Women And Development
Impediments Abound

By Uttam Maharjan

MANY efforts have been made to improve the lot of women but no tangible results have come out yet. The status of women—social, economic and political—has not come up to a satisfactory level; rather, in some cases it has further festered.

Women have been exploited for centuries and voices have been raised for women’s rights, especially since World War II. However, the 1970s turned out to be a turning point in the history of women’s development.

The 1975-85 decade was declared the Women’s Decade by the United Nations. During this decade, studies and research were made to get insight into the true status of women. In Nepal, too some programmes like the Small Farmers Development Project were initiated and loans granted to women under their collective security so that they could improve their economic lot and stand on their own feet. But no remarkable progress could be achieved in the direction of improving women’s lot.

Recognising the role women could play in socio-politico-economic development and realising the need for empowering them, the first World Conference on Women was held in Mexico in 1975. Since then, three such conferences have been held, the most prominent being the Fourth Conference held in Beijing in 1995. The Beijing Declaration with 12 critical areas of concern passed by the conference may still be taken as a landmark document encompassing women’s social, economic and political empowerment.

The convention regarding elimination of all forms of discrimination against women was passed in 1979. As per the convention, every country is bound to ensure that no person or institution will discriminate against women and to bring about gender equality be eliminating discriminatory provision in laws and social practices.

In fact, Women are not so weak as they are thought to be. They have successfully engaged themselves in various fields like sports, arts, politics and even space exploration. As a matter of fact, in an agrarian country like Nepal women work much more than men do. Still, their work is not recognised as economic work. So their work has remained unaccounted for in the GDP.

In the past, physical make-up was used to point out women’s weakness and men’s supremacy in society. In course of time, new concepts began to emerge such as women in development (WID), women and development (WAD) and gender and development (GAD).

The WID approach, which was at the centre of discussion in the late 1960s, conceives of helping women gain nutritional knowledge and population education, thus reinforcing their role in society.

The WAD approach, which emerged in the early 1980s, envisions that women are already in the development process; only their contribution are not properly recognised.

The GAD approach, sometimes called the men-women and development approach, emerged in the late 1980s. This approach focuses on the productive and reproductive role of women and the integration of men and women in the mainstream of development. This approach treats gender-related issues in a holistic perspective and helps integrate gender-sensitive issues and relationships into development strategies.

Nowadays, women’s empowerment is one of the prominent issues all over the world. As a matter of fact, empowerment is a springboard for enabling women to exercise their rights. However, in the absence of rights women’s empowerment cannot be enhanced to a satisfactory extent. Women’s empowerment and rights are, thus, interrelated to each other.

The Nepalese women have been facing a multitude of problems that act as an impediment to their development. Illiteracy, poverty, domestic violence, sexual assault and abuse, torture, rape, trafficking, forced prostitution, child marriage, inconsistent marriage, polygamy on the part of men and so on are a great obstacle to women’s development. Besides, women have greater workloads to carry than their male counterparts.

To uplift the status of women, the government has initiated some programmes like women’s awakening and income generation. These programmes are designed to make women economically independent, socially active and politically conscious by imparting them technical knowledge, entrepreneurial stills and management training.

One of the greatest obstacles to women’s development is conventional thinking along the male-dominated patriarchal lines. Now the time has come to dismantle the inegalitarian patriarchal social monolith and build upon its rubble an egalitarian society. For this, education and awareness may be considered the most important factors. So it is imperative that every women get education and become conscious of her rights. In fact, education is a force that makes women aware of their rights, position and role in society. So long as women do not become aware of rights, their status will not change for the better.

Therefore, the government, civil society, non-governmental organisations and intellectuals alike should make concerted efforts to empower women by granting them rights and sensitising them to such rights. After all, the participation of women in the mainstream of development would certainly pay dividends as over 50 per cent of the total population of the country consists of women. Women have also potential that may be utilised for nation-building. To think that women lag behind in talent and skills vis-a-vis their male counterparts is highly erroneous. What is important is to redefine the role of women in society and harness their potential in various development sectors. This would undoubtedly meet the growing manpower requirements of the country.

