Women’s land ownership has jumped threefold in the last decade due to the government’s policy of giving a discount on the land registration fee for transferring deeds to females.

As part of the effort to increase women’s access to parental property, the government has been providing a 25 percent exemption on the land registration charge in urban areas if the ownership is transferred to women. In rural and Himalayan regions, the discounts are 30 percent and 40 percent respectively.

Krishna Hari Baskota, secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, said that such measures on the part of the government had helped to increase women’s ownership of land and property from 8 percent a decade ago to 26 percent today. "We have to increase it to 50 percent at least," he said at a function organized to mark the 104th International Women’s Day which falls on March 8.

The government has also given an income tax break of 10 percent for women, and a 20 percent income tax exemption for enterprises where at least 33 percent of the employees are women.

Stating that such promotion of women’s economic empowerment should be widened, Baskota said that a Women Entrepreneurship Fund has also been set up with an investment of Rs 400 million. He added that enhancing women’s access to employment opportunities and education only could help increase their participation in development activities.

The government has also been issuing a gender responsible budget since 2007-08 in order to empower women. "There should be necessary adjustments in order to have more impact on women’s empowerment," said Baskota.

Meanwhile, Keshab Badal, president of the National Cooperatives Federation, said that women-run cooperatives should be encouraged as most of them have been doing good business thereby improving the living conditions in their locality.

"Unlike other savings and credit cooperatives that have fallen into crisis, over 90 percent of the women-run cooperatives are performing well," Badal said. Out of more than 27,000 cooperatives operating in the

country, 2,700 are women-based cooperatives, according to the Department

of Cooperatives.