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

Bhutan

The bags from this biohazard waste are then used again to put the segregated material in. Photo by Ieva Rucevska.

Operational level

sector. In both the public and private sectors, men predominate as heads of departments and managers. Despite being the backbone for waste management in families and communities, women have very limited opportunities to take part in decision-making. “There is more trust given to men than women when it comes to the decision-making process. Men receive more votes than women. There is a need for intense awareness.” – Ugyen Tshomo, Chief, Women’s Division, National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC). Interviewees reported that the Government tries to prioritize women and empower them, but that only a few are qualified for high-level positions. There are of course exceptions and a handful of women are in top positions, such as, for example, the division head responsible for waste management at the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement and the business adviser (the highest position in management) at Greener Way. The Minister of Works and Human Settlement (2013–2018) was Bhutan’s first female minister and worked to boost the opportunities for female engineers as the first female civil engineer in the country. The new Minister of Health of the current government formed in 2018 is currently the only female cabinet member.

The stigma attached to working with waste means that jobs in this sector are among the least prestigious and are held by the poorest people. Gender bias is evident in the distribution of men and women across job types: drivers are exclusively men, while street sweepers and waste pickers are overwhelmingly women. The stereotype that women are less physically strong than men is used to justify the preference for men as drivers. The hardships related to working the land or picking waste apparently carry no implications for women’s ability to work the jobs commonly held by men. Thimphu Thromde employs about 75 street sweepers, 71 of whom are women. They are provided with safety equipment and work Monday to Friday, as well as half a day on Saturday. The street sweepers earn less than US$ 90 a month, which is very close to the national minimum wage. Many women segregate some valuable items, such as bottles, and can sell these separately. Scrap dealers report that those who sell waste to them are almost always men. Street sweepers are not provided with a work contract, though office cleaners (who are usually men) tend to receive one. This indicates that male cleaners not only have more job security than the female street sweepers, but also work in safer and more protected environments.

69 Gender and waste nexus