Kathmandu, Apr 8
Female entrepreneurs and workers affected
by the lockdown implemented in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak have sought special
support from the government and other stakeholders, beyond the initial business
relief package announced by the government last week.
They said that most of the relief measures
were more useful for the medium and large-scale industries while the small and
cottage industries, where the women had the largest share of ownership as well
as employment, were not likely to benefit from it.
"It’s good that there is relief
package for the business and industries. However, the government-announced
relief package is suitable for the large enterprises while the focus of the
relief should have been the micro, cottage and small enterprises (MCSEs),"
said Anjana Tamrakar, Vice-President of the Federation of Nepalese Cottage and
Small Industries (FNCSI).
The lockdown implemented 19 days ago to
prevent the spread of coronavirus has severely hit the businesses in the
country, but female entrepreneurs and workers have additionally suffered.
However, women were not the prime
consideration when it comes to announcing support or devising favourable
policies, said Tamrakar.
Since most of the women are involved in
MCSEs and are loosely united, they are weak in terms of lobbying for their
demands and raising voices in the time of need.
"We have not discussed about the
special concerns of women during the lockdown which has resulted in the
shutting down the businesses and sending the workers off to their homes,"
said Ramva Shrestha, Vice-Chair of Women Entrepreneurship Development Committee
at the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the
largest business body in terms of membership and expansion.
Some of the women entrepreneurs even went
on to say that it was not the time to seek any support from the government;
instead, they should support the initiative to prevent the looming crisis.
Meanwhile, phone calls from the workers
with the hope of small support troubles them. "My workers are calling me
for the relief materials like food and medicines. There are many workers who
can't manage their both ends meet if they don’t have work," said Shrestha.
FNCSI alone has about 35,000 general
members including 11,000 women entrepreneurs.
Risk to micro-creditors
She said that the government announced
discount in the interest of bank loans for the businesses, but this facility
can be of little help for the micro-entrepreneurs.
"Most of the microfinance members,
most of them women, will be unable to repay the loan for a couple of months
even after the restoration of normalcy since most of their savings and
productions would be used up in consumption," said Prakash Raj Sharma, Chief
Executive Office of Laxmi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha, a class 'D' bank.
Micro-credit institutions charge higher
rates of interest, sometimes twice the commercial banks' rate, so if the lockdown
continued, many of the micro-businesses would be closed and the owners would face
challenges to repay the loan.
Shrestha said that her committee was
planning to hold a video conference with the key agencies and entrepreneurs to
discuss the need of women entrepreneurs affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have not asked the government to
bring a separate package for the women entrepreneurs, but to support the
workers associated with us," she maintained.
Tamrakar said that the government should understand
that the size of women-run firms is small and they were unable to address the
need of their workers during the time of crisis.
"Discount in bank interest rate and
provision of soft loan can be the initial instrument, but we are in discussion
about additional support," she said.
Half the economy is informal
There is no actual data about the number of
women in business in Nepal. However, the number is quite high if the members of
microcredit are included. According to Sharma, there are 4.6 million members of
microfinance institutions in the country.
The first-ever Economic Census 2018 found
that there were 923,356 firms across the country of which 247,880 were owned by
women. But 49.9 per cent of all businesses are not registered with any
government agencies including the sub-national governments which leaves a large
number of workers working in these firms with no job security, said Anil
Sharma, Director of the Central Bureau of Statistics, the statistical body
under the National Planning Commission.
About 3.22 million people are employed by
those business establishments.
This large chunk of informal business has
posed another challenge to the government or support agencies to dole out the
relief materials and programmes for them.
Similarly, the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) estimated in 2016 that about 90 per cent jobs were in the
informal sector.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in its recent publication
'The impact and policy responses for COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific'
recommended the government to target economic recovery efforts to women as they
are in vulnerable employment and may fall back into poverty.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 9 April 2020.
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