, trade unions are
local NGOs are still grappling with WAD approach, whereas the
government, donors, INGOs and women-specific national-level
NGOs have advanced to gender approach. Dr. Acharya emphasizes
that the approaches should go beyond welfare approach by focusing
on actor of equal rights. She has noted that problem of underdevelopment
is terrible but gender discrimination is even more terrible.
She is of the view that women need not only power but also empowerment.
Dr. Acharya analyses gender polices of the
government articulated through five-year plans since the 80s
by listing some achievements and problems. Also, she analyses
problems in non-government sector with focus on (I)NGOs, trade
unions, media and research institutions.
Dr. Acharya looks at the achievements and
challenges in social, economic and political status of women.
She has noted that there has been some achievements in women's
social and economic status but political status has not improved
much.
Finally Dr. Acharya concludes by relating
these problems with patriarchal ideology, behavior and structures,
and provides six suggestions in the form of self-reflecting
questions to FES partners to be more gender sensitive.
Some supplementary and complementary thoughts
I fully agree with the theoretical and conceptual aspects of
gender and issues, problems, achievements, and suggestions analyzed
by Dr. Acharya. I just wish to supplement and complement her
with the following notes:
In the specific context of translating gender
issues in the every-day-life of FES partners, specifically those
who are in trade unions, media and research institutions, it
would have been very useful if Dr. Acharya could have elaborated
analysis of trade unions, media and research institutions and
the theme discussed in her conclusion, that is, six questions
for FES partner organizations. As some partner organizations,
such as the Sancharika Samuha is one of the front-runner organizations
in teaching and advocating gender issues and there are some
organizations that are eager to learn gender issues. There could
have been a separate paper to complement and supplement Dr.
Acharya's conceptual, theoretical and policy issues that has
been raised in the paper. I hope such an opportunity exist in
the working session after the lunch.
I just want to add on six questions listed
by Dr. Acharya. I believe that the FES partner organizations
should reflect on the following additional questions and develop
a mechanism to address gender issues:
" Do our organization have a gender policy and affirmative
action policy with focus on gender?
" Are we committed to develop it, if we don't have it;
and if we have it, to implement, with further enrichment, if
necessary, it sincerely and seriously?
" Do we a system to collect gender and caste/ethnic disaggregated
data and conduct gender budgeting, gender auditing, gender awareness
raising programs etc.? Do we have time bound plan of action?
If not, are we willing to do so? Do we have capacity to do so?
" Is there a need of a mechanism to bring all FES partners
together to work in collaboration for policy changes at the
national level and behavioral changes at the grassroots level?
" We don not have to turn to the West for gender equity
and equality. Instead, we can learn from experiences of different
indigenous nationalities, cultures and groups within the country.
How can we document the best practices and universalize in Nepal?
" Do we have willingness and capacity to implement FES
gender guidelines and other relevant gender guidelines? If not,
do we have willingness as well as financial resources to get
help and support of gender experts or institutions to do so?
I agree with Dr. Acharya that the words "women"
and "gender" have their own meaning and are not always
interchangeable. We should remember that Nepalese women are
not a homogenous group. Women are characterized by diversity
in terms of caste, ethnicity, language, religion, culture, region
and class. Thus, some women are single victim of gender discrimination
whereas other women, such as Dalit, indigenous nationalities,
Madhesis are multiple victims due to discriminations on the
bases of caste, ethnicity, language, religion, culture, region
and class. Further distinctions in relatively privileged and
disadvantaged groups should be made within each of these categories.
At the bottom of the bottom are indeed women who are trafficked
to brothels in India. In any case, priorities should go to the
most disadvantaged groups within the groups and sub-groups within
the groups as well. Also, recognition of diversity is essential
to address the problems and find appropriate strategies and
solutions to achieve gender equity and equality in our respective
organizations.
