Peace, interim government, committee to draft interim constitution—fine, but where are the WOMEN again.

By Nisha Onta

Nepalis—wherever they are—have welcomed the truce between CPN (Maoist) and the Seven Party Alliance; now there is actual hope that peace in the country is a possibility. Nepal is getting accolades from all over the world for moving towards a peaceful end to decade long insurgency. Around the world Nepali people are praised for the strength to topple down an autocratic monarchy and bring the power back to the people. It has given confidence and hope to all Nepali citizens for the better future of their country.

But when there is so much hope there are disappointments and once again for the women of Nepal the rug has been pulled from under our feet. The demand of being treated as equal citizen of Nepal has been crushed. The demand for one-third representation of women in the sate structure has fallen into deaf ears.

Things looked a little better when the reinstated House of Representatives unanimously endorsed a landmark proposal on women’s rights to confer citizenship to her children on May 30, 2006. But the absence of women in the committee for drafting the interim constitution has brought us back two steps. In the committee of six members there are no women, not even one. They did not even consider having one woman in the committee, what a hypocrisy!

“But when there is so much hope there are disappointments and once again for the women of Nepal the rug has been pulled from under our feet. The demand of being treated as equal citizen of Nepal has been crushed. The demand for one-third representation of women in the sate structure has fallen into deaf ears.”
The constitution has many discriminatory clauses towards women and it is important to have women representation in the committee and to reserve at least 33 percent of posts in the state mechanism for women. From the move of our leaders it does not look like the reservation will be granted in the near future.

Peace or War, women’s voices and concern seem to be disregarded by all parties. Being secular does not change the age old patriarchal system of governance. Kudos to all the women who protested against the hypocritical government and the rebels whose eight-point agreement includes fundamental right of the Nepali people to take part in the constitution making process and expresses commitment towards fundamental rights of the citizen of Nepal.

But the fundamental question remains– when will the women of Nepal be counted as equal citizen of the country and their representation valued at all levels?

Onta is a post-graduate student in Gender And Development Program at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. She also blogs at http://nishkandu.blogspot.com/

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