Author: Sarika Rai
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Thesis no.RD-06-10
Year: 2006
Academic Program: Regional and Rural Development Planning (RRDP)
Type: Thesis (M.Sc.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 2006
Examination Committee: Gopal B. Thapa (Chairperson); Kyoko Kusakabe, Mokbul Morshed Ahmad (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: Forests are one of the important sources of livelihood for rural people. The lives of rural people and women are closely linked to them. This study assessed women’s empowerment through community forestry in Nepal. The study was carried out in Chalnakhel Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kathmandu district. Two Forest User Groups (FUGs) were selected for analyzing their evolution and structure, user rights and responsibilities, decision-making and benefit sharing systems, men’s attitude towards women and women’s empowerment based on selected criteria. Information was collected through a household survey, in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, key informants survey and observation. Despite women’s involvement in community forest management activities, their decisionmaking role in the FUG activities is substantially low. The community forestry program has tried to enhance women’s empowerment by involving them in different training, workshop and excursion tour. The key barriers were heavy household workload, lack of flow of information between the FUG executive committee and members, and male household members’ tendency to take part in FUG organized activities including meeting. Due to male’s dominance and lack of education, women still hesitated to express their opinions and suggestions during the FUG meetings. After the establishment of the community forests, male household members were supporting females’ participation in meetings and other FUG organized activities. Males were also taking into consideration the suggestions given and opinions expressed by women. Women had also strengthened their self-confidence and improved social networking. The study revealed that Women FUG were more empower than Mixed FUG. Women got more exposure so that they got opportunities to build up their confidence in terms of voice raised in the village gathering, equally participate in the decision making process. Due male presence, women were always deprived from all opportunities and their bargaining power in the FUG was
Scholarship Donor(s): AIT Fellowship
Note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
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