Gender and Waste Nexus: Experiences from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal

to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, address the needs of vulnerable groups and end Bhutan’s status as a least developed country. During the previous plan period, the Government made a number of gender-responsive interventions, such as increasing the maternity and paternity leave for civil servants (not for the whole country), implementing a strategic approach to gender-responsive planning and budgeting (in four pilot ministries), enacting the Domestic Violence Prevention Act 2013, including gender mainstreaming in climate change and disaster risk reduction planning, and developing a set of national guidelines for gender mainstreaming. The waste management acts and strategies, however, do not mention gender. In addition, Bhutan, which has free education, has seen a tremendous increase in girls’ enrolment in education at all levels: primary, secondary and tertiary (Japan International Cooperation Agency [JICA] and IC Net Limited 2017; Bhutan, Ministry of Education, Policy Planning Division 2017). This progress is reflected in very high literacy rates and high school completion rates among the generation under 24 years of age. While there is gender parity in primary and secondary education, there are fewer women (46 per cent) than men enrolled in tertiary education (Bhutan, Ministry of Education, Policy

Planning Division 2017). The gap is especially high in science and technology (26 per cent female), engineering (33 per cent female), medicine at postgraduate level (30 per cent female compared with 39 per cent female at the graduate level) and in technical and vocational training (34 per cent female). Fewer women than men also study abroad (43 per cent female) (Bhutan, Ministry of Education, Policy Planning Division 2017). Most students abroad are privately funded (80 per cent), but there are also more scholarships issued to male students than to female students (43 per cent female). Housework duties for girls are identified as the main reason for poor academic performance and consequently lower tertiary enrolment (Bhutan, National Commission forWomen and Children [NCWC] andWorld Bank 2013). In primary and secondary education, most teachers are male (58 per cent), while in tertiary education, the teaching staff is overwhelmingly male (71 per cent). Men and women enjoy equal inheritance rights. In west and central Bhutan, Buddhist populations practice a matrilineal system, whereby women usually inherit the property and become head of the household (Bhutan, NCWC and World Bank 2013). In the rest of Bhutan, and among the Hindu population, men tend to inherit the family’s property.

Bhutan

The fleet of collection trucks is old and needs constant repair. Photo by Ieva Rucevska.

63 Gender and waste nexus