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Looking into the division of activities between men and women, it was evident in the research that collection
of water, cooking and cleaning of cooking vessels were exclusively done by women. Respondents said that
all family members participated in collection of water, while observation revealed that only women and
children performed this task. Both male and female were involved in mixing o(" water and dung. The effect of
biogas on the workload of women is estimated by deducting the total time saving with 50 percent of the time
saved on collection of cooking fuel. The best result was observed for the women in Family No. l they saved
more than 2 hours a day, while Family No.2 saved least lime i.e., about one hour a day.
Other Effects
:
Apart from workload, most of the other effects were positive. Cooking on gas was felt much easier than
cooking on firewood. This included the possibility to leave the kitchen for a while the food is being cooked.
The respondents mentioned also advantages like no smoke in the kitchen, no need lo blow the fire, less heat
from the stove, improved health (no eye problems, no headache and no cough anymore) due to pollution free
environment in the kitchen.
Two families used biogas also for lighting in the house, thereby saving some money on (he purchase of
kerosene (NRs. 1.0-1.5 per day). The related effect on time allocation is rather small since kerosene was
always bought in combination with other commodities. The quality of the light of the biogas lamps was much
better than that of the kerosene lamps resulting into decreased in-house pollution. One lamp was almost
always used in the kitchen to have light while cooking and eating.
Three households had so far good experience with the digested slurry as fertiliser, while farmyard manure
was preferred by one household (Family No. l).
19.2.3 Effect of Biogas on the Workload of Women in Pithuwa Village in Chitwan District
Methodology
This report contains the results of a research on the effect of biogas on the workload of women conducted in
Pithuwa, a "typical" Terai village in Chitwan district, Nepal. The methodology relates to village profiling,
analysing the gender relations in the community and selecting case-study households. Several methods were
used, in combination, to get the maximum number of opinions in order to cross check the accuracy of the
information, such as: direct observation, group discussion, key informant discussions and informal and
guided interviews with individuals.
Women's Workload in Sampled Households
Women have to work for many hours in rural Nepal. In this research it became apparent that a working day
of approximately 12 hours is the daily reality for women in the selected households. Analysing gender
relations indicated that women are almost fully responsible for the reproductive activities such as cooking
(100%), washing pots and dishes (100%), water (75%) and fuel (75%) and fodder collection (63%).
In the productive activities women are responsible for the time-consuming/manual activities as planting,
weeding and food processing. Land preparation and marketing are mainly male activities. Livestock
production was again mainly a female responsibility (75%).
Impact of Biogas on Women's Workload
As biogas in the first place affects the activities in the reproductive spheres, it reinforces the idea that the use
of biogas has effect on the workload of women. The impact of biogas on the workload of women is indeed
labour saving. The differences between "biogas households" and "non-biogas households" were compared by
observations. The results for 'biogas households" showed that it took about 45 minutes less time in collecting
cooking fuel, while feeding the biogas plant took 33 minutes more lime. Similarly, ii took 56 minutes less
time in cooking two meals and 16 minutes less time in cleaning dishes and pots. Hence total time saving
effect of biogas for women in biogas-related activities was 1 hour and 24 minutes. The positive attitude
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