Women's participation in every sector is a must: PM Dahal

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said women's participation in every sector of society was necessary.

Inaugurating the 'International Women Leadership Summit-23' organized by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) Women Leadership Forum here from today, Prime Minister shared that the country is moving towards building an equitable society by prioritizing women's participation in every activity of society not only in political leadership.

He opined, "An equitable society can be built due to the participation of women in every sector including education, health, environment and social service. Equal representation of women is needed at the policy-making level by involving them in political leadership."

Saying the constitution has guaranteed a certain percentage of women's participation in different bodies of the government, the PM further said an adequate amount of budget and resources have been allocated for the empowerment of women.

Prime Minister Dahal mentioned, "The constitution has made it mandatory that there should be 33 percent participation of women in the parliament. There is now representation of more than 41 percent of women at local levels. This political participation of women is more as compared to other countries."

He emphasized the need of increasing women's participation in the economic sector and entrepreneurship development.

Similarly, Industrialist and lawmaker Binod Chaudhary said the issue of women's empowerment is also becoming the mainstream along with different political changes.

Remembering that Bidya Devi Bhandari had worked as the President, Onsari Gharti as the Speaker and Sushila Karki as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he mentioned that women had taken leadership of multi-national companies like Walmart.

Chaudhary further said that businesses run under women's leadership are more organized and systematic, stating that there are many examples that women are brilliant in leadership.

Saying women are ahead as compared to men in many activities, he argued that there should be no comparison between the two.

Vishnu Kumar Agrawal, President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), said that women, once who were only limited to households, are assuming important roles in various sectors at present.

Stating that women are equally competitive in the professional sector thanks to the development of leadership among women, Agrawal said that CNI had played an important role in the field of gender equality and called for additional efforts to develop women entrepreneurship.

He lamented that although the Nepal Rastra Bank provides loans up to Rs 2 million to women entrepreneurs without collateral, only a negligible number of beneficiaries are availing of it.

Similarly, Asian Development Bank's Country Director for Nepal, Arnold Cauchois, lauded that Nepal had achieved a significant result in terms of women empowerment and equality.

Stating that the ADB had emphasized gender equality in its programs and projects, Cauchois articulated his readiness for further collaboration for this cause.

Chaya Sharma, President of Women's Leadership Forum under the CNI, shared that the Conference was organized to deliberate on the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women entrepreneurs as well as to seek solutions.

She is confident that the two-day conference would serve as a platform to exchange ideas among the women leaders, formulate common strategies, share success stories, and motivate fellow women entrepreneurs among others.

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