There is need for general and women only programs
to address both practical and strategic needs of women and to
achieve gender equity and equality. Gender is a crosscutting
issue and so is the case with caste/ethnicity and class. Caste/ethnicity,
Gender and class are three distinct pillars of Nepalese social
structure. In terms of discrimination, gender discrimination
is the oldest (anthropologist say that it began with the invention
of fire), followed by caste-based untouchability/discrimination
(which is thousands of years old), and discrimination against
indigenous nationalities and Madhesis (which is 234 years old).
Women's right movement is not a battle
waged by women to outwit men. This not a zero-sum-game. Instead,
it is a non-zero-sum, in which, if a woman wins, her father,
husband, son, brothers, whole family, community, and the nation
wins. If she must loose, all will loose.
Prof. Dr.
Shanta Thapaliya <Top>
Dr. Meena Acharya is an Intellectual,
Economist, Activist, Gender Expert and a highly qualified scholar;
She is among the most prominent women of Nepal. It is my great
pleasure to comment on her Article.
Her article has shown Women's current
Situation in country from the Gender Perspective. It includes
areas and sectors in which woman has engaged herself, and also
the areas, different groups and societies working for improvement
and upliftment of women's conditions. Each and every aspect
is tried to cover under this article. Government, States, Media,
NGO, INGOs, Trade union, and VDCs efforts are also visualized.
Table and data's are given to clear many points wherever required.
She has critically differentiated women as biological being
from the "female" as constructed by the society. Gender
relations are the result of socially constructed in equal power
relations. She also mentioned about the empowerment. The empowerment
means a process by which an individual can control his/her life
on the basis of equality with other i.e. women's overall socio-economic
and political status.
To cover each and every perspective of women
in detail is not really possible. It is a very big issue involving
many aspects so it is not easy to cover everything under one
article. One thing is clear from the Article is women's economic
condition can be improved if she is economically self-dependent
but her position in the society can not be improved without
her decision making power, equal citizenship rights and property
rights as compare to the male. There are these main process
of empowerment of women.
NGOs / INGOs rolls and their works in the field of women empowerment
from Gender perspective is also compared. The efforts of Government
i.e. State, Civil society groups and institutions like Media
and Trade unions in the field of Gender perspective is also
highlighted in the article.
She has highlighted different kinds of Village
Development Programs including empowerment, literacy campaign
and workshops, which have made significant changes in the economic
and social life of women living in the remote areas of the country.
The 11th amendment of the Muluki Ain will be helpful in controlling
violence against women because of the punishment has been increased
for the Rape, Bigamy etc. The current amendment of the Inheritance
property rights has improved the position of the female in the
society and also in family till she remains unmarried. After
marriage she shall be equal partner of her husband's property.
Now she has got the equal inheritance rights like other male
members in the family. Recent changes made in the Citizenship
Rules 4(2) and 4(3) will be helpful for women to empower themselves
and improve their position in the society, though these rules
has not been implemented yet in kathmandu.
For improving the overall condition of women
in the family and in society one important issue is of Citizenship
Right. Citizenship is critical for participation in all spheres
of a society. The Government must consider and recognize women's
individual identity for the transfer of nationality to their
children and spouse or citizenship. Citizenship rights should
also not be linked to the marital status of women. Equal citizenship
rights should be given to both men and women.
But if we take a look at the Part 2 of our
Constitution that is related to the citizenship and according
to it women don't have a citizenship right and they are treated
as second-class member of the country. There are many real cases
and incident in our country where the Mother, she cannot use
her identity for acquiring Citizenship of her children. Many
international protocols have provisions for nationality without
distinction on the ground of sex, race or color etc. Because
of Gender inequality in case of Citizenship it affects the women
and children and also to their dignity and self-respect, violates
the right of equality and justice. It is very correct to say
that women's overall socio-political and economic status can
be improved only by changing the gender relations of domination
and subordination between men and women that is by empowerment
of women and with the help of empowerment the women will be
able to take care of her rights.
