A century has passed since the struggle for women's rights began in Nepal. From the struggle to end sati and slavery to freedom, there have been dozens of movements for women's rights. Yogamaya Neupane started it in 1974 by forming the 'Mahila Samiti'. It is no exaggeration that today's women's movement has been established on the foundation of that movement.

Even before that, Yogamaya had raised her voice on the distortions and inconsistencies of religion and culture through her writings. As a result, in 1977, Chandrashamsher was forced to end the practice of sati. Yogamaya had already demanded equal opportunities for women as men. She raised the voice that widows should be allowed to marry and women should also be allowed to read the Vedas. 

The issues of women's rights that arose during the era of Yogamaya arose more strongly during the 2007 democracy movement. After the establishment of democracy in 2007, when the first parliamentary election was held in 2015, Congress candidate Dwarikadevi Thakurani, who was elected alone, was in favor of women's rights. Later, when 16-year-old Shailaja Acharya took to the streets with a black flag against King Mahendra's 'Ku', the voices of the right were heard.

After the 2046 public movement, the success of the women's movement was to include a provision that at least five percent of women candidates should be nominated in the House of Representatives elections in Article 114 of the Constitution of the Dominion of Nepal, which was created in 2047. But that was not enough. After the people's movement of 2062/63, the voice of women's participation at the policy-making level became stronger and it was established that at least 33 percent of the parliament should be women. 

In the current liberal democracy that Nepal is practicing, women's rights are being legally established. As the constitution establishes the issue of gender inclusion in government positions as well, it is not common for women to be present up to the president and speaker. But the condition of women in remote and rural areas has not improved yet. Legal rights are limited on paper, social norms are becoming obstacles in implementation. As a result, women are still being harassed.

Women's Commission in the shadows

Even today, there are many questions about the role of the Women's Commission, which was established two decades ago. The purpose, work and duties for which the Commission was established, the task has not yet been completed. The initiative to make the Commission empowered and equivalent to the Human Rights Commission has not been fruitful. The Women's Commission, which was established as a mandatory structure to address the specific problems of women, has fallen into the shadows today because of the political parties. 

Even though it is called constitutional, the Commission is currently in the second category in terms of authority. The Commission's work is governed by jurisdiction, autonomy over resources and extensive use of controls. It has been reduced to a division of the Ministry of Women. The commission is facing the tradition of not only not providing enough financial resources but also cutting the budget. 

The issue of empowerment

As our society is suffering from patriarchal beliefs, a lot of work needs to be done on the issue of empowerment. The patriarchal concept does not hold the belief that men are weak and women are considered weak, so it seems that the role of politics should be made effective. Therefore, a collective spirit should be developed to provide special rights or opportunities to women who are lagging behind in social and political fields. 

Also, Article 38 of the Constitution of Nepal 2072 has provided proportional representation of women in every body of the state. Although Nepal's major political parties strengthen women's rights in the constitution, they seem weak in implementation. 

According to the National Census 2078, out of the population of Nepal of 20 million 91 million 64 thousand 578, the number of women is 1 million 49 million 11 thousand 27 (51.02 percent), but the political parties do not want to install women in leadership either because of the weak consciousness or lack of interest. At such a time, it is mandatory for women to raise their voices for women's empowerment. 

The next issue

The government, which has been formed after many changes in the system, has announced many programs in favor of women. Ambitious plans in terms of health, education and employment are made public every year. Equality, inclusion, equal rights and rights are mentioned in the constitution. Acts, laws and policies made at different stages seem to be women-friendly. 

Not enough work has been done in terms of raising the income level of women in remote and rural areas and increasing access to education. Therefore, the local government should play a special role for the development of skills and entrepreneurship especially among women. A special role has to be played in expanding access to education. According to the 2078 census, the literacy rate of Nepal is 76.2 percent, while the male literacy rate is 83.6 percent and the female literacy rate is 69.4 percent. To reduce the illiteracy rate, the government needs to increase investment in non-formal programs including adult classes and literacy. 

Similarly, government schemes to increase women's participation in entrepreneurship are not effective. Sometimes slogans like 'women's investment, house-to-house entrepreneurs' are heard, but these slogans have not been meaningful. Governments at every level must put forward ambitious plans to encourage women in the necessary policy arrangements, procedural ease, training, capital, technology as well as marketing for enterprise business operations. 

The role of every level of government should be equally effective in raising the necessary financial resources for the promotion of women's entrepreneurship. Although the plan to give a discount for holding real estate in the name of women was successful, the discount given in entrepreneurship did not work so effectively, so it is necessary to move a special plan in this area.