Empowerment Of Women
WOMEN constitute more than half of the country's population.
It is the women who play an instrumental role in the family, society and economic sector
of the country. The role of women is very important and crucial in the country's overall
development. However, this role has hardly been recognised in our male dominated society.
Women are exploited and discriminated in every sector of the society. They are denied and
deprived in many respects, despite legal and constitutional provisions of equality and
protection against any form of discrimination. Nepal has already ratified the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and United Nations Convention on the Eradication of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women thereby making its commitment to protect and promote human
rights of women. Accordingly, it has enacted laws concerning women's rights and taken a
number of measures to protect women from any kinds of exploitation and discrimination. The
formation of the National Women's Commission is a solid step towards empowering women and
fully protecting and realising the rights of women. All these efforts indicate that His
Majesty's Government is fully committed to ensuring equal rights and opportunities to all
citizens irrespective of caste, creed and sex. Against this background, Prime Minister
Lokendra Bahadur Chand underlined the need for moving slowly but steadily towards
empowerment of women and fully recognising their rights guaranteed by the constitution and
other laws of the land. Speaking at the ceremony organised to present the draft bill
concerning National Women's Commission, Prime Minister Chand said that it was necessary to
create a conducive environment for the empowerment of women in the country towards fully
realising the rights enshrined in the constitution and other international human rights
instruments. In fact, the majority of women in Nepal are illiterate. The first thing that
all concerned sectors need to do is to focus their attention on properly and adequately
educating women. Only the educated and informed women can understand their rights and
accordingly enjoy them. Likewise, the age-old social attitude and cultural bias against
women need to be changed. A new culture and attitude must be developed in which women are
recognised and regarded as equal partners and players of the society and given equal share
and opportunities in all sectors. The global experiences have shown that the real
development of the country and society can be achieved only through equal endeavour of
both men and women. Thus, the emphasis must be given to empower women politically,
socially, economically and culturally. This alone would ensure sustainable development of
Nepal.
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