The Development plans of Government are moving with policies
like mainstreaming, eliminating gender inequality and empowerment
on women. This is a good sign but the Government has to come
up with the more strong plans and policies, which will improve
the present condition of women. The study of Government plans
including Ninth and Tenth plan, Ministry of Local Development
(MLD), is done impressively. UGs had to have at least 30% women
members Sometimes fictional names of the women is added to meet
this requirement. This shows the low participation of women
in development fields. According to article the attitude of
men towards women's health must needs to be changed in DACAW
areas. It would have been better if she has explained about
the programs of DACAW in brief.
A brief discussion of the NGOs, INGOs, media,
Trade Unions and Private Sector is also given. The NGOs /INGOs
has extended there area of work by including different kind
of activities like income generations, saving-credit, health
and family planning. It has increased there self-confident and
also a positive expansion.
According to the article women constitute
about 12% of the total central leadership in the three largest
unions. The trade unions are also taking specific policy decisions
for increasing the representation of women in decision-making
positions and activities.
Trade unions are now becoming aware about
the women's right. They are asking for maternity leave, equal
wages, crèche facilities, and provision of female toilets
etc. Recently court decided to give maternity leave of sixty
days. In union leadership of women they are given low priority,
unequal employment opportunities, sexual harassment etc. It
is the duty of the Govt. to give women equal participation rights
and a gender friendly environment.
Media uses women for promoting consumer products,
thus propagating the capitalist image of women merely as consumers.
Media has to realize that it can play crucial role in forming
consciousness, attitudes and behavior of women and her changing
positive image in the society; as now the trend of media is
changing.
The measures like expenditure control, streamlining
of transfer and subsidies and shift in budgetary allocations,
privatization and commercial orientation of public enterprises
including utilities, Privatization or decontrol of delivery
of basic services or move towards cost pricing of such services,
and rationalization of tax structure etc. can be used in implications
for women's access to resources, necessary services and employment.
The pattern of expenditure has shifted in
favor of social and human priority sectors and rural infrastructure
like budget allocation for primary health care, basic and non-formal
education, rural water supply, essential family planning services
and nutrition programs. This is a positive aspect. The poor
women will benefit from such developments because mostly they
live in rural areas but with all this to compete the global
they need specific enabling programs such as education, technical
skill training and access to information.
Privatizations of public enterprises are
not gender friendly in general and it affects in female employment
and also forces them to work on unequal terms. Many times women
have to face social disadvantage because of early marriage,
high fertility and low access to health and family planning
services, low educational levels and violence against them.
Article has also mentioned about the violence
against women, which is not a new thing in our country. It is
a weapon used by the male society to dominate over women and
some times it is within women to women also. Our organization
is working in this field from its inception in 1987. The victims
coming here are suffering with different kind of torture including
mental and physical. We are working in the field of Gender perspective,
equal legal rights and Advocacy for women's economic and political
empowerment etc. We are also filing the property right cases
including overall women related amended laws and we are trying
our best to implement the 11th Amendment of Muluki Ain.
The table 3 showing the social dimension:
according to it if you compare it with male and female ratio
the situation is really very horrible. The Marriage age of most
of the female is seventeen; the drop out rate of girl student
is very high compare with boys.
As per the 2001 census it shows that women
constitute 43% of the labor force, 48% in agriculture and 34%
in the non-agriculture sector. It also shows that 11% households
reported some land in female legal ownership. In one side it
increased the women empowerment but on the other side they have
to face problems like long hours of work, low facility, unequal
payment etc.
If we take a look at the table 4 it shows
the economic dimension of the gender status. According to it
the purchasing power of female is 880 as compare to male which
is 1752, The ratio of economic active of Females are: in Agriculture
it is 48.1%, in non-agriculture it is 34.4%, the total economic
active it comes to 43.2%.