Altered Paradigms After Sept 11Bombing

By Nishchal Nath Pandey

ONLY time can tell whether the events of Sep. 11 can really change the way we think, but most definitely it has already altered the paradigms, logarithms and the content of international relations that had not yet been so clearly defined after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War. For leaders and diplomats who are the key foreign policy practiceners, it is a testing time of their ability to mould the course of events in order to suit their own specific national interests. For analysts and foreign policy watchers, it is a rewarding stretch, to cogitate and anatomize as events unfold almost every day as US wages a war against terrorism, albeit cautiously. For various think-tanks and study centres, this is however a rewarding period, as focus shifts from issues like human rights and democracy to more hard-hitting cruxes like terrorism, clash of civilizations, cooperative security etc. with extensive audience that are themselves interested to discern the facts and ponder into the uncertain future.

One such, "The Institute of Peace", a highly respected think-tank based in Washington, convened a current issues briefing on "Coping With Terrorism: Challenges and Responses" on Sep. the 21st. In order to understand the new security challenge in the aftermath of Sep 11 terrorist bombings in Washington and in New York, the Institute brought together eight experts on terrorism to discuss the events of that horrid day and transmit strategical feedback and recommendations as immediate steps. It is interesting to study the "immediate next steps" that the US administration should take, according to those eight experts in the short term in order to deal effectively with the threat of terrorism.

Step one, "Strengthen homeland security" by reestablishing public confidence, easing the pressure on the economy and upgrading ground and airline security. Step two, "Remove barriers to maximizing US intelligence capabilities" by nullifying restrictions on human intelligence recruitment in the field, enhancing the ability of the FBI, improving foreign language capabilities within both intelligence and diplomatic agencies, bettering dissemination of intelligence among government agencies and rethinking intelligence gathering priorities. Step three, according to the report of the briefing session, "Ensure there are no safe harbors for terrorists" and Step four, "Build international coalitions".

It is singularly thought provoking that the panel of experts while devising the immediate next steps have pinpointed at an area that can be of obvious anxiety not only to Nepal but also to India and China that have a large number of students either studying in the United States or aspiring to pursue their academics in the near future. "A comprehensive review of immigration policies and their enforcement is next in order"; the think-tank prescribes. "The National Commission on Terrorism noted that over two hundred fifty thousand foreign students are presently in the US. Although rarely enforced, current immigration policies require that education centres track the activities of their sponsored students. All institutions that petition for foreign entries, for work or otherwise, must be held accountable for reporting the status of those individuals to the relevant authority."

This suggestion comes before British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech at the Labour party’s Conference on Oct. 2nd where he explicitly said that ‘new extradition laws will be introduced, new rules to ensure asylum is not a front for terrorist activity". British Home Secretary David Blunkett also remarked that an "overhaul of the work permit system similar to America’s green card system will be put as a way of defusing the debate over asylum and immigration." With the security concerns already heightened on fields like immigration and asylum, it cannot but be underscored that the West will seriously mull over tightening visa procedures in the days ahead. With the already constricted US and UK visa systems, the clenched regulations will almost certainly make difficult the processes for even the genuine visa seekers especially from South Asia, Central and West Asia and the Gulf. Of course, the event of black Tuesday is already sending repercussions to far reaching areas like the economy, tourism, aviation industry as well.

Nepal will have to overtly but carefully study the possible impact of US strikes on terrorist bases in Afghanistan both in terms of economic and long-term security and foreign policy implications. Although, the landlocked country is not directly a neighbour, there have been assertions that our region in fact extends from Afghanistan all the way to Myanmar. And, the relations of one with the other have somehow always assisted or impaired regional dynamics. The possible actions against the Taliban regime, in case of the latter failing to hand over Osama Bin Laden, could trigger off an obscure internal situation inside Afghanistan that could be put to use by former King Zahir Shah and his supporters or by other factions that briefly took over Kabul if not the whole of the country in the post Soviet- Afghanistan. Pakistan’s influence in the country could retire once monarchy is re-established. All in all, this one event will determine the relations between Afghanistan-Pakistan; Afgha-nistan-India and more importantly send reverberations to Indo-Pak relations. Easing of Sino-US relations in the post Sep 11 scenario has definitely helped Pakistan to deal practically vis-à-vis the United States and this ‘global crusade against terrorism’ has obviously put India’s concerns of cross-border terrorism at the centre stage. The entire sub-continent will have to wait and watch how it will be affected in entirety as the Taliban regime gets a blow for harbouring members of the Al Qaeda-now famous with a new name-"the 21st century evil".