THESIS ABSTRACT

Abstract

Construction industry needs large workforce including both men and women. But in developing countries like Nepal, women’s participation in the water sector is low. The overall objective of the research was to assess the women’s participation in water supply projects of Vyas Municipality, Tanahun. This research aimed to study the challenges, opportunities and the possible viable measures to promote women’s participation in water supply sector of Vyas Municipality. For the study, five water supply projects of the Municipality were selected. The field study was done using questionnaire and interview methods. The primary data were collected from questionnaires to the engineers, site worker and laborers from Water Supply and Sanitation Division Office representative and contractor respectively. Different set of questionnaires were prepared for water user’s association (WUA) representatives to find out the participation of women in community- based water supply projects. Key Informants Interview was also done with the divisional chief, sub engineer of Water Supply and Sanitation Division Office, chairperson and members of WUA. Secondary data were collected from project reports and manuals, different articles and journals. For data analysis, Likert Scale has been used to calculate Relative Importance Index for finding the challenges, opportunities and measures to increase women’s participation. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was calculated to find the relationship between women engineers and women labors in terms of challenges, opportunities and measures to increase women participation. It was found that participation of women as engineer and labor is minimal in water supply projects. Women generally work as unskilled labor in the water supply projects in site. Women get paid less than men even for the same nature of work. Women have faced difficulty in balancing their families, household works and their work. The difficulties of women working in the sites have not been addressed properly. Mainly female engineers feel insecure to work in the project sites located in the rural areas. There is also provision of quota system for women working in the civil sector in the country. This helps to provide vi opportunities for women working as engineer and sub-engineers. There are no any strategic plans developed by office levels for increasing more participation of women. But despite the fact that only a few of them (women site workers) have received technical training, they are capable of doing technical tasks and have a good understanding of the system and the issues that arise. It can be concluded that fair pay, incentives, flexible working hours, leaves, safe work environment, recognition, awards, motivation and giving importance to women during work decision making processes can help to increase women's participation. Providing opportunities to work in the positions like chairperson and vice chairperson in WUA can also help to uplift the participation of women in community level.

Keywords

Construction Industry, Water Supply, Women’s Participation