Women Empowerment Through Community based Organization: A study of Shanischare VDC, Jhapa District, Nepal

Abstract

Women are found suffering from social, cultural and political biases in the traditional male dominated society of Nepal. Compared to male counterparts women have limited access to educational and employment opportunities.They have less power and ability to do activities like men counterparts do;even they have the least authority to do something at their own initiation.Women are economically dependent on men (father, husband or brother), as men are traditionally considered as assertive and breadwinners of the family,they are focused on materialistic success. Women are found greatly confined to household and soft nature of farmyard activities. Still largely the households and society directly and indirectly deny or discourage women’s role as decision-maker. Though the women of Nepal have substantial contributions both as labor and mentor in the household and outside, but their role is of ten under estimated and not counted as economic activity.Being heads of households, women have to carry out the full traditional roles with the added responsibility of household and production management. The connection between poverty and women's lack of power over resources has now caught the attention of policymakers in government and main stream development all over the world. Women empowerment issues perceived nationally or locally are being addressed by both state and non-state agencies. Beside the government intervention, CBOs are implementing various types of Women Empowerment Programmes including IG Programmes. Women Empowerment Programmes in Nepal include livelihood support Programme, rehabilitation and job placement for rescuedwomen,safe motherhood Programme and so forth. In spite of involvement of various CBOs in women empowerment through Income Generation and Skill Development Programmes, the status of women is still not satisfactory in Nepal as various official as well as unofficial reports claim and the outcomes against the stated objectives of the CBOs’ Women Empowerment Programmes are often questioned. Therefore, the present study is focused in assessing the impact of IG Programmes run by CBOs in empowering women. The researcher hypothesizes that IG Programme with its components viz., skill training, resource inputs of loan and equipment help to increase income to the women through independent business or work in the related field; the increased income lessens their dependence on family heads and enables to spend for personal expenses; gives them certain freedoms as individuals; enables them to contribute to family affairs financially, which creates an environment in the family in favor or the women to accept her views and participation in family matters like education, marriage, purchase etc. Bases on these hypotheses, the researchers investigates into the Programmes of three organizations –Kalika Aama Shamuha, Tingh are Mahila Shamuha and Jhalkynaya Mahila Bikash Shamuha – whic himplemented their Income Generation (IG) Programmes between 2006and2010 at Shanisch are Village Development Committee (VDC). Apart from the components of IG Programme delivered by the CBOs for the increase in women’s decision capacity in personal and family life, the researcher also considers family background, viz. family size and education of the family heads as separate independent variables, to understand how much it has effect on empowerment of women.