Although there is a significant presence of women at important positions in public bodies, they still lack decision-making power due to their traditional role in the society, experts say.

“Despite male encouragement and 33 percent female representation in every sector of public governance, females still hesitate to actively participate in decision-making,” said Nirjala Chudal, women development officer at Department of Women and Children, at an interaction in the Capital on Friday.

 According to Chudal, majority of decisions in public governance are passed by males and opinions of females are considered secondary.

Mani Lama, member of Nagarik Wada Manch, said after securing representation in public bodies, women now have to secure their right of decision-making at both state and local level governance levels.

Apart from decision-making abilities, development of technical and vocational skills that can empower women to become self-reliant and independent are also equally necessary. Experts shared the view that women development budget allocated by the government needs to be distributed on a door-to-door basis for effective development purposes.

Speaking about ways to encourage women, administrative chief of Kathmandu Municipality Ward no 9 Bimala Koirala said: “The government should run male-orientation programmes to educate men first about benefits of active participation of women at both state and local level governance process.” From her experience, she highlighted that women in public governance are not consulted before bringing policy changes.

Koirala also said that women in urban areas have access to information and are found to be actively participating in community projects. But the women in rural areas are hindered from the same due to their own hesitation and lack of information.