PART - FIVE
Women participation in Present Trade Union Movement
 

A. Present trade union movement and women

The registration of unions accelerated following the introduction of Trade Union Act,1992. According to the Department of Labour, three trade union confederations have been registered so far. They are- General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (DECONT).

In total, Seventy-one Trade Union Federations have been registered so far. Among them, 6 federations are not affiliated with any of the centre. Altogether 50 trade union federations are in operation now. The number of unions registered at local level is 1,840. Among them, 876 are affiliated with GEFONT, 651 with NTUC and 322 with other federations. Official sources do not confirm any local unions affiliated with DECONT.

Of the 3.5 million wage earners, around 621,000 have been unionised. The number is just 17.77 percent of the total workforce. Of the unionised workforce, 49.94 percent is associated with GEFONT, 31.19 with NTUC, 2.84 with DECONT.

Table 8: Trade Union Confederation Affiliates and Membership

Source: Number of Unions from DOL; Membership from the-concerned confederations

Women participation in our trade union movement is still not satisfactory. The presence of women in the leadership level of all Confederations is only 12.6 percent, while their presence is 11.95 percent in national affiliates. Women participation is rising in comparison to the past, but equal representation is far off.

Confederations differ in views on the participation of women in trade union movement. The policy of GEFONT is Not Mere Representation but Equal Participation in this connection. This means that the physical presence alone does not produce expected results. According to GEFONT policy, mere representation will just encourage the 'Cosmetic personality' instead of developing real women leaderhip. Thus, development of willingness and a sense of competition among women are necessary to foster the participation of women in all levels so that expected results could be achieved. A "separate and special programme" for skill development of women is the first priority of GEFONT.

NTUC is placing emphasis on the quantitative participation of women advocating for at least 30 percent quota for women in every committee. The GEFONT slogan --Not Mere Representation but Equal Participation--also asserts that women should not only be provided with a fixed number of seats but they should be enabled to participate in high level committees and activities. This also means that efforts should be made to upgrade the capabilities of women for equal participation in every sector and assign responsibility as per their ability.

Table 9: Women in Policy Making for Trade Union Movements

Source: Office of the Concerned Federations

The number of unions and committees affiliated with the 15 federations and CWWD affiliated with GEFONT is 1,123. The total number of organised members in these unions is 9,202. Of them, 1,066 (11.58 percent) are women. GEFONT has been launching leadership development programmes for women workers from the central to district level with the establishment of a separate women's department. Federations affiliated with GEFONT have also set up separate departments to run women development programmes. It has significant impact to increase women partcipation in Union movement. The table below presents women's participation in GEFONT affiliates.

Table 10: Women in Committees under GEFONT affiliates

Source: Concerned Union Offices

Establishment of Trade unions with workers working in different sectors accelerated from 1990. But the participation of women at leadership level could not increase. Mindful of this, GEFONT and ANWA jointly organised a national seminar on "Women Workers: Problems and Solutions" on the occasion of International Working Women Day (8 March) in 1991. The seminar suggested that a separate unit should be set up within GEFONT to exclusively work among women workers. Accordingly the Central Women Workers Department (CWWD) was established on May 5, 1992 as a women's department in GEFONT. The Department was constituted under the convenorship of Swasti Bajracharya. It included Goma Timilsina, Nisha Shrestha, Maina Thapa, Parbati B.K. and Lila Bhattarai as members.

CWWD has a dual affiliation as far as the movement is concerned. It is active as a special department of GEFONT in terms of union movement while it is affiliated with All Nepal Women's Association in terms of general women's movement.

Following its establishment, the CWWD has been carrying out various programmes for the enhancement of women's participation and leadership development on a regular basis. It is also contributing as much as possible to the national women's movement.

 

B. Union Activities in the Service Sector

TOP

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, drawn after the success of the popular movement, provides for the right to organisation in service sector. As workers organised themselves in various organisations, unions and federations thereafter, the struggle for workers' rights have became consolidated in various sectors of works.

The Banking Sector:

Unionisation in this sector began in 1990 from Nepal Bank Ltd., Agriculture Development Bank and Rastra Bank. Around 15 percent of the 25,000 employees working in the banking sector are women, among them 20 percent work in Nepal Bank Ltd. The number of women in other banks is near about 10 percent. Women participation in concerned unions is rather low compared to their presence in the workforce. Women employees have still not been represented in Inter Bank Employees Federation.

