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Small leap forward
FEB 03 -
Over the years, gender concerns have increasingly been included in government projects and programmes, and it has taken some steps towards gender equality. The government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) without reservations in 1991. The government is now bound by international law to bring about positive changes to women’s lives. Signatories to CEDAW are required to eliminate discriminatory laws, policies and traditional practices. The government has taken some steps and given some rights to women.
Since the Beijing Conference, the government and women’s organisations have taken new initiatives. The government created the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare immediately after this conference to speed up gender activities. In 1999, the 11th amendment to the code of conduct gave women the right to abortion, inheritance, property and divorce. Government plans and policies have focused on poverty alleviation, gender equality and ensuring the inclusion of women in government programmes.
The Ministry of Education made it obligatory to recruit at least one female teacher in all public primary schools. This has had a positive impact on teaching at the primary level. The percentage of female teachers is now 37.8 percent at the primary level, 20.4 percent at the lower secondary level and 10.1 percent at the secondary level. The ministry has also stipulated in its regulations that one woman must be represented on the school management board. The Ministry of Education introduced an education programme for housewives (Grihini Sikshya), donating Rs. 26,000 for each group of 50 women The course allows them to join Grade 5 in the school system after a three-year course. If they study for a further two years, they are eligible to appear in the SLC exam.
The government established the Women’s Commission to monitor, inform and pressure different ministries and organisations to include gender sensitive plans, policies and legal reforms. Since its establishment in 2002, the nominees of the Women’s Commission have, unfortunately, been too closely associated with political parties. They lack knowledge of gender sensitive issues and, in any case, cannot speak out on behalf of women as they are related to the government in power.
The Ministry of Local Development has adopted a number of operational guidelines in order to implement the National Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. The government has also started to consider the gender issue as an integral part of planning and development work, and has established gender as a focal point in all the ministries. Although these focal points have not been very effective, the government can claim that they are trying as a signatory to the conventions. Immediately after the people’s movement of 2006, a historical proclamation was made which stated that women should make up a representation of 33 percent in all state mechanisms. However, they make up 33 percent only in the Constituent Assembly and not in other areas.
The Gender Equality Act 2009 passed by the Interim Parliament calls to end all discriminatory laws and regulations against women. It has reformed some laws, but there are still 100 items that are discriminatory towards women. The Ministry of Finance introduced a gender budgeting system in the fiscal year 2007/08. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Nepal is working closely with the Ministry of Finance. It has formed a committee to look at how this can be achieved, and done assessment studies to determine what was lacking in terms of a gender responsive budget. Gender responsive budgeting aims to ensure that the national budget impacts on people equally. It is not about separate budgets for women and men; it is about determining where the needs of men and women are the same and where they differ, and planning budgets to address these needs accordingly.
The new initiatives being developed look good on paper; but their implementation is far from complete, and they haven’t yet had the desired impact. For example, the government allocates money to each village development committee (VDC) of which 15 percent is supposed to go towards women, the so-called low castes, ethnic groups and the disabled. Unfortunately, only a tiny proportion of this money reaches its intended beneficiaries. There is little evidence that this money is actually contributing to gender equality. Furthermore, women have very little say in how this money is used.
The government assigned budget does not trickle down to the disadvantaged in all the sectors. The risk is that the government is too dependent on external sources of funding to achieve its goals. Whatever it receives is also not trickling down to the poorest of the poor due to the corruption culture prevalent at all levels.
For example, in the fiscal year 2008/09, the government announced a national literacy campaign and allocated a budget and appointed literacy teachers and supervisors in each of the nine wards of each VDC. The allocated money trickled down, but not always to the target group. Only in the areas where the people had been made aware of the programme was this scheme implemented effectively. If the government had worked in collaboration with local women’s groups, this programme would have been effective. Plans and policies should be responsive to the needs of the disadvantaged. There is a huge gap between urban and rural requirements; therefore, the government and donors should extend their work to empowering the disadvantaged.
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