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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 1
(3 of 16 pages)
Durga Ghimire: Honorable Chair. Distinguished participants from different
parts of the country. Greetings from Nepal. I think it is my great pleasure and privilege to be here with you.
I'm very thankful to [inaudible] for providing me this very important opportunity to speak in front of you. Actually
due to the time constraint I'll not be able to speak on all the issues, but my presentation will be on women's
political participation. Some of the constraints, and how we can influence political participation.
I will give you very little background of Nepal. Nepal is a very small country. We have total population is 20
million. Our [inaudible] income is 210 dollars. Nepal is one of the countries where this [inaudible] rate is highest
in the world. It is 850 per 100,000. Political participation of women is very low. [inaudible]. Now we can imagine
how use political participation up for women in Nepal.
I'll give you a very brief background of Nepal political participation in Nepal. We have 140 years automatic rule
from 1847 to 1951. Then there is popular mass Mormon and democracy wide established in 1951, with the help of King
and the people. But this democracy multi party system doesn't exist more than ten years in Nepal. And of that system
of political system was introduced in Nepal when King was Alinon (ph) and Fort Padius (ph) in Nepal. There is not
political party from 1960 to 1989. And there was ban on political party. So there are the mass Mormon in 1989 and
then 1989 we have again this democracy in Nepal. So our democracy is very immediate. I think, I always used to
say that our democracy is in the primary school because it's only nine years old.
So the political participant what we realized, the women in the forefront for the rest of us in democracy. But
after the democracy the participants are for men have not increased, is solid in nine years. After democracy the
participant was from [inaudible] and the [inaudible] made a special [inaudible] to increase political participation.
So [inaudible] each political party must have high person to men candidate for the house of the [inaudible]. And
that there must be three percent women, three women in the upper house because we have two house. Upper house and
Lower House. So in our [inaudible] out of 205 member of the parliament, only eight women are elected, it's about
3.4 percent in the parliament.
Likewise we have midtown poll in 1994. The women elected in the parliament was less than [inaudible], it was seven
women out of 205. So it is 3.4 percent and recently last year month, we have election, general election and women
out of 141 candidates, twelve women were elected in the parliament. It is 5.6 percent.
Likewise if you see the political participation in the lower level of [inaudible] in BDC and DDC, it was not increase
one person within seven years. It was less than one percent. In the village level committee, in the [inaudible]
level, so realizing this fact in mind, we have new ordinance act which was promoted in 1997 which has made a special
provident to increase women's political participation. They have made 20 percent [inaudible] in the lower level
of politic. That is what is called wild label. So in this way, in the last election, in 1997 about 40,000 women
elected in the [inaudible] label. So that is remarkable. But what we realize working in this area for many years
that women's status has not been changed. Its still women are discriminated against though Nepal has signed UN
convention on eliminating all kind of discrimination against women without reservation. But we have more than 16
discriminate law related to women. Women have no [inaudible] property right. If son can entitle his parental property,
but daughter is not entitled. If you want inherit the parental property, she has to be unmarried up to 35 years.
If she will marry after getting the property, then she has to return back the money, which she has, from the parents.
(not available due to technical difficulties)
Frank Loy: Thank you. I apologize for cutting you off, I was reluctant to do so because I was afraid I would
be accused of one of the M's, like manipulation. But we do, there are a lot of people here and we want to hear
from all of them, but I think you've made your case that the role of women at the moment in Nepal is a tough one.
I've written that down.
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