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Women’s woes
MAY 22 -
Nepal’s deep-rooted patriarchal tradition and caste-based social structures are not letting women advance to the decision-making level which indirectly affects the country’s economy and development. Nepali women are still struggling against the traditional norms of balancing their family and work. As the voice of half of the population is unheard, they are still living hard lives in rural areas facing gender discrimination and exploitation.
Women are excluded from society both as beneficiaries and contributors. They have been deprived of most of the opportunities including access to business, trade and industry, gainful employment, entrepreneurial and skill development opportunities, education and health. They are discriminated against even by the laws of the land on many matters. This begins from their early childhood socialisation where the preference for male children is still strong due to a religiously inbuilt attitude that the road to heaven can be opened only by the rituals performed by a son after death.
Conflict has affected men and women differently. Gender-based violence such as sexual violence, rape, unwanted pregnancy, forced recruitment as spies or in the fighting force, psychological damage, life-threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, stigmatisation and refusal by family members and society, isolation, divorce, being declared unfit for marriage and severe economic and social consequences, widowhood, psychological shock and economic burden for the family have put women in an entirely disadvantaged position unable to compete with their male counterparts in the public sphere.
In a developing country like Nepal where more than half of the population is women, it is very important to identify the conditions of women and realise their involvement in peace building. More then 13,000 people have lost their lives over the last 12 years due to the Maoist insurgency and the counter-insurgency conducted by the state. About 300,000 people were displaced from their homes. Innocent civilians, mostly women and children, became victims of the violent conflict. It was estimated that about 37,000 women were affected.
Thousands of children have been affected directly and indirectly where 419 innocent children (295 boys and 124 girls) have lost their lives. Around 40,000 children have been displaced due to the armed conflict, and more than 8,000 children have been orphaned. A total of 19 people (including two women) lost their lives in the April 2006 movement where 5,000 people were wounded. Despite women’s crucial participation in the political movement, their role occupancy in crucial areas of decision-making regarding war and peace has been neglected by their male counterparts.
In April 2006, Nepal succeeded in ending the 240-year-old monarchy and bringing a republic with the 19-day Jana Andolan (people’s movement) after 10 years of armed conflict. As a result, there was a successful change in women’s representation in the process of state building. Among the 601 members in the Constituent Assembly, there are 197 women, or 33 percent of the total, involved in the process of making a new constitution. This is an opportunity to engage in the law making process and define their access and identity in the polity of Nepal.
According to UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the main focus is on increasing representation of women at all decision-making levels in conflict resolution and the peace process.
Let us see how much we have succeeded in representing women in all the decision-making bodies. Four women were included in the committee in charge of drafting the Interim Constitution following mounting pressure for their inclusion. It shows a bit of a change in the attitude of the leadership, but no women was represented in the peace negotiation that produced the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Even if there was a vast change in women’s representation in the CA, the government of Nepal still lacks women’s leadership. The present government has 43 ministers among whom five are women. If we look at the structures of the leading political parties, we still see that women are under-represented. The Nepali Congress working committee has six women among its 63 members. There is only one woman among the 12 members in the standing committee of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML). In their politburo committee, there are two women among its 18 members. Likewise, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has no women in its 16-member standing committee. However, there are two women members in the politburo committee.
Similarly, the National Planning Commission, which is the advisory body of Nepal for formulating development plans and policies, has no women members. In the peace committee formed by the Peace Ministry, there is only one woman among its 11 members.
From the very beginning of the socialisation process, women have been taught that they are not the decision-makers of their own lives and that the decisions are made by other male members of the family. This is a symbol of the discrimination against women in the family and community and also in the state and society. As a result, women are treated as inferior to men. For instance, they are second to their sons and inferior to their husbands at home. At the office, they are assistants and secretaries to male officers. At the end, it must be stated that exclusion of women from the politics of peace means paralysing more than half of the population from creative change and making it sustainable.
Posted on: 2010-05-23 09:08
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