HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Property right
Women’s Bill awaits House debate soon

BY RITU RAJ SUBEDI

Kathmandu, Oct. 7: The government is expected to present the Women’s Property Right Bill in the House of the Representatives soon that will become a milestone in empowering women if it is passed by the Parliament.

There have been mounting pressures from the opposition parties as well as the women’s rights activists to present the Bill that has been lingering in the Parliament for a couple of years.

Those advocating for the Bill say after it is approved by the Parliament the Bill will give women some historic achievements. The Bill has established women’s right to their parents’ property irrespective of her age. Under the existing Civil Code a woman can have equal right to the parental property equal to the sons only if she remains unmarried till the age of 35.

Chief Whip of the ruling Nepali Congress Tek Bahadur Chokhyal said the Bill would establish women’s right to parental property by not disturbing the present family structure.

"Till a woman remains in her parent’s home she will have equal right to her parent’s properties as her brothers, but as she gets married she forfeits that right, but it will establish her right to property in her husband’s house."

He said women’s position and status changes as she goes from her parent’s home to her husband’s.

Chokhyal, however, said a woman can claim her share of property before she gets married and spend it as she wishes. But after marriage she will have to return it to her parents. But he did say that this would not be compulsory if she has spent or used up all the property.

However, those who are advocating for women’s right to property in the absolute sense say the Bill is incomplete and even handicapped. They have even accused the government of changing the main thrust of the Bill – that is the giving women the right to parental property irreversibly.

They have even registered note of dissent over the change at the parliamentary committee meeting.

Asta Laxmi Shakya a UML MP, said the bill was incomplete and has failed to grasp the spirit of the Constitution regarding equality of gender. She said her party would strongly oppose the Bill in the Parliament.

Meanwhile, Kamala Pant, a Nepali Congress MP also feels that women will achieve their rights but only partially if the bill is passed by the Parliament. "We will have reached only half the journey to Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest)," she said.

She, however, said the Bill is a major step forward in ensuring women’s rights for which they have been fighting for decades.

But she said the issue of property right is not the only thing in the Bill, and it must not overshadow the other important issues related to women proposed in the Bill. There are 16 clauses in the Civil Code related to the women and of them 13 clauses are related to women’s rights.

The new Bill has proposed amendments to several clauses of the existing Civil Code such as the fixation of same marriage age for both men and women at 20 and others related to early and underage marriage, polygamy, incestuous relations, rape and other crimes against women. The Bill has doubled the punishment for raping minor or underage girls and it is also liberal to abortion with certain conditions.

But the opposition parties are not convinced. Shakya of the UML said women must have equal right to parental property as the sons, and we will not allow the bill to be passed in the Parliament if that does not happen.

The oppositions want a complete turn-around of the present inheritance provisions. They want the women to keep the properties they have inherited from their parents for good.

The opposition parties in the Parliament, mainly the CPN-UML, have said that the bill has killed the major agenda of the Bill. The party has even accused the government of backing off from the agreement by going for returning the property after marriage.

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