EVERY year on March 8, people from all walks of life
come together to observe the International Women’s Day (IWD) and celebrate the
economic, political and social achievements of women. This year, IWD will be
marked in Nepal under the slogan “A
promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. On this
occasion, Chitra Lekha Yadav, treasurer of the
Nepali Congress and former deputy speaker of the
Parliament, shared her experiences in politics, spoke on the issues of
women empowerment and the way forward on genderbased activism. I was in
class eight in a boarding school in Kathmandu Valley when I was first introduced
to various articles on democracy and its importance to people like us who were
then living under the Panchayat regime. At that time, the word ‘democracy’ was
everywhere, but I personally did not know what it meant. However, reading such
articles, I was convinced that democracy is what the country needs to help its
citizens enjoy freedom, express their feelings and help the country onto a
prosperous path. Even during that time, it was not easy to read articles on
democracy in the open, so I often ended up reading them in
my room where no one could see me. This way, I was exposed to politics at a very
young age. Later in college, I led an active life and became treasurer of
the Nepali Congress. Entering
politics back then was not as easy as it seems now. Entering politics and
speaking about the importance of democratic values was
considered taboo. We never aimed to become parliamentarians and ministers or
lead the government. It was a matter of faith and responsibility
towards the nationbuilding process. The present political scenario is different.
Now, most people, even the youth, aspire to become politicians to earn name and
fame in a short period of time and the general
consensus is that only those with bad intentions enter politics. Despite being a
girl and that too from the Tarai, I never had to face any sort of
genderbased discrimination within my family. My
parents were progressive and helped me get into one of the
most reputed schools in the country. I was a bright student, both in studies and
extracurricular activities and was never afraid of expressing my views
during various debate competitions. I never encountered genderbased discrimination
in my school, college or even during my political life. Since childhood,
I believed in two things—god and education. Education was my top priority to be
independent and strong. I was satisfied with my profession. I was confident in my
capacity and never feared expressing disagreement. This is what every woman
should do. They should never underestimate their power, quality and importance
in family, society and even the nation. However, in our context, there is a
lack of
adequate representation in various important sectors, including the
bureaucracy, executive and legislative. In recent years, there has been a
growing-level of awareness, advocacy and
women’s rights-based activism. This is a positive move that needs to be
capitalised on to ensure the active role of women in all decisive
levels of
the country. Compared to our previous status, there has been promising
growth in terms of women empowerment and
qualitative involvement in important sectors of the country. Following the
political changes and the establishment of a republic in 2006-07, the
political empowerment of
Nepali women gained momentum. The Interim Constitution of 2007
laid down mandatory provisions of 33 percent of
seats for women parliamentarians. In 1993, there were only 12 women
out of
the total 205 parliamentarians in the House. However, in the 2008
Constituent Assembly, of the total of 601
members, 197 were women, many of whom were representing
underprivileged communities. This was a landmark victory for all women in the
country. Meanwhile, it is saddening to hear of the spiralling cases of
gender-based violence in the country. Even during the 16-day campaign
against violence against women, we observed a severe case against a migrant
worker that shook the country. This was totally unacceptable and unfortunately,
government authorities failed to take prompt action against the culprits.
Despite continued efforts, interventions and advocacy, a majority of
women still do not come out in the public and express their feelings and
share their problems, including domestic violence from their husbands and
in-laws. There is still a lack of awareness on legal policies
and related punishments for different kinds of violence against women. There
is a need to reach out to the majority of the population, particularly
rural women who are subjected to various kinds of violence, ranging from
domestic violence and rape to murder. Even from the government’s side, there is
a lack of
implementation of various legal practices,
policies and programmes targeted at addressing women’s issues. There are a
lot of
cases where government bodies have failed to take prompt action and thus
the victims never receive justice. As told to Pragati Shahi
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