Nepal’s political history too reveals the same. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal guarantees five per cent “reservation” for women to represent at national level, while at the local level 20 per cent is reserved for women’s participation. However, on the one hand it is believed that even the nominal representation has not been “effective” in empowering women, while on the other women are demanding equal participation at all levels.

How can representation be effective when women are deprived of “decision making power,” is a crucial question that women representatives like to ask their male counterparts. Urmila Aryal, a former member of House of Representative believes women’s representation has to be increased at the executive level in local bodies to begin with so as to “mainstream gender” in the real sense. “The representation should be qualitative and not just an increment in numbers,” she said.

At present, even the 20 per cent women representation at local level is limited to ward level only. Norms of patriarchy and the way girls are groomed still keep them “demure” with low self-esteem, particularly in rural areas of the country. Consider this: “Women representatives in our Village Development Committee (VDC) had low self esteem so they did not even attend meetings and even if they did, they never raised their voice strongly,” says Khadga Singh Kami, a former VDC chairman at Khajura, Nepalgunj.
According to him, the provision of 20 percent reservation is mere “consolation” for women. “Illiteracy is still a big obstacle to women’s empowerment,” he opines. “Five years ago we provided 47 thousand rupees to women in our village for purchasing sewing machine under our skill development and income generation programme for women but the women could not utilize the machines well. No one knows where those machines are now.”
In Khajura, Banke there were nine elected and two nominated ward members before the term of elected local bodies expired last year. When it was the term for women to speak they couldn’t because of “illiteracy” and lack of self-confidence. Compare former chairman’s view with Maya Magar, a ward member at Khajura: “We had a woman in the board as well but her voice went unheard while taking decisions because men were in majority. Strangely enough, women were not even invited to meetings.”

Education, as Khadga Singh believes, plays a crucial role in empowering these women representatives. “I can only write my name, I would have been stronger had I been educated like my friends. Perhaps due to this, men members think that women are not able to take the lead,” she further said, “Women of course, can take the lead as VDC Chairperson. There are educated sisters too who are not given opportunity.”

Similarly, the provision of five per cent political representation at the national level also has remained for the name’s sake. Women’s representation at the executive level of even big political parties is almost nil. “Discrimination” persists within the parties. “First of all, political parties, which can reach the mass should have confident in their women friends, then only women can have equal participation at all level,” say women members of parliament (MPs).
According to Ambika Panta, member of National Assembly, the five percent reservation “obviously” is not the reservation in constituencies and as a result women’s representation at the national level is just around “two percent.” “Our aim is to get equal participation but for now we have demanded at least 33 per cent constituencies’ reservation in the parliamentary election so that women would not be sent to constituencies where the chances of loosing election are high,” clarified Panta, who is the member of Nepali Congress Party.

Generally there is a “belief” that women MPs raise women’s issue only; they are not “concerned” with any other national or international issues, which seriously affect the country. However, women MPs deny that they are only “limited” to women’s issues. “Of course, it is true that women MPs have to raise women’s issues on their own. Otherwise who will do it? Nepali men are still not ready to speak out for women,” claims Aryal. “But, it is not true that women are unaware of any other problems facing the country.”

Aryal, member of Nepal Communist Party Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), believes that the change should come in “men’s attitude” so as to improve the social structure that is laid on the basis of patriarchy. “Earlier, when any woman MP tried to raise women’s issue in the parliament, men members did not listen carefully. Most of them just used to criticize or laugh at women but now the trend is changing. Later, we made it compulsory to grant special time to speak if any woman representative asked for it in the parliament meeting. Women are becoming stronger and are concerned with all kinds of issues and men now at least do not laugh at them,” Aryal elaborated.

Panta speaks more radically. “Change is not possible until men start raising women’s issues,” she opined. “Indeed, the trend is changing slowly; men now listen to us when we effectively raise our voice, which earlier used to fall into deaf ear. However, it is not enough; men should accept earnestly that women are equally capable. Truly speaking, political leaders still, instead of believing in women’s capabilities, speak for women just to earn votes. Women are still regarded as mere voters.”

She believes that men’s view is not the “indicator” to measure women’s capability. “Women are equally capable and can perform better than men if given the opportunity. What they need is proper training and skill development programs to adjust in new society.”
 

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