Empower Women
IN one voice, top Nepali Congress leaders have pledged to work for the
betterment of the Nepalese women. At the historic first general convention of Nepal
Women’s Association (NWA), an organisation at the vanguard of women’s movement
since decades ago, they said that without improving the women’s lot, development was
not possible. Setting the tone at the huge gathering was Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
who said social reforms would remain a far cry unless women participated actively in the
country’s social, economic and political activities. Nepali Congress President Girija
Prasad Koirala also spoke in the same vein. Following the restoration of democracy in
1990, women activists had great hopes that far-reaching measures would be introduced to
enlist women’s participation in decision-making and other levels. But in general the
measures have fallen short of the high expectations. True, some measures like reservation
for women in election candidacies have enabled them to rise up the political ladder. For
instance, thanks to the legal provision, some 36,000 women now occupy positions at the
local bodies like Village Development Committees and District Development Committees. And
close to two dozen women legislators are now in the two chambers of the parliament. But
such new-found positions for women amount to only a little more than token concessions.
The fact remains that so few women represent half of the people under the Nepalese sky.
Radical measures are sine qua non.
As he has emphasised since he donned the premiership, Mr. Deuba told NWA
gathering Wednesday that he was in favour of the passage of the women’s inheritance
rights bill, which has had a rather serpentine and sluggish journey to the parliament. The
bill has been debated and re-debated many times over across the country over the recent
years. Now at the parliamentary table, the bill may be passed during the current session
of parliament. As much was indicated by Mr. Deuba who also expressed his determination to
form a high-level women’s commission, which was mooted by him as one of the first
priorities of his administration. All these measures, will go to empower women in a way
that would position them to take more control of their lives, which are so far confined to
home and hearth. If women are given power and become more and more an equal and able wheel
of the proverbial two wheels of the societal chariot, Nepal could hope to move towards a
more egalitarian society. A lot however depends on making gender-sensitivity a
cross-cutting consideration in all governance and development issues and programmes.
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