Women want gender sensitive budget
KATHMANDU, 10th September 2008: A network of women politicians on Tuesday demanded that the Nepalese government bring a gender sensitive budget for the current fiscal year to uplift the economic status of women in the Himalayan country
– The government should raise its budget allocation for the Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare, said Uma Adhikari, chairperson of Inter-Party Womens Alliance, a network of women politicians from major political parties.
Adhikari, a Nepali Congress Constituent Assembly (CA) member blamed consecutive governments of allocating least budget to the women ministry though the ministry has huge target groups.
– Due to lack of funding, the ministry is compelled to confine its role to that of a “project” and has failed to reach out to the wider population. So this years budget should include a concrete package aimed at empowering women economically, she noted.
She said the ministry received 0,31 percent of the total budget last year though it looks after children, elderly and disabled, besides half of the countrys population-women.
Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives received 2,44 percent of the total budget though women perform 63,02 percent of agriculture work in agriculture-dependent Nepal.
Alltogether 82 percent of the women population is engaged in agriculture but only 10,84 percent of them have land ownership.
Kilder: The Kathmandu Post (Nepal) og The Push Jurnal
