Same Work, less pay for Women

Here's yet another example of gender discrimination: Women laborers are paid 15 rupees less in wages than men here at an embankment construction site in Sundarpur VDC.

More than 130 workers, most of them women, have been engaged in the embankment construction at the riverbank since last month. Although women do the same work as men, they receive only Rs 65 as daily wage while men get Rs 80.

Local consumer committee members say, wages vary since women cannot do the job like men for which physical strength is a must. " It 's because women are physically weak, they can't perform like men," said Saukat Ali, vice-chairman of the committee.

Women workers have remained silent due to lack of awareness, which is compounded by the fear of losing their current employment.