Skip to main content

Towards Thimphu Declaration

Coinciding with the International Women's Day 2017 (March 8), Bhutan hosted a three-day National Conference on Women in Governance, Leadership and Politics with a Regional dimension at Terma Linca Resort in Thimphu. It was the second conference to be organized in Bhutan; the first one was conducted in April 2014. 

The conference was organized jointly by National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC) and Bhutan Network for Empowering Women (BNEW) with funding support from DPID, International IDEA, and others. The conference was attended by delegates from Nepal, Myanmar, and Bhutan.

One of the most important outcomes of the conference was drafting of Thimphu Declaration, which aims to have at least 30% women candidates fielded by the political parties in the upcoming 2018 elections and increase the number of elected women leaders by 30% using fast track measures. It also envisions increasing women executives in the civil and public service by 25%. 

It is true that qualified and empowered women are more likely to participate in the elections. However, the sad reality is that most of these women are in the civil service, private sectors, and Civil Society Organizations. They cannot simply throw away what they have for an uncertain possibility. That’s why we will continue to have more men joining the politics and winning elections. That’s not good for our democracy if half of the Bhutanese people go underrepresented in our decision-making processes. 

So, how do we encourage more women to leave their comfortable careers and make them embrace politics? 

One of the best and temporary measures is by being a little more accommodating and flexible to women whereby they can avail leave to contest elections. They may only resign if they are elected in the political offices and not otherwise. This will be a big boost to our educated and capable women and is also one of the best ways to realize the visions and goals of Thimphu Declaration. 

Because we will have more chances of women being elected when we have more women standing and taking part in the elections. Otherwise, increasing women’s participation in the elections will remain a distant dream. I am optimistic that something would come out of the Declaration in the upcoming election. Especially, we need to wait and see if political parties respect the Declaration and field in more women candidates. 30% candidacy works out to 14 candidates out of 47 available. That's a good bargain, I think.    

Of course, we will also need to see if these women are interested and ready to contest elections. Whatever said and done, at the end, it is women themselves, who would need to take the final call. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

So what do you think?

Popular Posts

When they are ready

The Ministry of Education discovered 890 'underage' children admitted in schools across the country in 2019. Thus, the ministry in May 2019 issued a notification revoking the admission for these children.  Majority were in urban centres.  Desperate, parents and the affected schools requested the government to intervene. They also requested the government to consider lowering the enrolment age to five years.  Currently, in Bhutan a child can legally go to school only when s(he) is six years old.  And that policy was strictly followed a few years ago to the extent that some schools refused to admit children even if they were short of a few weeks. So, parents, mostly in urban areas, resorted to faking their children's ages. Many parents were guilty of adding years onto their children's actual ages. However, most parents, we are told, managed to correct their 'mistakes' later.  Faking a child's age was rampant...
2 comments
Read more...

The Vanishing Currency of a Bhutanese Village

Growing up in rural Bhutan, the richest people in the village often had very little cash. They were known as chukpo , 'the ones with cattle'. And no one asked how much money a person had in the bank. No one or only a countable few had bank accounts, anyway. Wealth was measured in fields, cattle, grains, and the ability to carry a family through the seasons. Cash existed, but it played only a small role. Most exchanges happened through barter. Rice for chillies, soya beans for Sichuan peppers, cheese for eggs. I still remember that a ball of homemade cheese was worth two fresh eggs. Nobody needed a calculator because people simply knew. The most remarkable part of the system was the exchange of labour. During sowing and planting seasons, families needed extra hands, yet labour was rarely paid in cash. If I spent three days helping on your farm, you spent three days helping on mine in return. No contract was needed to be signed. No money changed hands. Wealthier households so...
2 comments
Read more...

Community of Bhutanese Bloggers Conceived

And finally it happened. I must say that it was by far the most attended Bloggers Meet. In the past we had bloggers agree to attend and cancel at the very last minute. But on June 24, 2015 – almost 100% of bloggers, who confirmed came. I would like to thank everyone for keeping his/her words, especially those who had to come all the way from Wangdue or Paro. Thank you! 35 Bhutanese bloggers met in Thimphu. We were honored to have the presence of senior bloggers like Aue Yeshi Dorji and Dasho Sangay Khandu. The meeting assumed more significance because of their presence. Equally, we were happy to have many young bloggers in whom we see so much enthusiasm and potential. On top of many things that transpired during the Meet, one of the most significant outcomes was the unanimous decision reached to form a formal group of bloggers, a platform aimed at encouraging and inspiring more bloggers around the country. The members decided that we will call it Community of Bhutanese Blogger...
16 comments
Read more...