Against All Odds
The issues and challenges confronted by women migrant workers are totally different and significantly worse than men. From social stigma to illiteracy-related difficulties, women encounter problems in every step when they decide to go overseas for work. But in the last one decade, Nepalese women have overcome all these problems and proved their resolve as facts tell us that they now contribute 11 percent of the total remittance sent by Nepalese overseas workers. At a time when the whole economy of this conflict-torn country is being sustained by remittances, the contribution of these women cannot be undermined. As conflict and poverty are driving thousands of Nepalese women to take a plunge into this uncertain world of international migration, it is high time Nepal paid due respects to these hard-working women. Because of the efforts of organizations like UNIFEM, women migrant workers are now getting noticed and their rights and interests are now being debated. As remittance could continue to become the single-largest contributor to Nepalese economy for the foreseeable future, the need of the hour is to well-manage this sector. And the first step should be to take care of the concerns of the vulnerable groups like women. For the international migration not only brings monetary benefits but also financially/socially empowers the women, which could trigger a positive wave of balanced human development in the country
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
Experiences of Kamal Adhikari Subba, a girl hailing from Panchthar, proves what the international migration can do to enhance the power and capacity of women. Having gone to Hong Kong to work as a domestic worker a couple of years ago, this semi-literate lady was shocked when her employer did not give her the promised amount of salary. Amazingly, she went ahead and filed a case at the Labor Court there, won the case after hard battle and got the total amount of US$ 6400 from the employer. “I came back with my right. I experienced many things while I was abroad,” said Subba who is now in Nepal. Subba, in fact, did not only earn money but also earned pride and self-respect – the precious things that are most rare in the psyche of majority of Nepalese women who spend their lives in misery of grinding poverty and darkness of illiteracy.
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Women Workers : High demand |
Take another case of Ramila Thapa who gained self-confidence through her stay overseas even though her tales of hard work and sufferings in Kuwait could wet anyone’s eyes. “I stayed in Kuwait for 17 months and I had to change 9 houses (to work) during the period. I also had to face situation where employers tried to exploit me physically or financially,” said Thapa who was compelled to go overseas due to hardships at home. Back home, she is happy that she could earn to support her poor family.
Kani Sherpa was not so lucky. The girl from Sindhupalchowk had gone to Kuwait to work as housemaid in 1998. She was severely beaten by her employer and was thrown out from the window. Sherpa, who had gone to support her disabled husband, was harassed, raped, beaten and, finally, she lost her life.
The story of Kani Sherpa was widely reported in Nepalese media then. Consequently, the government decided to ban the migration of women to the Gulf countries. But this knee-jerk decision had quite an uncalled for consequence. Women, who desperately wanted to get out of the conflict-torn and poverty-ridden environment, began to migrate via India – a more unsafe prospect. There were many cases where human traffickers exploited the women who wanted to go to the Gulf countries via India. Later, the government had to lift the ban.
Moving Contribution
Fighting against all these odds, Nepalese women have been going to overseas for jobs and, majority of them are doing quite well for their family back home. This is, indeed, a moving contribution that the nation is yet to acknowledge fully.
“Women face so many risks and challenges and yet they have been contributing so much to the nation’s economy,” said Sharu Joshi Shrestha, program coordinator at the UNIFEM Nepal Field Office. The UNIFEM has been raising the issue of protection/promotion of rights and interests of Nepalese women workers for the last four years. “And now we are seeing positive shift in the viewpoints about the women migrant workers not only among people, society and media but also among policymakers and manpower agencies,” said Shrestha.
The contribution of these women are also reflected in the reduction of poverty from 42% to 31% as shown by the Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) II conducted by the National Planning Commission (NPC) with the support from the World Bank. “The improvement in the Human Development Report ranking of Nepal this year from 140th to 136th position also indicates the same,” said Shrestha (See box interview).
According to the 2001 Census report, around 800,000 male are out of the country whereas around 83,000 women are out of the country. A study conducted by UNIFEM showed that at least 34,000 Nepalese women are currently working abroad. Around 70-80 million people of the world engage in migration aimed at obtaining suitable jobs overseas. Of them, almost 50 percent are women. In fact, the proportion of women workers who migrate for jobs overseas is more in Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia.
