Beijing Plus Five Women’s Empowerment Drive

By Dr. Gopal Krishna Siwakoti

THE dawn of the new millennium is observing the half-decade beyond the Beijing World Women Conference held in 1995. While the world is witnessing nips and tides in the realisation of the Beijing Platform for Action Nepalese women are also closely monitoring the beyond Beijing process at home — both pros and cons — best practices and failures — in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Grim Picture
Despite significant progress in the gender justice movement after the Beijing conference, equality continues to elude the vast majority of women. Even though some constitutional and administrative provisions have been adopted to ensure women’s equality, in practice rampant discrimination persists. The current debate on inheritance right, reforms in family law, anti-trafficking and child labour movement have not always translated into better conditions for women, nor have they necessarily improved the quality of their lives. Constitutional equality and affirmative action programmes exist on paper. Yet the statistics reveal a grim picture: namely, the Nepali women are worse off than most other women in the world. In a global comparison of the status of women based on indicators of health, marriage and children, education, employment, social equality and political participation Nepal receives one of the lowest scores.

No efforts are on sight to recognise the concept of land and resources rights for women, granting them a separate legal status or a degree of autonomy. Very little affirmative action programmes on behalf of women are authorised by the law. Tenancy rights is only given to the wife or sons of the tenants after death. But daughters and daughters-in-law have no right from their father and fathers-in-law even if they are the actual tenants. This legal provision discriminates a lot where a large number of women are engaged in agriculture.

Even where legal reforms exist, the government often lacks the political and economic commitment to enforce them. In spite of the creation of a separate women’s ministry, women’s issues invariably remain a low priority. Social structures often reinforce biased attitudes in applying the law. In many instances, the concerned Ministry is found missionless in enhancing the property right bill a reality.

When prejudice is deeply ingrained in the social fabric, the CEDAW provisions are slow to be implemented without continued public pressure. Cultural beliefs and traditions that discriminated against women may be officially discredited but continue to flourish at the grass-roots level. Old discriminatory laws are yet to be repealed to make way for new legislation.

Legal reforms, if any, have often been adopted in a vacuum, without actually involving those concerned or mobilising public opinion as a whole. As a result, many women are not even aware of their rights before the law or else do not understand the legal and administrative process well enough to be able to exercise those rights.

The first step towards the elimination of discrimination and the empowerment of women lies in educating them on the existence and extent of their legal rights. The next step would be to offer women free legal services to ensure protection of their rights. A concerted and systematic national effort is imperative to promote legal literacy and to create the requisite legal infrastructure to forge links between individual women and national machinery. In order to progress in the elimination of legal discrimination, the government must enact new laws to eliminate the legal basis for discrimination and to eradicate obstacles that do not allow women to participate in society on an equal basis with men.

Social inequality is rooted in women’s lack of economic power. Those who care for people, mainly women, are disadvantaged in the process of making a living. Women are relatively ‘good at’ housework. This assumption contradicts historical studies which show that political rules including property rights and other expectations have restricted women’s choices more than men’s. Even when rules have changed, women have been left in positions of lesser bargaining power. Many social and economic institutions which sustain the market, have developed over time to reinforce the collective interest of men. The reluctance to see women’s work in the family as economic activity rather than a natural or moral responsibility has devalued the process of social reproduction. This deeply entrenched undervaluation of caring work precluded it from being recognised and accorded the resources it deserves as a major contribution to economic as well as social activities. The onward march of development model guided by external forces threatens, as never before, to disenfranchise women from making their contributions in society.

Article 26 (7) of the Constitution states, “The State shall adopt a policy of making special provision for health, education and employment of women to increase their maximum participation in national development of the country.”

Similarly, Article 26 (9) further states “The State shall adopt a policy of taking special measures for the health, education, and social security of the orphans, helpless women and aged, disabled and incapacitated people, for their protection and development”. All these provisions are to be taken as the doors for legal battle and the elements of awareness campaign.

Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nepal is a State Party provides for the right “to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives,” and “to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors”.

The precise meaning of free political participation and in particular the problem of specifying the limits of free, fair, and genuine electoral participation has been a matter of intense controversy affecting the women the most. Nonetheless, without the recognition of the right to political participation together with the empowerment of women, their all other human rights are at risk in spite of any multi-party franchise system.

The constitutional provision for the allocation of a minimum of five per cent of the candidacy for women in the parliamentary elections by each political parties has opened the door for the generation of political recognition of women. Surprisingly, political parties find ‘difficulties’ in identifying proper women candidates to fill even the five per cent of the seats. They also seem reluctant in allocating the relatively ‘easy-to-win’ constituencies to women in the elections. Instead, they are asked to contest from the ‘hard-to-win’ constituencies. Besides, the liberal provision for stipulating a minimum quota in local government bodies to be filled by women, has opened up a whole range of possibilities and launches the promise of dramatically altering the composition of the decision-making institutions.

Key Role

It is not enough to change the letter of the law, one must also change the spirit. Legal literacy with human rights components can go a long way towards enabling women to change the spirit of the laws, exercise their rights and play a key role in the transformation of attitudes and social values. Otherwise, it dislodges women from developmental and social process. The beyond Beijing monitoring campaign must internalise the crux of the problem and formulate appropriate strategies for the new millennium.

Developing Floriculture Business

By Ganesh Shakya

IT IS all the time for sure that flowers make people happy. Flowers are so delicate and beautiful that every one could be easily attracted towards it.

Indispensable
People use flowers in different ways depending upon the time and situation. Flowers have become an indispensable part of human life. To worship Gods and Goddesses, to pay last tributes, to decorate houses room or to adorn the women’s hair and head, and to greet or farewell our guests we need flowers.

As flower has these religious, cultural and social significance, it has a great commercial value, too. It is in this sense that the buying and selling of cut flowers particularly in the urban markets are developing lately. And, floriculture has emerged as a beneficial venture in the country.

However floriculture development in Nepal is still in an infant stage. But the people’s attraction towards cut flowers and the changing scenario of flower markets in terms of sales record has well indicated the bright future of floriculture business in Nepal.

Nepal is importing a large amount of cut flowers from India because the domestic production is not enough to meet the total national demand. Therefore, the growing internal demand for cut flowers increases the scope for flourishing floriculture business.

The development of tissue culture initiated by National Herbarium and Plant Laboratory at Godavari has opened opportunities to boost the production of flowers for export purposes. Tissue culture method of propagation has already been successfully developed in the production of orchids and other cut flowers. Some of the orchid types which have been successfully developed are coelogyn, cymbidium, dendrobium, epidedron and vanda. Among other cut flowers species, carnations and chrysanthemums have also been similarly developed.

At present, domestic market is guaranteed for the producers and in the future when the production expands, the external markets are also available. To sum up, the scope of floriculture business in Nepal is quite encouraging.

Though the demand of cut flowers is not officially recorded, a study team of students of Tribhuvan University initiated by Agro Enterprise Centre has reported that there is a total estimated production of 950,000 cut flowers in the country of which gladiolus shares 70 per cent of the total production followed by roses sharing 25 per cent and the rest 5 per cent shared by different other cut flowers.

In addition to gladiolus and roses, other flowers like zerberas, liliums, carnations, marigold, and the tube roses also have a good demand in the market.

Different organisations have been attracted towards floriculture in Nepal. At present, Agro Enterprise Centre and the Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN) both are directly involved in its business. Under the initiation of these organisations, a cut flowers’ wholesales market was established at Kupondol, Lalitpur in the year 2055 B.S.

With the establishment of such wholesales stores, the flower growers have been encouraged and they are optimistic about their business. The number of flower shops in Kathmandu is increasing. It is estimated that there are 25 to 30 flower retail shops in Kathmandu and the flower retailers are found to be satisfied with their business.

