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Women are equal rights holders as men and the other gender. Women as citizens require various forms of power for their holistic empowerment and contribution to societal, national and international development. In this process, understanding different forms of power is very crucial. In the development discourse, power is defined and constellated in four specific forms; i) Power from within, facilitate the process of self-acceptance and self-respect. It helps a person to understand the structural and historical context of inclusion-exclusion. It then, imparts the ability to recognize how one’s interests are related to those of the others. Power from within is strongly connected to the perception of oneself as being entitled to make changes, ii) Power to, refers to the capacity of one to act, being equipped with appropriate skills and abilities including access to resources required to make changes, iii) Power with, then refers to a form of power which is closely linked to the power within and is based on the realization that individuals with similar interests and experiences can work together towards change and iv) Power over, relates to power relations that need to be transformed or challenged as an individual or by an interest group or a society at large. This form of power aims to promote culture of inclusion by bringing other people who mostly are excluded from decision making processes. Hence, a person or group can be a change maker through the exercise of empowerment process for systematic transformation leading to power equalization.
Power always has its root in historic sources. Different spheres of powers be it human capital, financial assets, political awareness, physical facilities or natural resource based, all play crucial role in determining one’s status, identity and power relation in that particular society. In this context, women in general have been deprived of those assets and opportunities throughout history. Among the others, access to and control over natural resources particularly over land still remains as one of the fundamental sources of power defining women’s status, identity and opportunity in many developing countries including Nepal. The history had set aside rules and practices of excluding women from power sharing processes. As a result, women were denied of access to participation, representation and they are not given the right to be active while changing rules of the games. It has thus led to weak daughters, daughter in laws, mothers and so on, which has ultimately resulted to produce generations with weaker leadership than the potential they have.
Due to denial of their access and control over land, their identity has never been established as even a farmer, though majority of agriculture tasks are performed by them. The extreme cases can be seen where the ex-bonded labourers were freed, while kamlaries were not because they were not considered as producers. |
Women worldwide have been denied of their full rights on the basis of their gender and gender roles, though the degree and nature differs to a certain extent. Women in developing country like Nepal, who have been closely associated with agriculture or natural resource based livelihoods, have even more importance of acquiring land rights. In certain communities such as janajatis, the out-migration of men folks has created opportunities for women and has given them a chance to take further responsibilities of their families, farms, social relations, which had led them to adopt flexible mobility pattern. But their access and control over productive resources, especially land, is not transferred in those situations. Therefore, women were denied of access to other services for making their land more productive and/or to acquire other social services based on land property. This can be a good example of how women’s access to and control over issues are overshadowed by surfacial benefits without going in to deeper analysis of exclusion and structural causes that has made women to hold sub-ordinate position in actual practice.
Nepal as a signatory of Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its moral obligations to different human rights conventions, the state has its duty to respect, fulfil and protect women’s rights to enjoy their existence and identity in its full strength. To ensure those enjoyments, women’s access and control over means of production, mobility and other social benefits to be accrued based on land rights has an important role to play in empowerment processes. Therefore, granting constitutional rights to women over land is an entry point, which requires a series of multiple steps to facilitate the process of empowerment in other social, political, cultural and other spheres. Since women’s identity and wellbeing is associated with land, she can step in to the process of empowerment only when she feels psychologically well protected and encouraged to enjoy other rights. Therefore, empowering women can facilitate the process of acquiring land rights and the access to land rights can lead to women empowerment, which can be of simultaneous venture.
Empowerment of women is not an easy game. The historical norms and values set by different societies, culture and practices guided by patriarchal thoughts made the process quite complex. The social stigma of putting less trust on women, right from the birth has been so rooted in the mindset of many that women are portrayed as daughters as passer-by and daughter-in-laws as passer-in members in the family and society. This thought has shaped and blocked the attitudes and behavioural practices to be flexible enough to transform social norms and practices. In the present context of globalization as well, women’s mobility and migration is largely restricted due to denial of access to capital investment for the skill trainings, beginning of small enterprises or option for external migration. It has thus created a strong patron-client relation of women with men within households and society at large. It clearly shows that the reformist approach of almost all political parties since late 1950’s for land to the tillers still remained as a gender-blind slogan.
Land for all may not be a justifiable option and/or demand of all women but it still matters a lot for many rural and poor women. Due to denial of their access and control over land, their identity has never been established as even a farmer, though majority of agriculture tasks are performed by them. The extreme cases can be seen where the ex-bonded labourers were freed, while kamlaries were not because they were not considered as producers. Likewise, when the program and policies of government comes up with assurance to grant tenancy rights for tenants or haliyas, their women counterparts are merely entitled to limit themselves to health and education related programs. Health and education related services in fact are equal rights of all girls and women of all economic status, be them from ex-bonded labour background or from well off categories. It shows lack of deeper understanding of reality, contextualization with heterogeneity of rights holders and lack of visioning and will to take steps towards structural changes to build an equitable society. Likewise, land may not be of equal importance for all of the same purpose. For example, for the landless squatters in the urban area, their choice and need for land might be for a safe settlement, whereas women who are dependent on agriculture, their rights and claims are for quality and productive land that should be at least enough to feed her family and maintain other social services.
The High Level Land Commission is also working towards adopting policy measures for implementation of scientific land reform as spelled out in the Interim Constitution. This is the prime time to make constitutional guarantee of women’s rights over land and associated opportunities. |
The historic mode of Nepal has created opportunities to deal with all forms of discrimination and equalities towards different groups including women. Likewise, the High Level Land Commission is also working towards adopting policy measures for implementation of scientific land reform as spelled out in the Interim Constitution. This is the prime time to make constitutional guarantee of women’s rights over land and associated opportunities. When women, men or people of the third gender are disassociated with resources and generate humiliation or suppression based on their gender, conflicts can arise from within the family. The extent of conflict can be further prolonged as it has its root in sharing power, identity crisis and status quo. From experiences of many other countries, natural resources are one of the major sources of conflict among societies and can go further beyond the country’s physical border. In case of Nepal also, abundant numbers of cases filed in courts related with property rights among family members can be taken as an example as to how land can be the source of dispute if not equitably shared and/or managed.
(Ms Ghale is a Food and Agriculture Policy Analyst. She can reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
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