Politicians and bureaucrats have left the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, tasked with addressing grievances of over 80 percent of population including women and children, in a sorry state.
-Janak Timalsina and Bhisa Kafle : Centre for Investigative Journalism-nepal
Everyone except able bodied men 18 years or older and those below 59 years falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. These categories consist of almost 80 percent of the country’s population. But the government allocated a 2 billion 220 million rupee budget in the current fiscal year to the ministry with such a vast dominion. That means each person under its jurisdiction has a share of 104 rupees. That budget also covers expenses for the ministry’s 1,591 staffers and operation of offices.
According to Mithu Thapa, head of the ministry’s finance section, the ministry spends 29.21 percent of the budget on salary. Moreover, between 44 and 50 percent of the budget is spent on women development programme, according to Bharat Sharma, undersecretary at the ministry’s planning monitoring section. With almost 75 percent of the budget already spent, how does the ministry manage funds for children, elderly and disabled people? Officials at the ministry don’t have an answer to this question.
Brinda Hada, a former secretary at the ministry, said the ministry was being ignored despite its vast jurisdiction because of the flawed vision of bureaucrats and politicians. “The ministers who get appointed at the ministry are either first-timers or from a political party with just one seat in parliament. Soon-to-retire secretaries, who couldn’t be accommodated elsewhere, get transferred to the ministry,” she said. “In such a situation, how can the ministry progress?”
Indeed, in the last 10 years, the ministry had 16 ministers and 13 secretaries. “The ministry has been weakened because it never got a strong political leader,” said Sharma, the undersecretary.
The ministers usually come from a party with one or two seats in parliament. They hold office only for about 8-9 months. With their short tenure in mind, they refrain from making any long-term plans. It affects the ministry’s annual budget. Major party leaders are never interested in the ministry. In rare instances when they are, they get appointed in order to settle division of spoils within the party. Such a minister neither comes with a vision to lead the ministry nor with the capacity to present plans which could bring the ministry required funds.
Dismal state of the ministry
The ministry’s budget for the current fiscal year is 220 million rupees less than the previous year. But this is not the first time budget has been reduced. Officials attributed the cut to frequent changes of ministers and secretaries and lack of planning. “We never got a minister and secretary who could strongly express his or her views with the chief secretary and the finance ministry and present appropriate plans,” said an undersecretary.
“Other ministries refer women’s issues to the ministry, but don’t want to allocate budget and human resource to carry out the tasks,” said former secretary Hada.
Dinesh Adhikari, who served as secretary at the ministry for 18 months, claimed that he launched a campaign to increase budget and increase human resource in the ministry in order to initiate a long-term plan. But he admitted the ministry couldn’t get impactful programmes because politicians overseeing the ministry weren’t powerful enough. “When I came here, the annual budget stood at 990 million rupees. I persuaded everyone involved in it to increase it. The number of staff increased from 900 to 1,300,” he said. “But we couldn’t deliver because no one prioritized it, not even the minister.”
The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare is the main ministry for social sector. But going by allocation of budget, it doesn’t feel that way. The fact that less than enough budget is allocated to the ministry demonstrates the state’s apathy towards women, children, elderly and disabled people.
The ministers who were at the helm of the ministry over the years are responsible for the sorry state. But they also hold grudges. Badri Neupane, who had been the minister for 10 months, recalled that he had to request the finance ministry to release funds for fuel when his office ran out of money. “Imagine a ministry where the minister has to request for funds to buy fuel,” he said. “If we want the ministry to fully deliver to its brief, its budget must be increased by 10 times,” he said.
Ministry on the margins
“Look, a women’s secretary is here,” an officer of a powerful ministry, is said to have commented a few years ago when secretary of the ministry arrived at a canteen in Singhadarbar, Kathmandu. “I told him I felt proud to serve as secretary of the ministry which covered more than half of the population,” the secretary recalled replying to the officer. That an officer can make a mockery of a secretary, who is senior to him, shows how civil servants view the ministry.
Another widely known incident was that of a newly appointed minister. A lawmaker from a party that won one seat in parliament got home after being appointed as the minister for women, children and social welfare. His wife and daughter derided him for being a ‘women’s minister.’ This episode spread like a wildfire at the ministry, where staffs still talk about it. A joint secretary at the ministry said, “If someone is transferred to the ministry, colleagues from other ministries will pity the person for that. They say he or she was transferred because of the person’s naivety. They think a civil servant agrees to the transfer only under pressure. I think they are driven by personal gains.”
The ministry is also pushed to the margin in terms of service, benefits and mobilization of resources. The office of the secretary there is less attractive than that of the undersecretary at the finance ministry. An undersecretary at the finance ministry is provided with a chauffeured car. But such perks are not offered to some joint secretaries of the ministry.
On September 14, 2016, Bishnu Lamsal was transferred from the finance ministry to the ministry of women, children and social welfare. At his previous office, he was provided with a new chauffeured car, but at his new office he found cars were in bad shape. Dissatisfied, he arranged for the car he used at the finance ministry for his new posting. “Secretaries, joint-secretaries and undersecretaries are entitled to same status in both ministries, but in practical terms, there’s a huge difference,” complained an undersecretary.
The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has 10 cars, 24 motorcycles and scooters. The minister uses four cars. The ministry of education in the next block has 20 cars, 40 motorcycles and scooters.
Civil servants at the ministry have to think twice before spending on fuel and other essentials. Due to lack of funds, the ministry has put up a ceiling of 2 million rupees for fuel this year. Last year, the ministry was allocated 2.7 million rupees for fuel, but 700,000 rupees was deducted this year.