Even though women with a certain level of education are working in this sector their level of awareness about professional rights and welfare is not encouraging. To address this gap, a union has been formed amidst banking employees with a specific department that deals with women's issues including the participation of women in the union activities.

Other Public Enterprizes:

Out of 24 Public Enterprises in Nepal, unions have been formed in 22.. Union activities in this sector also began after 1990. Women are also actively involved inprofessional movement the union has been taking up since its establishment.

The number of women in this sector is about 10 percent of the total 35,000 workers. Women are in large number in Nepal Telecommunication Corporation. Women participation was quite encouraging in the movement against the government bid to privatise telecommunications in 1990. In terms of responsibilities majority of women working in the NTC are operators. As in other sectors, some of which mentioned above, women have not yet been represented in the Telcom Employees Association of Nepal - the union of telecommunication employees.

The Nursing Sector:

Many nurses were self-inspired to participate in the socio-political movements while providing medical treatment to those who were tortured and injured by police for their participation in the movement for social justice. In a number of ways the nurses in Nepal have expressed their support to the movement. In 1991, they obstructed the police team who had interfered in the movement of civil servants staging a Hunger strike as part of their programme. As police took the hunger strikers to Teaching Hospital to force them to eat, the nurses resisted bravely ignoring Lathi charge of police and did not allow the police to take the hunger strikers in to the hospital. It is just an example of many encouraging experiences.

The Civil Service:

In 1990, employees from the civil service and corporation moved together under a single banner to picket the Royal Nepal Academy to force to resign the then so-called interim government. This unity later gave rise to the nation-wide movement, which began in August 1991. Women actively participated in the movement for which 98 women were punished. Shobha Gautam was jailed for a month and was later dismissed from her job.

Table 11: Participation by the Area of Works (In '000)

Women were in the forefront in hunger strikes, and other protests including dharna (sit-in) during this movement. Police charged lathis on the organisers, manhandled them and tore off the clothes. In some cases women had to buy some clothes at nearby shops to cover themselves, one such incident occurred in Jhapa. Altogether 25,000 employees faced different types of administrative action and some of them also lost their jobs because of their participation in such movements. Five hundred of them were women.

The Communication Sector:

The Communication Sector is one of the strongest sectors today. The number of newspapers edited by woman has crossed 40 now. The first newspaper edited by women was the mahila (woman) published in 1952 under the editorship of Sadhana Adhikari. The other one was Sankalpa published in 1985. Most of these newspapers discontinued after some time.

During Panchayat Autocracy, only a few women could be found involved in mass media as news readers for radio and television. Women participation in the sector increased after the end of Panchayat. This increasing participation of women in journalism itself marks a revolution. This has naturally given more focus on exploitation, injustice and discrimination against women, and has helped communicate various news and views on gender equality to the public. On the other hand, their participation has also helped the communication sector to become gender-sensitive.

In earlier days, most of the women entered this sector as columnists. Nowadays, women are involved in every kind of work. The women willing to work in challenging sectors to bring changes in the society as a role model in the areas of work have joined the communication sector. According to the statistics of 1997, women participation in mass media is 9.16 percent. Of this, 12.3 percent are in the government sector and 5.84 percent in the private sector. However, women are still not in policy making level in both the sectors.

Electricity Authority:

Women participation in this sector is seen right from its inception. In 1986, a demand was put forward to make permanent to those working on contract. A movement was organised in 1990 to make all the workers in the sector permanent. Basically, women were in the forefront. Shashi Ghimire was also represented in the CBA team to negotiate with the government. When the CBA failed, Shashi Ghimire quarrelled with the Minister for Water Resources. This was responded by dismissing Shashi Ghimire from her duty.

Three hundred out of nearly 9,000 employees in Nepal Electricity Authority are women. They are also actively involved in union activity.

University Teachers:

Nepal University Teachers' Association- the Association of University Teachers, joined the movement along with the advent of democracy. In 1991 elections, Suprabha Ghimire was elected as the first woman president. This was the first instance a woman was elected to the highest post of the University Teacher's apex body. Around 20 percent of 6000 university teachers are women at present.