Because of the current political conflict
the women are not getting the right chance to represent themselves
in the political field. The political scenario and the role
of women are not very exciting in our country. Constitution
has reserved of 5% seats for female in the parliamentary elections
but in spite of it our political parties have not been able
to reach this number. In the past Govt. there was only one lady
Assistant Minister and in the current Govt. there is also only
one lady, who is a State Minister. Only after 1997's reservation
brought women into the politics. The proportion is 20% at the
grass root level; In DDC council women constitute only 1.5%.
But now we think the time is changing and more and more women
will represent themselves in the political field. It can be
seen from the some cases like in the National Planning Commission
and in the Department of social welfare one woman is appointed.
But the representation of women in various field of Administration,
Decision-making and in different Commissions is very low. Many
times they have to be victims of Gender bias.
It is a great thing that in spite of the
socio-economic constraints, many women representatives have
participated effectively in LSG affaires and able to influence
the decision-making process, Draw attention to the issues of
basic needs and community development, fighting against the
burning gender issues such as alcoholism and violence against
women, trafficking etc.
Whatever the efforts have been done in the
past were based solely on welfare approach. But now we are slowly
coming out from the WID condition and moving towards the WAD
and GAD approach. We are talking and working to Right's base
approach and efforts are going on to bring women in mainstream.
Due to Geographical barriers and cultural difference all women's
have not in the same condition and status in the society so
still we have to work hard to improve the condition as well
as the practice of women in family and in society. Till now
we were talking about women as a whole; now a days there are
more emerging issues about women like single women, dalit women,
ethnic and tribal women, Migrant women, Displaced women, Refugee
women and victims of conflict situation and who are passing
their life as a Refugee in thire own country.
Mr.
Narendra Upadhyaya <Top>
(The comment was published as an article in
The Telegraph Weekly, 15 October 2003)
A remote village
girl is more conscious of her "body" than Kathmandu’s
fashion models
The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, last month,
requested me to provide my comments on a paper written by a
very distinguished lady, Dr. Meena Acharya, who is not only
respected by Nepal’s academic sector but also commands
respect and honor among the ordinary citizens of this country.
I couldn’t resist my temptation to furnish my modest remarks
on the paper of a lady who can compete any internationally acclaimed,
both male and female, personality on the field of Economics.
She is a very highly competent but yet a modest senior economist
of this country. I must thank the FES, ( Dev Raj Dahal, P.Kharel
and Navraj Dahal) which provided this unique but yet challenging
opportunity to push my ideas in front of a lady for whom I possess
immense respect.
The portion of her paper I commented on September
26 is printed itself in this issues’ second page. I wish
my readers find some time to go through that piece penned by
Dr. Acharya.
The comment as follows:
# The cost of sending children, girls specially,
to schools in the Nepali mountains, remote and inaccessible
villages and even in the Terai plains, do create financial burden
for the mainly subsistence-farming families. Of those who go
to schools, may drop out after the first one or two years. Reports
available suggest that many rural subsistence households see
little benefit in educating their girls who would eventually
be working in agriculture caring for the children and doing
household chores. Subsistence farming families were more likely
to send boys than girls to school.
My question is then: What the government or
for that matter the women NGOs/INGOs plus the media have done
so far to convince the poor families of the benefits of providing
education to the girls? B- it is clear that acute financial
situation is the real villain and thus what the government and
the other advocacy groups, at the local and the central level,
have done to enhance the financial status of those poor families?
C- what the media have done in this regard? D- And what about
the all pervasive paper tiger, the NPC? E- what the officials
in the education and finance ministries been doing in this regard?
# School going girls in some districts of
the Western region of the country don’t enroll in the schools
for the schools don’t have toilets.
At best, they avoid drinking water at time
of their morning lunch so that they don’t have to answer
the call of the nature.
My question: Whose duty is it to construct
the toilet?
the school management? B-the local VDC or
the DDC? C-the State? D- the mushrooming NGOs/INGOs that claim
to have been working for the girls, the women and etc. e- do
the media men have any role?
