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Brief about Nepal Nepal is situated in the south of the Himalayas between India and China with a total area of 147, 181 sq. km. The estimated population is projected to be 22367048 in 1999). Nepal has an agricultural economy. The majority of people in the country are engaged in agriculture. Though Nepal is a very small country, people are from several different ethnic groups and castes (about 60) speaking over a hundred languages and/or dialects (Gurung,1998). According to a broadbased categorization, they come from two main ethno-origins. Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan. Intra household gender relations and the social status of women vary between these ethnic and caste groups. It ranges from highly egalitarian relationship where the status of women is subordinate to men. Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups are more favorable to gender egalitarianism than Indo-Aryan groups. The male to female ratio in Nepal is 49.8% to 50.2% Nepalese women were found to contribute 50% of the family income as against 44% by men and 6% by children (Acharya and Bennett, 1981). In a subsequent study their contribution is found to increase even more, both in terms of time input and in terms of income contribution (Shtri Shakti, 1995).In agriculture sector only, they are found to increase more even, both in terms of time input and in contribute 60% of the agricultural production (CBS, 1994). However, the share of their earned income is only 26.4% (UNDP, 1995). This indicates that a vast majority of women are unpaid family laborers. They work for prohibitively long hours due to labor intensive nature of agricultural of women working in administrative bodies of HMG/Nepal is only 7713, i.e. only 0.03% of the total population. The adult female literacy rate is 21.33% as against 54.32% of their male counterparts (NHDR 1998). During 1991 Census the overall female literacy rate was 25% as against 55% of the male literacy. The female enrollment in the primary school was found to be 37.2% of the total. In the secondary level it was 29.3% and in higher education it was 23.8%. Women comprised 34.9% of the total primary school educated population. They comprised 28.25% of secondary school educated and 24.1% of the college educated population (Ministry of Education, 1993). Nepal is one of the two countries in the world where the life expectancy of women is lower than that of men. The female expectancy at birth is 52.4 years as against 55 years for male (NHDR 1998). Though the legal age of consent is 16 years, many Nepalese girls are usually married off at a tender age. The average age at first marriage is 15-17.5 years and the total fertility rate varies from 4-6 depending upon the development region (UNICEF, 1996). The combination of the lack of knowledge about reproductive health and unavailability of family planning services lead these young anemic women to suffer from chronic energy deficit due to intra-household food discrimination and heavy workloads. These women have no institutional and/or familiar pre-natal and post-natal care and support, leading to one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. According to the Nepal Human Development Report, 1998, Maternal Mortality rate of 875 per 100,000 births among women aged 15-49, is one of the highest in the world. B. Political Situation of Women If one looks into the political history of Nepal one realizes that women have been actively, involved in the movements of restoring democracy in 1950 as well as in 1990. They were involved at various levels and at times were sent behind the bars for being involved in the movement. Women politicians only make up 21 (7.92%) members out of the 265 Parliamentarian. In the General Election of 1999 for the House of Representatives, the percentage of total women candidates was 6.10% out of which only 12 (5.85%) were elected in the house of 205 members. There are 9 (15%) women members in the National Assembly out of 60 members. The number of women in the cabinet is 1 out of 32 (28 Sept. 1999). The 20% seat reservation of members in Local political bodies in 1997 local level election has brough more than 39,000 women in local bodies. However, a vast majority of these women need to be empowered politically through sensitization. Even the constitutional provision for integrating women into the various levels of political power structure has failed to increase women’s participation in decision making adequately. Women hold only 15.06% of the total administrative and managerial positions, most of them placed in lower hierarchy. As of 1993, women comprised 4.4% of the gazetted level posts in the Government administration. Similar is the case in other professions where women comprise 10.8% of the lawyers, 18.6% of medical professionals, 11.3% of school teachers, 20% of University Teachers etc. In the manufacturing sector the participation of women is more dismal. Women owning establishments are less than 10% with most of them owning small scale and medium-scale outfits. There are very few women in the administrative and managerial positions. In fact a vast majority of women involved in the unorganized sectors are illiterate, unskilled and earning nominal wages. Their working hours is longer than that prescribed by law for the organized sector and with no child care and maternity facilities. Source FWLD, March 2000 |
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