An island where nobody wants to go
The ministry of education is about 50 metres from the ministry of women, children and social welfare, but influential politicians compete with one another to secure a ministerial berth at the former. No one eyes the ministry of women, children and social welfare, though. Politicians feel they have been sidelined if they get appointed as the minister. Most ministers who have served at the ministry since 2007 had come from a single-seat party. They include Badri Neupane of Chure Bhawar Party and Kumar Khadka of the Akhanda Nepal Party.
Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.
Lack of interest from politicians to serve as minister was apparent when Pushpa Kamal Dahal retained the portfolio in his second tenure. During Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s tenure, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Planning Bijay Gachchhadar retained the ministry. But near the end of his term, Gachchhadar handed it to his party colleague Sarbadev Ojha. Two Maoist ministers—Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma and Pampha Bhusal—were the only influential politicians to have served at the ministry. Aside from that, none of the ministers, including Ram Charan Chaudhary, Riddhi Baba Pradhan, Jayapuri Gharti, Badri Neupane, Dan Bahadur Kurmi Chaudhary, Nilam KC, CP Mainali, Kumar Khadka, Asha Koirala and Bikram Bahadur Thapa were influential. Five past prime ministers—Girija Prasad Koirala, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Baburam Bhattarai, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba—changed ministers at the ministry during their term.
The fact that 14 secretaries served at the ministry in the last 10 years shows lack of interest among civil servants. Those transferred to the ministry include officials about to retire who don’t want any controversy, who want to cultivate NGOs in order to benefit after retirement and those who are not influential for a posting at powerful ministries. A few want to be posted at the ministry because it offers travels to foreign countries.
Among the 14 secretaries since 2007, Rudra Kumar Shrestha retired 12 days after he joined the ministry; Prem Kumar Rai was transferred to another ministry, having worked only for 48 days; Khagaraj Baral moved to another ministry after 4 months. Punya Prasad Neupane was the longest-serving secretary, who retired after two years and three months at the ministry. Among the 14 secretaries, six retired while serving at the ministry. The eight who were transferred completed only about 10 months at the ministry. Dinesh Adhikari, former secretary who retired from the ministry after 18 months, said, “I chose the ministry despite opportunity to move to ministry of industry. I did so because I feared I would have to make wrong decisions in other places,” he said.
Not only ministers and secretaries, but civil servants in general also don’t want a shot at the ministry. Many civil servants we interviewed admitted they were forced to move to the ministry. “This is not an attractive ministry,” they told us.
But some civil servants have changed their mind after their stints at the ministry. Radhika Aryal, head of the ministry’s women empowerment section, is one of them. “In the beginning, I thought it was forced upon me, but now I feel it was a good move,” said Aryal, who has worked at the ministry for three years. But even officials such as Aryal attributed their lack of motivation to resource crunch.
Why has the ministry proved unattractive to both politicians and bureaucrats? We asked this question to former minister Badri Neupane. “This is not a pro-development ministry. It cannot be used for allocating funds to one’s constituency,” he said. “Politicians also cannot employee their cadres. That’s why it’s unattractive to those who are not interested in social service.”
In the developed world, similar ministries are responsible for social sector services such as building human capital, which gives it a competitive edge. But in the politically unstable third world countries, politicians are interested in ministries that deliver quick outcomes. So instead of investing in social service, they opt for ministries such as physical planning. “This is not where you get to spend a lot of money. What’s more, ministers don’t want to wait very long for results,” said Toyam Raya, a ministry spokesman. “Many prefer ministries such as physical planning, which quickly deliver. That tendency has contributed to the ministry being ignored.”
The ministry of women, children and social welfare has a solid structure from the top to the district level. More important is its jurisdiction, which covers 80 percent of the country’s population. That’s why even a little work from the ministry can make a huge impact by letting people feel the state’s presence. “It doesn’t matter how much funds we have. What matters is whether we have completed projects according to budget allocation. Though we have smaller funds, we have been able to deliver results,” said Naindra Prasad Upadhyay, secretary at the ministry.
Under the ministry, there are 22 undersecretaries in 22 districts, with the rest of the districts having women development office led by an officer. In Kathmandu, the Social Welfare Council (SWC) and the Department of Women are under its dominion. The SWC oversees roughly 80,000 NGOs and INGOs. The Central Child Welfare Committee under the ministry is spread over all the districts.
Civil servants here don’t feel the pressure since their job entails social service, a work much appreciated by everyone. They don’t have to face financial trouble. Since the main job is social service, those inclined to this field regard it as an important work. “The job allows civil servants to travel abroad and participate in training and workshops across the country. So this has value in different ways,” a former minister said. “But neither politicians nor bureaucrats seem to have understood its significance and scope. As a result the ministry is like an island where nobody wants to go.”
Such lack of interest can have huge implications for its beneficiaries. A woman who was raped by her brother-in-law could no longer stay at home in Dhankuta. Desperate for help, she contacted district Women Rights Defense Network. Though she urgently needed rescue, the network didn’t have a shelter. The network’s representatives made a request to the women development committee. But the committee declined to help saying that it didn’t have funds and infrastructure. Eventually, Hima Chemjong, the chairperson of the network, agreed to host the victim at her home.
This case illustrates the sorry state of ministry of women, children and social welfare and its district level offices including the women development committee. “Lack of resources has hampered urgent rescue efforts and rehabilitation of victims,” said Tarak Dhital, member secretary of the Central Child Welfare Committee under the ministry. It seems the ministry has no time to reckon on the need to support the elderly, disabled people and children under its jurisdiction.