# In Rauthat district, the home constituency
of Shri Madhav Kumar Nepal, a lady is severely beaten alleged
by the villagers as a witch-craft. With due respect to Shri
Madhavjee, he preferred not to speak even a single word favoring
the lady or for that matter denouncing the savage acts perpetrated
on the poor lady of his own voters.
My question: Why Mr. Madhav Nepal preferred
to keep quiet on this ghastly incident? b -was his silence on
the matter befitting to his being a staunch communist that dismisses
such events on superstitious grounds? c-why on such events the
leaders and the men of the establishment acquire a different
posture that more often than not encourages the villagers, illiterate
and semi literate, to create such ugly scenes? d- where have
gone the attention of the local leaders/the local government,
if any, plus the socalled women related NGOs/INGOs? e-such cases
appear on a regular basis in newspapers but then the recurrence
of such events have not come down and hence who is to be blamed?
E-how the mainstream media should take up the matter?
( A girl was being raped by her master in
Biratnagar uninterruptedly for well over two years. The local
influential congress leaders’, we are told, are providing
the rapist, with political shield).
# Devmaya, a lady from the Western region
had a very happy life with her husband till her husband got
another wife. The newly entered bride later created hell for
the first lady. The husband joins his consort’s hands and
when enough becomes enough, Devmaya, quits the once her lovely
house and appears in Kathmandu. When she becomes unable to sustain
her life further as a respected woman, she then reluctantly
joins the world’s oldest profession—the prostitution.
My question therefore is: Should Devmaya have
fought for her rights in the family and secured her place in
the household? B- is it not a case where one woman comes very
hard against other woman and that too in one family? C- what
the state administration been doing when the husband brought
another wife which is illegal as per laws of the land? D- is
Devmaya and other scores of such Devmaya’s been contacted
so far by our leaders advocating women’s empowerment even
after such stories get printed in newspapers? E- who will now
come to the rescue of Devmaya: the State, the women empowerment
advocacy groups or her own family? Has the media any role in
it?
Thanks the research compilations of the Sancharika
sisters that such cases come to the open. Sancharika brings
the issue out. Sorry! You don’t continue its follow up.
Should I expect that you in the Sancharika go deep into the
matter thereby forcing the concerned agencies to take up the
matter seriously?
Awareness is on the rise: The world population,
academics, women activists and the media, became aware of the
unequal status of women, a global phenomenon indeed, only after
the UN declared, 1975-85, as women’s decade. Since then
at least to me the condition of the feminine gender in extreme
poverty, their regular burden of work to which they willingly
or even unwillingly are subjected to, both in and out of the
family jobs, and their contribution, I should say, in a big
way to the national development, have become subject of research
works all over the world, including Nepal.
The structure of family in Nepal albeit favored
the male child at the expense of the female. However, the old
taboos, traditions and, I should add the bias, is slowly but
somewhat steadily been changing for the better. Thanks the efforts
of women advocacy groups, the media and very pleasingly of late
the State itself, the state of the women is taking a new and
vibrant shape. This bodes well for the nation and its development.
The media in Nepal is in no way lagging behind
in supporting the causes of the feminine gender. We feel pained
when this gender is abused, exploited or is denied its due right
in the development, political and the social sectors. We feel
elated when we come to know the success stories bagged by this
sector in question. However, at times, the Nepali media does
injustice while reporting rape, eave-teasing, and molestation
cases committed on them. This is unacceptable.
That the Nepali media is now equipped with
professional womenfolk gets reflected from the ever growing
strength of this sector in the media, both print and electronic,
including the FM stations. Some even consider the reporting
made by women far better and superior to what their male copunterparts
usually make. How does this happen, I have failed to understand.
