Women of Nepal

Binda Pandey

Member of Constitutional Assembly, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)
Deputy General Secretary of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT)

Born in Khanigaun VDC, Newakot district, on December 30, 1966

Binda Pandey was born as the eleventh child of her parents at Rawalswara of Khanigaun VDC (Village Development Committee), Nuwakot district. As the youngest among the siblings, she got an opportunity to go to school. In this sense, she was luckier than her six elder sisters. Her parents had sent her brothers to the traditional Hindu religious school called "Gurukul" but it was not mandatory for general parents to educate their daughters in those days. However, she got an opportunity to go to school, thanks to her mother's personal initiation.
Her own interest with studies, the parents' support as well as the necessity to be affiliated with collages in order to be involved in politics had helped her to continue studies in different faculties. She has now two masters' degree - in Gender and Development Studies and in Botany, as well as two bachelors' degrees - in Education and in Law. Even her brothers could not make that extent of achievement in academic studies.
Participation in a school-day rally played decisive role to bring Binda to student politics. It was on March 27th 1981, on the day of a general strike, when a rally was organized by students at her school against then autocratic Panchayat rule. One of demands of students was to release student activists who had been arrested in Kathmandu some days before, one of whose was her youngest elder brother. Out of curiosity, she took part in a rally walking in the front row, chanting anti-Panchayat slogans. After returning her home, her father scolded her and warned her not to participate in such events again. But she got a strong inspiration through this experience.
Her mother's interests to give good education to her children had supported Binda. Although she had no chance to get an official education in school Binda's mother used to learn how to read and write while her sons were doing home works on her sides. Through her self studies she later could have become able to read books. Her favorite books were those on religion. Her mother's role in a society works also inspired Binda to think about others. She used to play a role of mediators when women in the neighbors' house had some problems. She helped neighbors whenever they need technical supports such as in making a traditional stove chuloo, in delivering a baby, and in organizing rituals. She was like a symbol of social justice in her family as well as in the society.
Few months after the elections of Free Student Unions were held in 1981, in which Binda's panel won, district level convention of the All Nepal National Free Student's Union (ANNFSU), student wings that were affiliated with various communist parties, was held and Binda was elected as a treasurer. Later, she and her comrades had a dispute with a school principal. Due to that she had to leave her school when she was in tenth grade. She went to Kathmandu to continue her studies. In Kathmandu she joined Kanti Ishwori Secondary School, where she found the level of education much higher than in her village and difficult to compete with her classmates. On the other hand, she got more time for study because she did not need to do domestic chores, such as fetching water, grazing animals and collecting fodders, any more.
"I was weak in English because I studied in a village school but I was admitted in the course of science. In the first examinations I failed in almost all subjects. But I didn't give up and made commitment to continue my study by any means. At last I could have passed all the exams without paying any additional fee for tuitions. It gave me a big lesson in my life that if I could have strong commitment and do hard work then everything would turn to be possible," she described her experience.
When the People's Movement of 1990 was on its height, Binda was a central level leader of ANNFSU, affiliated with the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist). During the whole period of the movement she played a very important role to establish communication through telephone among activists and leaders of different political parties and student organizations who were working in underground. She was one of those who were "wanted" by Panchayat administration. But she could have managed to escape from being arrested. After restoration of a multi-party democracy, she served as a central committee member of ANNFSU for one more year.
In 1992 Binda changed her field of activities from student politics to women's movement   and joined the All Nepal Women Association (ANWA) which was affiliated with the CPN (UML). She was elected as a treasurer of ANWA in November 1992. It was the time when the party was trying to make ANWA an umbrella organization of all women activists. She was given a responsibility to organize women laborers through its Central Women Workers Department (CWWD) of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT). In the due process, Binda became the secretary of the CWWD, for which she worked until 2000.
Working in the trade union movement, she once got an opportunity to represent GEFONT in the Committee for Asian Women (CAW), a regional organization working for women workers in 13 Asian countries. She spent three years in Hong Kong as a program coordinator of CAW from 1994 to 1997. Experiences she got while working with CAW provided her with an overview of the women's rights movement in various countries in Asia. In contrary to her assumptions, she found that the women's movement in India was much more active than in Nepal and even in Muslim countries, like in Pakistan and in Bagradesh, women were actively involving in movements. In comparison, she found Nepal's movement weak and decided to accelerate the movement for gender equality and women's rights.
After visiting various countries she noticed that patriarchal values still exist in societies not only in Nepal but also in developed countries such as Japan and Korea, which are obstructing women from obtaining equal rights. In particular, after observing the women's situations in China, she made a conclusion that only communist movement cannot liberate women. She says, "In Marxism feminism means class-struggle and women's movement should go hand in hand for the liberation of working class as well as women." Her experiences abroad really helped her to broaden her vision, mission and perspective for the rest of her life. 
After returning from Hong Kong in August 1997, she continued her role as secretary of CWWD and then took over additional responsibilities as a secretary of Foreign Department and as a member of Education Department of GEFONT. In the third congress of GEFONT in 2000, she was elected as a chief of Education department. Since 2004 she has been serving as a deputy general secretary of GEFONT.
"Through visits to various countries, I have learnt that only economic prosperity is not sufficient for women's development. Education, awareness about women's right as well as role and responsibility of social organizations should be stressed for overall development of women," she says. She also adds that patriarchal system should be abolished for women's liberation. In the process, she became familiar with some feminist activists and feminist movements. It helped her to understand feminism and its relation with Marxism.
After working so closely with laborers and women activists inside and outside of the country, she decided to obtain some more academic knowledge and joined a master's course on Gender and Development Studies in Asian Institute of Technologies in Bangkok in 2002. After completing this, she reached a conclusion that women's liberation in Nepal is not possible unless it is linked with politics.
With this realization, she started to work more closely with the party structure. After a long struggle, she gained a seat in the Central Women Department of the CPN (UML) and is working as a secretary since last three years. She is proud to mention that after the Women Department was established in her party it worked as a platform to push women's issues forward through the party. It resulted in some groundbreaking achievements of women's rights in Nepal, such as including a clause of "33 percent participation of women in the parliament" in the 'Declaration of the House of Representatives 2006', abolition of discriminatory laws, production of citizenship card with mothers' names as well as constituting the law on violence against women. "All these bills were tabled in the parliament by the CPN (UML)," says she, adding that the achievements have made Nepali women's position in the parliament highest in the SAARC region.
Apart from this, her contribution in National Women Commission (NWC) is also noteworthy. She was nominated as a member of the commission when about to complete her study in Bangkok. During her tenure in the NWC from 2002 to 2004, she concentrated on drafting NWC's bill, gender analysis of the constitution and preparing recommendation on gender perspectives.
She was elected as a member of the Constitution Assembly through the proportional representation of the CPN (UML). And her activities in the assembly were not limited to follow the party directives. She, along with other feminist members in the assembly, protested when the Nepali word Rashtrapati was used for President, for its male-centric connotation. The group had proposed to replace the title with another word Rashtradhyachhya but it is yet to be implemented.
She realized that only pressure from some women CA members would not oblige the assembly to change the Nepali title of President. And she started lobbying among women activists and top leaders of the CPN (UML). Her party has agreed to voice for the change but the pressure will largely depend on voices of other parties.
Regarding her experience of being a CA member, she says that the job of making all the members convince on women's issues is tougher than taking women's issues to the streets. "But I will continue to fight to make the coming constitution really sensitive to gender issue," she says.

Written by Amika Rajtala