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Gender Agenda; Gender Aspect and Legal Aspect

Published: 11 March 2013
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 UNI Nepal Liaison Council Women Committee with the CLASS Nepal celebrated the 103rd International Women’s Day with an interactive program on "Gender Agenda; Gender and Legal Aspect" on 5th March, 2013 at the National Women Commission conference hall. The program was organized with the objective of bringing different women from different sectors together to interact on the issues related to legal and the gender aspect. There was a total of 111 participants from different affiliates of UNI, Trade Union National Centers, the alliance organization of CLASS Nepal and other social organizations.



The program was made relevant with the encouragement and participation of male participants. Out of the total participants, 77 were female and 34 were male. Men were invited so as to generate awareness that gender issues do not only address women issues, but are equally relevant and addresses issues related to men, the society and the state.



The program was run by Ms. Dipa Bharadwaj, the Vice President of UNI NLC Women Committee where she highlighted the relevance of the International Women’s Day celebration to give respect to women movement, solidarity for the women activities and fight for equality as well. She also discussed the history of International Women’s Day, talked about the current national and International Slogan of the day and what we can do for the achievement of the theme as described by the slogan.



The interaction program had the two paper presentation by two experts.



The first session was given by Mr. Tika Dhoj Khadka, the lawyer who had a rich knowledge on the women’s rights as provided by the national and international laws. He shared that there existed good provisions in the national laws; the state has ratified CEDAW in 1991. However, the women are still deprived of the legal rights due to the lack of access on the legal mechanism. The justice process is not easily accessible to women, because they don’t report the cases of harassments or violence. He urged the government to ease the justice process for women, so that they get the access to it. The session was very interactive and the participants had several queries to which he responded convincingly. The recommendations of the session were that there are no strong punishments for rape and violence which need to be redefined. Also, the justice mechanism should be made relevant and accessible to women in the rural areas. The awareness should be started from all the sides and the punishment and legal treatment should be equal to all the people, regardless of their power (powerful / powerless), wealth (rich / poor), and gender (male / female).



The second session was presented by Ms. Aarati Chataut, where she focused on the power relation as the cause of gender discrimination and gender inequality. There is male ownership in all forms of power such as money, politics, education, and land as well as the households due to which they have become powerful and the women not having ownership on power factors have to rely on men who in turn dominate the women. However, with the change in generation, the improving women education, the increasing employments have been changing this power relation. The women are gradually gaining access to resources, as they are earning, they are educated and employed due to which they are also having the access to power factors. However, this is the situation of women in urban areas. Still, the women in rural areas are in the worse situation. The patriarchal system has set for the men to rule and prepared the women for being ruled. This has led to the exploitation and discrimination of the women. To come out of this is not an instant process, it will take a very long time, but we need to cultivate the equality culture in our home and the working places to make a change.



The interaction program was very successful as all the participants were enthusiastic and many male participants shared their views during the interaction. The welcome speech was given by Mr. Lekh Prasad Burlakoti, President of UNI NLC and vote of thanks and conclusions were done by Mr. Shanker Lamichhane, General Secretary of UNI NLC.