Women Representatives
IT has already been four decades since the women in the West,
particularly in England, France and America launched an organised feminist movement
demanding equality with the men in all spheres of life. Slowly, the movement encouraged
women worldwide to fight for their rights and oppose all sorts of exploitation against
them. However, the Nepalese women remained isolated from such a global feminist movement
for almost three decades after its emergence and most of them were mostly confined to
household chores. But lately, especially after the restoration of multi-party democracy in
the country in 1990, learned Nepalese women have started raising voices for women's
rights. The pro-women protests launched a few years back in front of Singha Durbar
demanding for equal rights on parental properties and the bucket rallies of Kathmandu
women asking the government for a regular supply of drinking water in the Capital were
some of the incidents to indicate that the Nepalese women are getting conscious about
women's rights. Still, the illiterate and poverty stricken rural women are yet to be made
conscious about their rights.
Of course, the country witnessed a lot of improvement in
position of women in the last decade of democracy. The Constitutional provision to grant
equal status to men and women, creation of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social
Welfare, approval of a number of international conventions on women issues and formation
of the National Women Commission are surely an outcome of the Nepalese women's efforts. It
is also encouraging that apart from such social gains the involvement of the women in
local and national level politics is also on the rise. One achievement is that the
Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal has made it mandatory for all the political parties
to have at least five per cent women candidates for the elections of the Lower House of
the Parliament. However, the number of women representatives in Parliament and the
government has always been negligible. Considering this, the women leaders of the
mainstream political parties and other organisations participating at a programme the
other day, demanded that the political parties should field at least 33 per cent women
candidates for the forthcoming elections. Certainly, the demand seems to be very rational
in a country where the women's population outnumbers that of males. In fact, women and men
are the two wheels of a chariot. When a wheel of the chariot becomes weaker than the
other, it cannot function well. The same thing is applied to the human society.
Undoubtedly, absence of women at the decision making level is the prime reason for the
backwardness of women in Nepal. And the only remedy for this is to let more women reach in
the Parliament and the government. As such, the efforts of all the political parties
should be directed to meet the demand by fielding not only 33 per cent but also more women
candidates in the November elections.
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