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Women representation in decision-making bodies low
KATHMANDU, DEC 27 - Women representation in decision-making bodies of the government is very low, which is just 6.4 per cent, however, their representation at local level, especially at wards is positive and that is 20 per cent. Nevertheless, there is no substantial contribution of women in policy formulation, planning, programming and budgetary allocation of the government at the local level.
This was revealed at a seminar on ‘Review of Local Self-Government Act 1999, A Gender Perspective’ organised by Stree Shakti (SS), an NGO working for the welfare of women, in the capital today.
“If women are unified, they can be empowered to participate at the decision making level,” said Salani Singh, representative of Didi Bahini, an organisation working for women.
Draupadi Devi Urmi, a ward member of Bauarwa Vata Village Development Committee (VDC) of Parsa district, was one among the many participants at the seminar. She said she became a ward member to materialise her husband’s wish and knew nothing about women representation at the decision-making level.
However, the training provided by the ‘Women’s Forum’ at her village empowered her to discuss at the ward meeting regarding the rights of women and also to make decision for her villager especially women. “Currently, we are running adult education and tailoring classes in my village,” said Urmi.
Women’s Forum is a programme run by SS in four districts of the country to empower women, which includes Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Parsa and Mahotari.
“ We cannot involve women at the decision-making level just to increase their number. For this a special focus on women is required which is yet to be attained,” said Singh. According to her, limited programmes could not change the situation.
For women’s representation in elected bodies, the Constitution of Nepal has made it compulsory for all parties to have five per cent women candidates for the House of Representatives and three seats are reserved in the 60 member- National Assembly (Upper House). Nonetheless, the country has ratified the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) without any reservation.
A paper presented by the SS at the programme said this has contributed to quantitative representation at the local bodies but quality is still in question.
There is a legal and structural gap in their representation, “Insignificant number of women can easily be overlooked and ignored by male members,” the paper said.
Capacity and knowledge gap, policy-performance gap, monitoring gap were other causes for unequal participation at the decision making level, said the paper.Posted on: 2003-12-28 04:37
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