The program for ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Rights’ was conducted in Thimi, Bhaktapur on 12th July, 2019. ‘Gender equality and equal rights for women’ was the theme of discussion for this program. The women of the Thimi community were in participation. In the presents of 40 women of Thimi community. The program began with a short introduction by Ms.Durga Shrestha. She helped all the participants get familiar with each other and then moved on to explaining the concept and the main aims and objectives of the program.

Ms. Renu Shrestha then took over and explained the context and role of gender in the society that we live in today. She talked about the hindrances to gender equality in the present context. Women continue to lag behind men, even today, when it comes to rights, responsibilities and opportunities. Gender equality stands not only for equal rights, but also for equal responsibilities and opportunities for men and women. Ms. Shrestha went on to clarify that the fight for gender equality is not so that men and women will be exactly the same, but rather so that the access to rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not be determined by whether somebody is a man or a woman. 

During the discussion, she conveyed how providing women with equal access to education, health services and equal opportunity in politics, economy and decision making will help in achieving economic sustainability and will prove to be beneficial to society and humanity as a whole. She acknowledged that there has been some progress when it comes to providing girls with equal access to education. However, it is a shame that women around the world continue to suffer from discrimination and violence. She concluded by saying that this struggle of gender equality will eventually bear fruitful results for the development and sustainability of our society in the future. However, for this to be true, we must continue to raise awareness and participate in this fight by having a dialogue about the need for gender equality. 

Ms. Preeti Shrestha also took part in the discussion and presented to the participants the status of women rights in the current scenario. She communicated that women have been continuing to fight for their right to education, yet they are still deprived of it. Not only that, but women also have to bear with abuse and discrimination based on their gender. However, things may be slowly changing. Today, women

 are involved in various activities like awareness programs. They are also taking up jobs and representing political parties.Ms.Shrestha emphasized the need for women’s voices to be heard in society. That is a major goal to achieve, as it is the only way we can move closer to equality. Gender pay gap is also a real problem, and women are paid significantly less even when they hold the same qualifications and are working at the same level as their male counterparts. According to Ms.Shrestha, the government should work towards minimizing this pay gap for now and resolving it completely in the future. There is also a need to improve the quality of resources (such as health care and health education) that are available to women. 

She concluded by saying that gender violence is prevalent on all levels of society, regardless of the level of income, education, position in society, class, race and socio-economic backgrounds. Hence, we must overcome it by tackling it at the grassroots, which Jagaran Nepal has been doing and hopes to do continuously in the future. 

The program was concluded by Ms. Bindu Prajapati, who gave feedback to Ms.Preeti Shrestha’s remarks. Ms.Prajapati brought light to a harsh reality by saying that despite numerous successes in women empowerment, issues continue to persist for women in all areas of life. If we do not take the mitigation process and the fight for equality seriously enough, women may have to continue putting up with gender discrimination throughout their lifetimes.