New census shows women having more say in family, business

Kathmandu, Mar. 26

The new census data has demonstrated a gradual progress in women's property entitlement, family headship, and involvement in businesses.

Of the 6.66 million households in Nepal, 31.55 per cent (2.1 million) are headed by a female member, and most of them are youth.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) informed that the number of family heads has gone up by 6 per cent to 31.55 per cent from 2011.

According to the final reports of the National Census 2021 published on Friday, about 47.1 per cent female family heads are 20-39 years of age. Likewise, 34.2 per cent belong to 40-59 years of age.

Women who are 60 years or above and head the family are 17 per cent.

In terms of geographical distribution, more families in the hills are headed by women than mountains and plains – 34.57 per cent, 27.3 per cent and 29.38 per cent respectively. About 41 per cent houses in Gandaki Province are headed by females while the number is almost half (21.72 per cent) in Madhes Province.

Likewise, per 100 families, 24 female own a piece of land or a house or both. According to the census report, of the 6.66 million families, female in 2.3 per cent own a house each, and 9.7 per cent have a piece of land in their name while 11.8 per cent own both. Women in Gandaki Province fare well in terms of property entitlement while Sudurpaschim maintains poor record with women in just 11.8 per cent families owning the property.

There is an incentive, 25-30 per cent discount on fees, for land registration in the name of women. As per the rule, 25 per cent concession is provided on property registration fee in the municipalities and 30 per cent concession in rural municipalities. Likewise, the new National Civil Code that came into effect in 2018 had provisions that daughters can keep their share of parents' properties with them even after getting married.

 

 

Women in business

The 12^th census that concluded its survey on 25 November 2021 has found 627,887 cottage and small businesses, and 45 per cent of them (282,354 establishments) are run by women.

In terms of the areas of business, women compete with men in trading business with the operation of 49.9 per cent businesses, of 310,851 enterprises, by them. Similarly, women run 47.3 per cent cottage industries out of 137,644 enterprises, 20.5 per cent of 34,656 transport businesses. In service sector, 36.5 per cent businesses are run by women. There are 69,177 small and cottage businesses in service sector.

Male-female ratio goes up

The country has 29,164,578 population in 2021 which is up by 2,670,074 from 2011. The male-female ratio has improved this time with 95.59 males per 100 females. Compared to the previous census in 2011, the ratio has climbed up by 1.43 percentage points. Hill region has the lowest sex ratio with 94.65 males for per 100 females.

Although literacy rate has reached 76.3 per cent, about 16 men and 31 women per 100 can't read and write. Terai region, with the highest share of population, has just 66.1 per cent women literacy against 80.5 men literacy.

Kathmandu is the district that has the highest female literacy with 84.16 per cent women being able to read and write although the percentage of males is 94.19. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 March 2023.