Shova Gyawali
General Secretary, FWEAN
Officials assessing quake damage in Sindhupalchowk
Nepal is a male dominated society which is why women workers aren’t valued much. I got involved in FWEAN to bring their work to the forefront. I wanted to make the decision makers aware about the kind of work women were doing in Nepal and also make sure that the products women entrepreneurs were making in Nepal met certain standards.
Women are generally very patient and good at balancing things which is why, I believe, they will never fail in anything they undertake passionately. Earlier in Nepal only 10 percent of women, that too just in Kathmandu, would be involved in their own businesses but now even in rural areas you will see that women have taken steps to make sure they can provide for their families. I have met so many women from Rukum, Jajarkot and other rural areas who talk about how they started small businesses on their own and now they employ others as well. These kinds of success stories can be very motivating to other women and may prod them to start their own ventures too.
But there are certain constraints for women entrepreneurs in Nepal and I believe this is where the government’s role is important. First, there’s a need to make sure all girls go to school because it’s often lack of education, especially in villages, that becomes a major hindrance later on in life.
If the government could provide free education for girls, it would change their futures and destinies. This will also impact the overall economy of the country. It’s not that the government hasn’t done anything at all. It has made some laws for women entrepreneurs but they haven’t been properly implemented and monitored. If these two things are in place, then in the next 10 years we will surely see a lot of development in this field.