Despite opportunities of floriculture development in Nepal, there are also some challenges.

In a situation where internal demand of cut flowers is growing and the domestic production is not capable to meet such demand, to expand floriculture as an export oriented business is a great challenge.

The available inputs for quality production like improved seeds, technical know-how, skilled manpower and cash flow are not sufficient to develop floriculture. Post harvest handling practices are less than efficient.

Flowers need to be fresh and well arranged. Maintenance of quality is most important part of flower business. Post harvest losses are very high because it is highly perishable product. Cold storage is most important factor for reducing the losses but this facility has yet to be developed.

The plan of production should be market oriented. The policy makers should form a national level policy specially focusing on both production and marketing. The policy should also be driven to attract foreign investors in floriculture business.

Significant
The INGO/NGOs can play a significant role in improving the present status of floriculture business. Therefore, those organisations who have the vision of developing floriculture into viable enterprise should take special initiation to encourage the flower entrepreneurs. Development of floriculture business in Nepal not only helps generating the income and employment opportunities but also helps promoting the export and substituting the imports of cut flowers.

The Banished Hunter

By D.B. Rai

I DIDN’T recognise him, neither did he. The third person accompanying me did, but he didn’t bother to introduce us. The elderly person we went to visit, directed us towards a bench kept for such purpose and asked us to make ourselves comfortable. Complying his bidding, we began relishing
the wintry sun. This transpired last December, at Beltar, Udayapur.

My accompanying cousin, during many of his sojourns, as a porter, had met him on many occasions. But my tryst with him was first of its kind spanning many decades. He had made Beltar, a small trading town, on a foothill, in Udayapur district, his home, after he was forced to leave our village in Bhojpur district for ominous reasons, where we had indulged frolicking.

After we were formally introduced, his stiff countenance flared up in meeting someone he had last seen a century ago. As tradition demands, I paid my due respect and presented him with a bottle of Khukuri rum, carried for this specific goal. His face beaming, we began reminiscing the good old forgotten days.

He had come to Beltar when Beltar was not even named. The place was wild, covered with thick foliage, where tall Sal trees stood majestically. He had cleared some manageable undergrowths with a view of cultivating and put up a shack. His ingenuity as a hunter came to his rescue for he went after the wild animals and sold their meat in the nearby villages to keep himself and his wife sustained. He boasted of killing numerous prowling tigers and wild-boars.

While we sat chatting, my memory wondered back, penetrating the misty past, to the days of our togetherness in our village.

He was appropriately nicknamed ‘Bijule’, for he was swift and real fast. To me, a little kid, barely 9 year’s old, he was ‘Bijule Kaka’, my neighbour and relative. His name as crackshot had spread far and wide; well beyond the confines of our village. His services as a hired hunter was often sought by people from adjoining villages to destroy the straying leopards or the rampaging wild boars.

I was his preferred choice to accompany him in his local hunting trips. His targets mostly used to be doves and other eatable birds which he never missed. I did the finishing job by collecting the fallen preys -- they tasted delicious and we ate them in plenty.

I was denied following him on his occasional nocturnal forays into the nearby forest because of my tender age. He would select older kids who could endure inclement weather and other hardships associated with such outings. Nevertheless, I was never deprived to share pheasants and wildfowls they carried home.

And when he was at his best, as a hunter, whisper began to spread in the village about him having affair with one of his distant cousins. The elders and close relatives of the straying couple attempted to separate them. It would not work the pair stood by their resolve of not parting company.

The village committee consisting of elderly villagers and relatives of the erring couple, sat in a session of deliberate the unsavoury issue. Last minutes efforts were made to break off the relation but they would not budge from their stand. The action, socially tabooed, was condemned and consensus was reached — they had committed the folly, amounting to incest, therefore punishable by banishing them from the village and they were banished from the village for good.

Alas, Bijule Kaka is no more; he passed away the other day.