KATHMANDU, NEPAL -- At Dhapashi, an area about two kilometers away from Ring Road in Kathmandu, more than a dozen daily wage laborers, both males and females, carry bricks, sand, gravel and stones in bamboo baskets on their backs with the help of a namlo, a thick rope made of jute, that sits on their foreheads. The workers carry their loads up to the fourth floor of the building that is being constructed here.
Krishna Maya Tamang, 31, looks weak. Dressed in a long, wrap-around skirt and blouse, her cheeks are hollow and her face looks fatigued. Her hands and feet are dry and cracked. She is sweating as she carries a load of about 60 kilograms of brick in a bamboo basket up the steep steps.
Tamang came to Kathmandu from Rautahat, a central district of Nepal, 10 years ago in search of work. She found it as a daily wage laborer at local construction sites. Working from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Tamang earns about 140 rupees, about $2, per day. At the sites, Tamang’s male coworkers work the same hours and carry the same heavy loads, but take home more money everyday, averaging 200 rupees, about $2.80 per day. Tamang confirms, “Women are paid less than the males here even though we do the same kind of work.”
According to a survey conducted by the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions, more than two million people in Nepal work for minimal daily wages, as opposed to contract salaries. Among those two million workers, 75 percent are women.
Various international treaties, on which Nepal is a signatory, and the interim constitution of Nepal, which was issued following a restoration of democracy on April 24, 2006 and will be effective until a new constitution is drafted after country-wide elections expected later this year, guarantee workplace equality to women. Yet commonly paid wages at construction sites around Kathmandu show otherwise. According to a survey conducted by a local NGO, The Forum for Women, Law and Development in 2006, 78 percent of women in Nepal receive lower wages on the basis of their sex in the fields of agriculture and construction.
Sapana Malla Pradhan, president of FWLD, said that although laws and the constitution do not permit unequal pay for equal work, laws are not followed, especially in labor sectors which are largely unregulated. “Due to the patriarchal mindset of society, defective social and cultural values, illiteracy and economic dependency, women have not been able to raise their voice collectively,” Pradhan says.
Tamang says she is familiar with economic hardship. She was forced to migrate to Kathmandu because she couldn’t provide basic necessities for herself and her children. She faces the same financial difficulties in Kathmandu. “Today I came to work with an empty stomach because I couldn’t come to work yesterday because I was sick. If the contractors do not pay me today, my kitchen will be empty again tonight,” Tamang says.
Unequal pay to women laborers is common in other sectors too. Kanchi Lama, 41, who works at a farm in Mandikhatar, an area near Kathmandu, says, “Our pay is 120 rupees per day, about $1.70, but the men get 250 rupees, about $3.50. The work that we do is same, but they get more pay.”
The men who work along side women at the construction sites hold different views about their female coworkers. Bahadur Tamang, 35, who is not related to Krishna Maya, also works as a daily wage labor. He says, “We get paid more because the amount of work that we do is more than what they do.” Krishna Bahadur Pulami, 66, disagrees. “Women work at every condition, even during pregnancy or menstruation, they work as much as the men, but the pay they get is less.”
Nepal’s Labor Minister Ramesh Lekhak says that the state has prohibited wage discrimination. “The government never discriminates in paying wages to men and women,” he says, though the government does not regulate wages paid in labor sectors. Lekhak added his office has not received any complaints or articles about of wage discrimination, but he acknowledged that the problem existed. But Lekhak blames the problem on the media and trade unions, which he says have not been able to create awareness about the existence of equal wage laws and policies.
Representatives of the trade union say that despite enough legal provisions regarding equal pay, it is difficult to implement them in the labor sectors, like agriculture and construction, because of disorganization and the fact that these fields have not been accepted as a part of the trade union network. Khil Nath Dahal, president of the Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions says, “Most of the laborers are not even getting the wage that the state has fixed. The question about equal pay for both genders is more critical.”
According to attorney Ramesh Badal, the prevalent practice of paying women less money for the same jobs is clear discrimination and an injustice against women. “They are being cheated by the constructors and the owners who provide work to them,” Badal says.
Some construction site managers, however, reject the claim that they pay unequal wages based on gender. The building constructor at Adhikary Construction Pvt. Ltd., R.P Siwakoti, claims that local trade unions are making an unnecessary fuss over this issue. “We have been paying equal wages for equal work for all of our 40 employees,” he says. His employee, Rakesh Khadka, says that’s not true. “The wage that we [men] get in the company is double the amount of what the women get,” he added.
But because daily wage laborers do not have contracts and are not issued receipts for their labor, both Siwakoti and Khadka were unable to prove their wage claims. Twenty-eight year old Laxmi Khadka, the wife of Rakesh Khadka, has been working as a daily wage laborer and potter for the past 12 years. “My husband and I do the same work but his wage is 100 rupees, about $1.40, more than what I get. If I raise my voice against it, the owner and the [construction site manager] that give us work will not allow me to work tomorrow. What can we do?” she asks.
Still, there are women laborers who do not mind being paid less than their husbands and male coworkers. Urmila K.C., 35, who has been working for a construction company at Dhapashi in Kathmandu for seven years says, “My husband has to get a better wage than I do, and he surely is getting it. Although we perform same work, if his wage is not more than mine, society will degrade him.”
Originally published 2008 PIWDW