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When will Nepali women finally be equal?


Our constitution says we need to have a minimum of 33.33% women representation in the House, but our political parties use the PR quota to fulfill this mandate instead of fielding one-third women candidate in the FPTP category. And I say, it's time to get rid of the PR quota because instead of the voiceless, the MARGlNalized and the poor, it seems that all political parties have to have celebrities and byaparis in their PR list. The PR thing has been misused and has become a fundraising tool from the haves while it was actually meant for the have-nots!

We have had a woman President, a woman Chief Justice and now also a woman Prime Minister. In paper, it sounds all inclusive and progressive and we seem to be ahead when it comes to gender equality in the South Asian region but the reality is, are our women really equal?

In the remote areas, our tradition demands that women be kept separately in shabby huts when they have their period. Even today, our women are trafficked across the border and in the Middle East. They are promised jobs as domestic help but are exploited and are victims of sexual abuse.

And the most appalling thing is that even though the Supreme Court has already decided that a child of a Nepali woman should have access to citizenship, our CDOs still make it very difficult for women with 'unknown' fathers. What do our CDOs do when many of our women who may not have a husband or partners who left them and disappeared come to apply for citizenship for their children? Our CDOs shame them first, then refuse to approve the citizenship or even if they are finally given in very few instances, the kids have to apply for naturalized citizenship. And it is the same harassment for the members of the LGBTQIA+ communities as well.

Hope our new government will tackle this issue first and also amend the laws that have made our CDOs more powerful than the elected bodies in the districts. The CDOs remind us of the Zonal heads during the Panchey days, who were powerful mini-Maharajas then.

We need better laws, and we need honest bureaucrats who will enforce those laws so that our women will be equals and not second-class citizens in their own country. And I think it is also high time that Nepal Police gets its first woman IGP. Maybe, we need a 'motherly' policing instead of always shooting at protesters with real bullets and killing innocent lives while there are many non-lethal means to control any crowd that gets out of hand.

Let us wish our mothers, our sisters and our spouses and our daughters a very Happy International Women's Day. On a personal note, I seek forgiveness for not being able to be a better brother, a better son, a better husband and a better father and may God help me to become a better human being as well.

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