My own experience has been that the women, girls in the University,
I mean the unmarried ones, whom I interviewed were more concerned
on the prevalent state of the nation; its sliding economy and
the country’s ailing and confusing politics that the other
camp. Today’s women is an aggressive lot who wishes to
secure thewir legitimate rights in the society, and the State.
During the course of securing interviews,
I once came across with a lady, a widow in effect. After this
meeting which followed the interview, I could understand as
to what a widow’s life means in our yet conservative society.
I am happy to tell you that the lady now is a distinguished
personality who is very much active in bringing about a change
in the life-styles of any one who is single-woman. She is working
for those who have been betrayed both by the society and the
nature and more recently by the government-Maoists clashes.
The distinguished woman, who incidentally
became the first one to appear in our interview column, 5-Questions,
is none other than Dr. Meena Acharya, as asset of the nation,
to put it straight. Others then followed but the number of women
appearing in this particular column is still not encouraging,
as it should have been. We do have potential but then the other
camp at times exhibits its unwillingness to appear in these
columns.
However, I wish to differ on some of the points,
rather allegations, raised by Dr. Acharya.
Dr. Acharya maintains that there has been
a positive development in the media sector (regarding the number
of females joining the media but she alleges that it hasn’t
been accompanied by a changed attitude. She alleges it a "commercial
compulsion" that has encouraged the media sector to employ
women. I do agree it could be that. Undoubtedly any commercial
enterprise would wish to sell its products. However, the fact
is also that as to why the women, about whom Dr. Acharya is
referring to, more pleasingly than not prefer to go to any extent
in exposing their body-personality? It is their own temptation
apparently that has encouraged the commercial entrepreneurs
to exploit the women-folks engaged in fashion/modeling business.
I wish to remind the case of the girl who does not wish to enroll
herself in the school for fear of getting her private parts
exposed because of the absence of the toilets. And here Dr.
Acharya laments for those who willingly wish to expose their
private parts for monetary gains. The Kathmandu fashion models
should learn a lesson from the village girl. One should expose
her body that could be digested by her family and the society
members. It’s the girls who have to decide to what extent
they should expose their bodies.
Rest assured Dr. Acharya the media has changed
itself over the years. We don’t have any bias while reporting
the gender issues. For us, both male and female were the pillars
of the nation and both command equal respects in the society.
It will be more positive in the future, I hope. The traditional
image of women will vanish in the coming years as literacy rate
goes up and up.
Yes! There is apprehension that a section
of the elite women-folks housed in NGOs/INGOs know less about
the ground realities of the oppressed, depressed and the exploited
women in the remote villages. But they do talk about them in
Kathmandu 5 Star hotels by even not showing their presence in
the areas where they should have been prior to presenting the
working papers. This apprehension has got to be erased. We,
however, value the research works of those who are on the spot
which have been revealing the truth and been suggesting on how
to elevate the ranks of the women in politics, economy and in
the society etc.
Yes! I do agree that Nepali media at times
presents a "rape" case disgustingly. In effect, our
own reporting on such cases does more damage than good to the
victim(s) by default. The damage thus done on the victim is
colossal.
"Chura-Pote" while, as per Acharya’s
own admission speaks a sort of hatred or incompetence in the
given context of the 1990 movement, but for us, these two ornaments
possess immense value in their own rights. These two in effect
are a widely accepted as symbol of a woman who is already a
married one and thus, traditionally, the society is forces to
view the woman in a different manner. Nothing to panic Dr. Acharya!
The women, if they so desire, are free to reject those two special
ornaments. Achtung! Consequences might be troublesome!
Much has got to be done, as Dr. Acharya opines,
in increasing gender consciousness among reporters, writers
and news handlers about the content, language and modality of
presentation. I do agree with Dr. Acharya. After all we in the
media too are in the learning process. Let’s hope that
things will keep changing favoring the feminine gender.
Thanks for your patience.
(Source: The Telegraph Weekly, 15 October
2003)
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