KATHMANDU, Dec 31: The year 2015 brought unprecedented achievements in political history of Nepal. With the promulgation of the new constitution from the constituent assembly the country got its first female head of state and head of legislature.
Election of Bidya Bhandari as president and Onsari Gharti as speaker of the parliament became landmark in women's movement in the country. Both Bhandari and Gharti are first to assume the top five posts of the country addressed with Sammananiya (Right Honorable).
The parliament elected its first female speaker on October 16 unopposed and first president on October 28 through majority votes. Prior to these, deputy speaker and deputy prime minister were the top most posts that women had lead in nation's history.
With the election of Bhandari as head of state, Nepal is among the 28 countries having women either as head of state or head of government. Only seven other countries, including Poland, Brazil, South Korea, Croatia, Switzerland, Mauritius, have women president. According to UN Women, 13 women have served as head of the state and 12 as head of the government as of August 2015.
The incumbent president has served as minister for defense, minister for population and environment and was vice chair of CPN-UML party. She has also headed women wings of the party and is also regarded as women rights campaigner in Nepali Politics.
Likewise speaker Gharti has served as deputy speaker and minister of youth and sports in her political career. She had joined Maoist underground rebellion and became first female commissar of the Maoist army in 2002.
Many women right activists celebrated the election of two women leaders in two top posts of the country as achievements. "Though the ground was laid by long running movements and struggles, the year 2015 materialized these movements and struggles by bringing women in two vital posts," speaker Gharti said while sharing the joy with Republica. "These achievements will also establish the fact that though women need to labor more than a man, they can equally lead the country if they get a chance," she opined.
The participation of women in parliament was all time high 32.8 percentage in Nepal during the first CA but it decreased to 29.8 in the second CA. However the average representation of women in parliament in the world is only 22 percent and in Asia it is 18.4 percent so far, according to the UN women.
Women succeed to reach the top posts of the country 68 years after getting the right to cast vote in the country. Nepali Congress lawmaker Kamala Panta takes the achievement of women in political leadership as an opportunity to prove that women also can equally take responsibilities to man.
"Women have created history in world politics. In our country we have elected two women in top posts, now the time has come to show that women can perform equally better like men, by making their tenures successful," said Panta. Further stressing that only access, representation and competition will help women to move forward in the coming days.
Along with these, this year has paved way for the year 2016 to welcome Sushila Karki as head of the judiciary. Karki will assume the post following incumbent chief justice Kalyan Shrestha's retirement in the second week of April next year.
The new constitution of Nepal, 2015 is gender friendly except some provisions on citizenship. Legislative frameworks, affirmative action laws and policies have played significant role in improving women's status and voice in politics and governance. Nepal has been making significant progress in areas of political empowerment, the annual report of World Economic Forum (WEF), 2015 claims.
Nepal ranked at 110th position, out of 145 countries, in the Global Gender Gap of WEF in 2015. Nepal has been showing improvements in narrowing the gender gap, which is measured on the basis of economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment pillars, for the past five consecutive years. Nepal, which is behind Sri Lanka and India among South Asian countries, is in 112th position in the gender gap globally.
Though various international reports on Nepali women state that Nepal has made notable progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women over the period, it is time to think if meaningful political participation of women can bring the required social changes in society or not?
If we are to achieve the gender goals in coming years, the time has arrived to change the deep-rooted patriarchal values and traditional social norms along with celebrating the election of first female president and speaker of the parliament. Traditions, cultural values and norms including patriarchal mindset have helped in legitimizing gender discrimination and violence against women in Nepal.
Nepal Police records show that the cases of domestic violence against women have been increasing every year. A total of 8,268 women faced various forms of domestic violence in the fiscal year 2014/15 while only 1,800 such cases were registered in 2012/13. Along with the existing national laws and policies and Nepal being signatory member of several international conventions, Nepal further needs to have laws that address the root causes of violence and discrimination in our society.
Male participation to eliminate violence against women and gender based violence along with laws to address the root causes of violence are essential to address common forms of violence like forced marriage, trafficking, domestic violence, dowry-related violence, sexual harassment in public spaces, intimate partner violence, non marital partner sexual violence, maltreatment of widowed and divorced women and with-craft related violence.
Sociologist Dr. Meena Poudel shares that the political achievements in the recent years have been very significant in Nepal but substantial social changes are not possible as they are in position without executive powers. “Election of first female president and speaker of the parliament are both symbolic and socio psyche. Now the right time has come to bring substantial changes in society to achieve gender goals by implementing the constitution,” she opined. Stating that we are on a trial phase she asserted that political awareness should be used to sharpen existing laws and to challenge 'feudal' patriarchal values.
Related story
A new approach to empowerment