Every year, approximately 300,000 persons, including a substantial number of women enter into job market in Nepal. Of them hardly 10 to 20 percent get jobs within the country whereas many others are compelled to migrate to other countries in search of jobs.
Although Nepalese women expatriates contribute around 11 per cent of total foreign exchange remittances, the fear of trafficking and sexual exploitation has forced the government to adopt stringent curbs to deter women from working abroad.
Still, there are a slew of legal and social issues that discourage women from working overseas. Firstly, they cannot get citizenship certificates or passports on their own. They need the consent of a male family member for that. Just recently the Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the government to end this discriminatory practice.
"It is a pity that the women cannot get permission to work overseas if they do not have family consent," says Babita Basnet, the general secretary of women communicators' group, Sancharika Samuha. Such strict regulations ensure that most girls wanting to go overseas for work adopt illegal means.
This despite the fact that economists and government officials have conceded that foreign remittance is a crucial pillar of Nepal's economy. Particularly at a time when the country is going through political and economic instability. According to various statistics, Nepal earns around US $1 billion a year as remittances –one sixth of its total GDP.
Shifting Policy
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Women laborers : Hard time |
Aspiring women migrant workers may now have reasons to rejoice. After years of lobbying, the government has now prepared a new act and rule to govern the sector of foreign employment. “With the introduction of this draft, the government policy towards women migrants would change from control-oriented to promotion-oriented. The act also adopts rights-based perspective,” said Basanta Basnet, an advocate, who has been involved in the preparation of the draft of the new act.
He adds that the new act will have provisions to introduce the concept of pre-departure training – due to lack of which migrants, particularly women, face more exploitation and are more vulnerable – to the aspiring migrants. Basnet said the new act also has provision to set aside separate quota for women and Dalits in foreign works. “It also addresses some of the health needs of the women workers and ends gender-based discrimination in this sector,” he said.
Many women workers feel it would make a world of difference if they received some kind of pre-departure counseling and training. "It is necessary to provide pre-departure training including counseling, instruction on how to remit money and orienting women about the culture-shock in an alien country," points out Shrestha.
A case in point could be the cause of Nepalese migrant women workers in Hong Kong – one of the most lucrative destinations. While domestic maids from countries like Philippines and even Sri Lanka come fully trained and prepared to deal with the situation there, most Nepalese women have no idea on what they will be supposed to do and how they are supposed behave in an alien country.
“Many times, we have seen Nepalese ladies being kicked out of their job simply because they could not work (or operate gadgets like washing machines, vacuum cleaners etc). There must be some agencies that provide proper training to the workers before they go overseas for work,” said to Prem Chandra Rai, coordinator of Hong Kong-based Far East Overseas Nepalese Association (FEONA), at a program in Kathmandu last year. Around 1200-1300 Nepalese women currently work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong.
The government, too, is gradually showing its willingness to encourage women workers. “The government is preparing to lift bans after identifying the pre-requisites,” said Deependra Thapa, director general of the Department of Labor and Employment Promotion. “It is not true that every woman migration is related with human trafficking,” he added.
With this gradual shifting of perspectives, Nepalese migrant women workers can expect to enjoy the well-deserved recognition of their contribution and promotion of their rights. A society cannot imagine moving towards prosperity if it does not respect its hard workers. And if the hard workers are women, they deserve to be doubly respected for their sheer strength in facing and overcoming the mighty challenges that they face in a country like Nepal.
“We Want To Protect/Promote Rights And Interests Of Women Migrant Workers” -- SHARU JOSHI SHRESTHA
Sharu Joshi Shrestha is the program coordinator of the initiative “Empowering Migrant Women Workers of Nepal” at the UNIFEM Nepal Office. She spoke with SPOTLIGHT on various issues relating to the migrant women workers. Excerpts:
How does the UNIFEM look at women migrant workers?
