Lack of implementation of policies on gender discrimination in Bhutan: An openion of the blogger

Photo courtesy: http://indiatourismo.com/Bhutan/bhutanese-people.jpg dated 29.09.2009 

Photo Courtesy: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Bhutanese_people.jpg/300px-Bhutanese_people.jpg 

Women in Bhutan enjoy equal opportunities as men do in all aspects. This is what Bhutanese laws including the Constitution guarantees.  Yet in reality the role of women is still not seen much, be it politics, business, civil servants or local leaders. But with the passage of time as Bhutan gears towards attaining Gross National Happiness, the women in Bhutan will become more prominent in nation building. This can be clearly indicated by the enrolment ratio of Bhutanese children in the schools at present and the upcoming more non-governmental organizations as well as the autonomous bodies protecting women in the country such as RENEW, NCWC,  NWAB and Women and Child Protection Unit.

Bhutan signed and ratified the convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) since 1980s.  A  Kuensel report on 21^st August 2009 stated that “Almost three decades after Bhutan ratified the convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW), Bhutanese women’s participation in public and political life is still poor. CEDAW committee’s concluding observations on Bhutan’s recent 7th periodic report raised serious concerns and said that women’s participation in decision making bodies, including the parliament, government, diplomatic services, at regional and local levels, should be improved”. The report revealed that only 10 of the 72 parliamentarians are women, and men largely hold the offices of gup, mangmi and tshogpa at the local government level.  These are some of the gaps between the policies and actual implementation of the plans and policies in promoting the women’s equal participation in the country.

 Some of the main reasons for such gaps were due to lack of any institutions in the country to put institutional mechanisms to translate these policies into action.  It must have also been influenced largely by the culture and customs of the country as Bhutan is highly culture driven nation. In the past, parents believed that women are to become housewives and stay at home and men at work so most girls were not admitted in the schools but boys were sent to schools. That is why we have only a very few women holding senior government posts at present.

Today, realizing the capability of the women, parents irrespective of cast, creed, race and status give due care to girl and boy alike and provide equal opportunities to them. These steps are positive signs that the strong policies for women’s promotion in active participation in nation building will get into action in future.  This will take shift in the paradigm of male dominated society to female dominated one.  These paradigms will be further made more rapid and smooth with the support of many institutions in the country.  National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC) has drawn a national plan of action for gender 2008-2013 which will bring positive impacts on the women in Bhutan and uphold the implementation of these policies.     

However, Bhutanese women do still encounter various forms of gender bias starting from their home to schools and in the workplace. Many male counterparts also feel that there is nothing wrong in teasing women and considers it as a custom. To worsen the situation, Bhutan still lack sufficient information and accurate data on such biases as there is not much study carried out on these issues and many go unreported. But recently, with the media becoming more vibrant, many reports on these issues are brought into public domian showing that there is bias in the Bhutanese society among the men and women.

The situation is further challenged by the frequent cases of rape cases, domestic violence against women including battery and the low level of awareness among women of their rights and the culture of silence in the country. There are also media reports that there is more number of unemployed women in current year, more number of girls getting into bar dancers and recent report by Bhutan Times on the emergence of hardcore local pornography are some of the new challenges for the future of Bhutanese women. And most of the institutions in the country on such matter are still getting established and needs more time to get it fully functional. These are all alarming reports and in absence of appropriate action taken on time, the situation will further get aggravated.

In nutshell, there was gender bias in Bhutanese society. It is still continuing and will continue for some time.  For me I feel that Bhutan is still male dominated and role and active participation of women is minor in Bhutan at present. Therefore, the government needs to adopt and implement measures to ensure equal access for girls and women at all levels of decision making at home, in business, government service, politics, local leaders or defense, diplomatic service. Let the women in Bhutan be more empowered and enjoy equal opportunities in all aspects and levels irrespective of their cast, creed, race, qualification or status.