The UNIFEM basically focuses on ways to protect and promote the human rights and interests of migrant women workers. It mobilizes various agencies and stakeholders to ensure that their interests are taken care of. We do not want more women to go overseas but we want to make sure that policies and other factors are in their favor and that the human rights of these women are respected and promoted. The UNIFEM strongly believes that the huge contribution made by these women workers must be honored. In Nepal, the UNIFEM has been working with various stakeholders like manpower agencies, government authorities, women organizations and even the returnee women for this purpose.
How many Nepali women migrant workers are there?
In terms of contribution to the total remittance, women migrant workers contribute 11% of the total amount. And their number also corresponds with their contribution. The Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) II has also stated that women contribute 11% of total remittance.
What are the benefits from the women migrant workers?
Recent NLSS survey has shown that the poverty has reduced by 11% (in the last six years between 1997 and 2003). Another pleasant aspect is the improvement in the overall situation of Nepali women. Recently, the Human Development Report said that Nepal improved its ranking from 140 th to 136 th position. It is obvious that remittance has played a key role in reducing the poverty. Besides, the women workers are now gradually getting their fair share of respect even from policymakers.
The UNIFEM has been working to help the women migrants since last few years. What changes have you noticed in this period?
The UNIFEM has been working in this area for the last four year. We have noticed a big shift in the scenario during this period. Media, which used to look at this issue from welfare point of view, has totally changed and is now projecting it from human rights perspective. As far as policy aspect is concerned, even though the existing act prohibits women from working in certain overseas countries, we are seeing a positive change in this area as well. A new act and rule has been prepared, which promotes migrant workers from rights perspective. In fact, UNIFEM supported the government in preparing these acts and rules. The new act clarifies how the government can play the role of facilitator to women migrants; how it can help them; how it can end gender discrimination; how it can help the returnee women to reintegrate into society; how it can help ensure pre-departure training and so on. It has also talked about having woman representative in the steering committee that will be formed to direct the foreign employment sector. These apart, we have also noticed a big increase in awareness. The action plans prepared for the implementation of Beijing Platform for Action and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) also talk about rights and interests of women migrant workers. The issues of women migrant workers are being mainstreamed. The information database about migrant workers, too, has been maintained at the Labor Department. Likewise, the concept of pre-departure orientation is being widely discussed and followed.
“Female Migrant Workers Face Worse Challenges” -- BABITA BASNET
Babita Basnet is the general secretary of Sancharika Samuha. Basnet, who is actively involved in the promotion of the interests of Nepalese women migrant workers, spoke with SPOTLIGHT on this issue. Excerpts:
How do you evaluate the contribution of Nepalese women migrant workers?
They are contributing 11% of the total remittance. The money they are sending are being used for household purposes. Some have also used it for buying lands, houses or start small businesses. There is an instance in Dharan, where a returnee woman worker has invested her earnings in rickshaw business. Majority of women’s earnings are still being used for education of their children and other household purposes.
What are the major issues facing these women?
There are so many problems they face. Right from the moment they decide to go overseas for work, these women face challenges. It is hard for women to obtain citizenship/passports. They need letter of recommendations from their husband or guardian, which may not be forthcoming in many cases. The lack of education and knowledge obstruct them in their each step. They have little idea about the diplomatic missions and visa regulations. Even in airport here, they are harassed by the authorities. There is an example where airport officials forced a returnee woman (from Bahrain) to part with Rs 24,000 just to release her cassette.
What about the viewpoint of society?
There is a different viewpoint with which society looks at these women. Whereas a male migrant worker gains social esteem and respect when he returns home, a female has to endure suspicions about her purity/virginity and so on. The character of the returnee women are often questioned by society. These women also lack investment idea and majority of them just squander away their hard-earned money.
What does Sancharika do to help these women?
We focus on advocacy in order to ensure that their travel is safe. In fact, it is the duty of the government to reach into bilateral contracts with labor-demanding countries to ensure the safe migration of its citizens, particularly women. If migration can be made safe, it is better than making these women toil under poverty back home. Sancharika has been conducting a series of interactions with diplomatic missions, manpower agencies, government authorities, media, orientation-trainers and so on for this purpose. We have also organized such program in Pokhara and Dharan.
